The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 51 NOTES FROM LABOR MANAGEMENT AFSA NEWS Packing Out—What You Need To Know It’s that time of year again: summer transfer season is quickly approaching, and thousands of Foreign Service employees and their families are preparing to pack up their households and ship their possessions to their next post. The Overseas Briefing Center, part of the Foreign Service Institute’s Transi- tion Center, should be the first stop for anyone facing a move. All U.S. government employees, contractors and family members assigned to or returning from U.S. embassies and consulates overseas are eligible to use the OBC and take any of the Transition Center training courses. More details on the OBC and the resources available there can be found at www.bit.ly/StateOBC. In brief, here are the five golden rules for a successful packout: 1. Watch your weight. Most overseas posts provide furnished housing, so the total weight you are author- ized to ship there is 7,200 pounds. That household effects (HHE) allowance is the same regardless of the number of people listed on the travel orders: A single person or a family of six both get the same 7,200- pound allotment. A separate weight allow- ance is also authorized to be shipped as unac- companied air baggage (UAB); this amount does change based on the family size. A single traveler is authorized to ship 250 pounds of UAB. The second traveler in the party is authorized to ship 200 pounds; the third traveler is authorized to ship 150; and any additional trav- elers can ship 100 pounds each. Remember, too, that you cannot transfer unused UAB weight to your HHE allow- ance. Moving companies in the United States do not weigh each box before load- ing it on the truck and can only provide a final weight once the shipment has been consolidated at the warehouse. This leads us to golden rule number two: 2. Take your time. When planning your packout from the Washington, D.C., area, make sure you leave plenty of time to check weights and inventory before you get on the plane. Remember that the moving company’s weight estimate is just that, an estimate, and it rarely comes in right on the money. So it is very important that you have time before you fly out to verify the weights of all your ship- ments—UAB, HHE and long- term storage—to make sure that you are not overweight, and to remove items if you find that you have exceeded the weight allowance. You are allowed 10 days of per diem before flying out—use them wisely. 3. Organize and sepa- rate. Make sure you sepa- rate each category of ship- ment carefully. The packers will descend on you and will pack things up faster than you realize, and you can’t keep your eyes on everyone at the same time. Keep the HHE, the UAB and the storage items carefully segregated. You can mark big items with tape, but you may want to keep the smaller items in separate rooms. 4. Inventory, inventory, inventory! Make sure your inventory is as comprehen- sive as possible. Use your smartphone or tablet to take photos or videos of each box, if possible. A sketchy or incomplete inventory will make it difficult to cull the shipment if you’re over- weight. A complete inven- tory will make it easier to identify missing or damaged items, and may help you to claim on your insurance if items have been damaged en route. So spend a little extra time to make sure your inventory is as thorough as you can make it. 5. Engage the inspector. A State Department inspec- tor visits each packout site, probably on the first day of the process—which is likely to be before any problems have cropped up. Be sure to speak with the inspector and ask him or her to pay a second visit later on. At the very least, make sure you are able to contact the inspector in case any problems arise. n —James Yorke, AFSA Senior Labor Management Adviser James Yorke AFSA/JOSH