RELO Roundtable…a gathering place

There was a lot of industry interest in a recent post about Who has liftvans for sale?

A lot of interest.

Many of those poring through the article were local movers curious to see if these corrugated alternatives to the traditional Type II wooden containers could be used to move the growing backlog of small household goods shipments sitting at their dock, in their warehouse, or on a truck somewhere on their agency's lot.

Quite a few of these distressed orders belong to military service members or government employees. They were awarded to some of the more than 900 transportation service providers (TSPs) approved by the military Surface Deployment Distribution Command (SDDC) as part of their relatively new $2.4 billion Defense Personal Property System, DPS.

SDDC is the executive agent for the United States Transportation Command's (USTRANSCOM) problem plagued Defense Personal Property Program (DP3) that the Department of Defense is using to procure both domestic and international household goods moving, storage, and freight forwarding services.

The problem for anxious military homeowners and their families, unfortunately, is that these relatively inexpensive corrugated lift vans can't be used to move their stuff.

Their discriminating employer doesn't allow "cardboard boxes" to be used in their newly automated 'best value' household goods procurement program.

According the latest SDDC pamphlet for the Transportation and Travel Commercial Containers for Department of Defense Household Goods Shipments (PAM 55-12), most of the corrugated moving and storage liftvans commercially available nationwide don't comply to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), ASTM-D-4169, Standard Practice for Performance Testing of Shipping Containers and Systems.

Lone Ranger to the rescue

Packaging and Crating Technologies (PACT) in Waterbury, Connecticut, offers a wide variety of sustainable packaging solutions for the moving industry, including both Type I and Type II (military) corrugated liftvans.

In fact, as of this writing, PACT's DLV-22 is the ONLY corrugated commercial shipping container approved by the Department of Defense for transporting boxed household goods under their latest SDDC PAM 55-12 specifications.

Pact Worldwide Liftvan Kit

Although come of PACT's innovative packaging solutions for the moving industry products are available through their plant in Fresno, California, their corrugated liftvan packages are currently only available for distribution through their Connecticut office. Fortunately, though, both single or multiple orders can be shipped anywhere throughout the U.S.

Type II Specs

The PACT DLV-22 military approved corrugated liftvan (SDDC Approval #240) is larger and more durable than its commercial counterpart because of the triple lamination used in the sidewall construction. As the video demonstrates, the disassembled liftvan kits takes up the same amount of space knocked down at two single mattress cartons set up.

At 240 lbs, the DLV-22 Type II version of the liftvan is approximately 80 lbs heavier than the PACT LV45-II – a Type I collapsible corrugated container.

Both, however, are significantly lighter than their wooden cousin.

The LV45 commercial container weighs 51% less than a traditional 350 lb wooden liftvan, while the DLV-22 is 31% lighter than a standard Type II military approved container.

Those tare weight differences are significant not only when calculating fuel cost savings but also function to reduce the purchased transportation cost when shipped using LTL freight carrier tariffs. 

Currently the price on the PACT DLV-22 military approved corrugated liftvan is $224 each.  The PACT LV45-II is $150 each.  Both versions of the easy-to-use, collapsible corrugated containers have approximately a 200 cubic feet of internal capacity.   And both have a waterproof shroud that fits over the top. 

Typically trained professional movers are able to 'stuff' between 850-1200 lbs of household goods or personal effects into full-sized 200 cu.ft  liftvan.

Both PACT corrugated liftvan kits:

• can be easily assembled and disassembled by one person in less than five minutes
• are 100% recyclable
• reduces approximately 50% of the vibration to the contents compared to wood containers
• require absolutely no tools, nails or hammering, just conventional strapping
• loading and unloading is done through the end
• can be easily knocked down for storage. Five KDd units can be stored in the same space as one full-sized wooden liftvan fully erected.
• offer four side fork-lift entry
• are competitively priced compared to rigid wooden boxes
• are cheaper to reposition and/or dispose of

To order any PACT moving and storage products, contact:

Alan Goodrich
PACT – Packaging and Crating Technologies
150 Mattatuck Heights
Waterbury, CT 06705
888-905-0003
www.pactworldwide.com

(Click to download PACT brochures and spec. sheets)

PACT Moving Product brochure

PACT Type I Lift Van Brochure

Related Articles:

Why SDDC’s Code 2 program failed – RELO Roundtable

Lift Van Evolution: Invention Driven By Imagination – RELO Roundtable – History of moving industry's practice of containerizing household goods for shipping via non traditional transportation methods.

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