When is it best to do or not to do a DITY move when you PCS?

2015-04-30T12:48:55-04:00

When you must PCS, what factors do you consider when deciding to move yourself at Uncle Sam's expense? Do you choose the same option every time? When is it best to do a DITY move? When is it not? What about a partial DITY? What about P. Diddy?

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Response by SCPO David Lockwood made Apr 30 at 2015 12:51 PM

2015-04-30T12:51:54-04:00

The best time when ever you are PCSing in CONUS. I wouldn't advise outside CONUS!

Response by CH (MAJ) William Beaver made Apr 30 at 2015 12:56 PM

2015-04-30T12:56:05-04:00

Sooo...how do you decide whether or not to do a DITY move?

Response by CMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 30 at 2015 12:58 PM

2015-04-30T12:58:28-04:00

Or Puff Daddy, Sir? :)

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Apr 30 at 2015 1:01 PM

2015-04-30T13:01:45-04:00

I did a DITY when I moved from Camp Pendleton to Quantico. I was single at the time, and all of my goods fit in my car, and a single trailer. I didn't really have furniture to speak of, so the choice was easy.

The biggest issue I would consider is fuel costs. The UHauls suck it down hard.

When my father passed, I ended up renting a larger one, and spent more in fuel moving his belongings from TX to VA than I did on the rental. I think I would have lost money on a DITY at that point.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 30 at 2015 1:31 PM

2015-04-30T13:31:41-04:00

I will always do at least a partial DITY. It is well worth it in my opinion.

Best time to do it is the move after BOLC, CCC, CGSC or something like that. Let the military do the majority of the move to the location, keep all the boxes and put what you don't need in storage for the 6 months to a year that you are in school and then do the full DITY move to wherever you are going from there.
The longer the move the better as long as it is CONUS, you get paid by the distance so it is going to cost you roughly the same for all the supplies whether you are going from Fort Campbell, KY to Fort Knox, KY of from Fort Bragg, NC to JBLM, WA so you might as well take advantage of the system.

Lastly there are some companies that will do the driving for you like Old Dominion Freight Lines. They deliver the truck, you pack it, they drive it, you unpack it. Cost is more but you still make quite a bit.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 30 at 2015 3:06 PM

2015-04-30T15:06:17-04:00

I agree it is always best to get paid for a partial DITY. It is nice to have some things the instant you are in your next house. I find it almost impossible to do a full DITY with a large family. I know some who do it as they have older kids and the money they earn they throw back towards a family vacation so the motivation is there.
It is nice to have the movers assist in setting up beds, etc and I always have them do a full unpack and remove the boxes and packing paper. It saves days for organizing your house. Hate to speak from experience, but a full DITY makes since from a divorce standpoint. It allows you to separate everything cleanly.......

Response by Lt Col Fred Marheine, PMP made Apr 30 at 2015 3:18 PM

2015-04-30T15:18:49-04:00

I always did at least a partial DITY as I was always dragging a boat behind one of my vehicles - to say nothing of the pile of "stuff" that ends up in your car just to make the trip. In a couple cases when I was, ummm, "less experienced," I did a full DITY. My last PCS was a partial (followed by two more civilian "DITY" moves - compensation blows for those).

My criteria for deciding what I would do was based on the availability of time on both ends of the move (3-4 days minimum - which drives the truck rental timeline as well), the availability/certainty of housing, and the time of year. The last one is pretty obvious - doing a DITY in North Dakota winter is my definition of a really bad day (did it, though it was only across town) and only slightly worse is unloading a 25' truck in Alabama during July (did that too). In each of my moves, I had the destination housing locked in and usually had seen it in advance (so had an idea of what I faced for stairs, distance from truck to door, etc). The time on each end was a little flexible depending on the amount of "help" available. Typically, beer and pizza is adequate compensation to get a crew out to help with loading at the departure point. And, typically, it's you and your imaginary friends unloading at destination. I did have my 70+ year old former father-in-law help me unload a 25' truck in Colorado Springs - into a 3-level town home - at a mile above sea-level. He was out of gas by the afternoon on Day 1...I turned the truck in 2 minutes before closing on Day 3.

Assuming a "normal" household, it's a huge amount of work, but I thought worth it both from the compensation perspective as well as the "culling" perspective. Having to box everything up yourself always prompted me to get pretty deliberate about what needed to go in a box.