All transportation carriers of domestic military cargoes for the Military Traffic Management Command are now paid by PowerTrack automated software.

In a period of three years, MTMC has instituted PowerTrack payments as a requirement for all freight shipments, said Tom Hicks, coordinator.
"This is an incredible achievement," said Hicks. "It pays the carriers promptly and provides us a treasure trove of transportation data. We absolutely would not have had the success with this initiative without the full support of the military services, defense agencies and our industry partners."
Currently, there are 550 participating MTMC transportation carriers, including 430 trucking firms.
Not included in the PowerTrack payments are personal property carriers for MTMC's household goods shipments.
PowerTrack is an automated payment system of U.S. Bank in Minneapolis. For a sliding fee of 1-2 percent, depending on contract award, carriers are paid within several days for their shipments. U.S. Bank, in turn, is reimbursed by the Defense Finance & Accounting Service.
"The automated payment system has been well received by our carriers," said Hicks. "Our transportation partners receive their charges promptly and move on to other business. They don't get involved in the process of seeking reimbursement from the Defense Finance & Accounting Service -- which, in the past, was sometimes lengthy."
MTMC mandated PowerTrack payments for its military cargoes in the fall of 2000. Within a few months, said Hicks, most carriers switched to the U.S. Bank payment system. In the year that followed, additional carriers were added.
"We're at 100 percent today," said Hicks.
The payment system was approved by the Department of Defense in February 1999. As of March 31, 2002, Government Bills of Lading may no longer be used for invoicing domestic freight shipped by the Department of Defense.