New travel system changes way DoD members schedule, claim military travel

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Melissa Phillips
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Dover Air Force Base will soon join other Department of Defense organizations that already use the new Defense Travel System.

"DTS is a state-of-the-art system that draws from the best features of commercial travel technology and links them to the DoD financial and accounting systems to provide the user a seamless, responsive travel system," said Col. Brandy Johnson, DTS program director, Arlington, Va.

First envisioned in the mid-1990s, DTS was fielded in 2001 at 27 pilot sites and is now supporting hundreds of thousands of DoD military and civilian personnel worldwide.

Among the most touted benefits DTS brings to travelers, authorizing officials, managers and commanders is fast, electronic reimbursement of travel expenses, approvals and certifications tied directly to mission, significant reduction in time spent administering travel, reduced paperwork and the automated government charge card payments.

The DTS became the official DoD temporary duty travel system and was approved for fielding to the entire Defense Department Dec. 24, 2003.

It is scheduled for implementation at Dover Air Force Base in April, according to Tech. Sgt. Brett Barrows, 436th Comptroller Squadron DTS facilitator, who is in charge of implementing the system here and educating the base on how to use it.

DTS puts control of travel arrangements in the user's hands. With the system, DoD travelers are literally transformed into frontline travel agents and finance technicians. Travelers can now choose almost every detail, down to seat location and menu choices like vegetarian, kosher and low calorie.

"Before DTS, I didn't get to pick anything when I traveled," said Lt. Col. Gary Nanfito, Secretary of the Air Force chief of the Travel Re-engineering Division, Pentagon, Washington, D.C., who recently visited here to introduce the system to budget specialists throughout the base. "With DTS, I get to pick what I want; I just have to stay within the rules."

For instance, travelers can't upgrade to first class because the program flags that they're making an error.

"We've had millions of vouchers processed through DTS, and we haven't had one case of liability based on negligence yet," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Dan Davis, Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense Fielding Branch chief for Deployment and Operations Division, Program Management Office, DTS at Arlington, Va.

Another bonus of the system is the permanent record keeping function. Travelers can scan in receipts and electronically file them. They no longer have to retain paper copies, once the scan is completed.

It also saves time in the long run for customers. Travelers essentially build the shell of their travel voucher prior to leaving for their travel. When they come back, travelers don't have to search and shuffle through paperwork to find the original information. They just need to modify the electronic information to reflect current changes.

"The voucher and the order are the same thing," said Colonel Davis. "That's the slick part of the system that works really well."

As of Jan. 1, DTS was deployed to more than 6,600 sites worldwide and has processed almost 1.4 million approved authorizations and almost 1.2 million approved vouchers. DTS is scheduled for implementation at approximately 11,000 DoD locations by the end of fiscal year 2006, and, at that point, it will support over 90 percent of all DoD business travel.

"I can make transactions in DTS faster than I can call someone to do it for me," said Colonel Davis. "(When I hit enter), my travel is all booked and ready to go. You just need to get it signed, and you're out the door."

DTS can be accessed from any DoD computer with a common access card reader. Another bonus is that users can log in miscellaneous expenses like taxis and tips from any location with a CAC reader at the time they make the purchase versus waiting four months after they return.

The first base in Air Mobility Command to receive DTS was Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., in 2003. Since then several bases throughout the command, have also received DTS.

"DTS will mean online TDY travel for virtually every person in the DoD, both civilian and military," said Colonel Johnson. "This is a quality of life issue for our people. They deserve DTS."

How DTS Benefits You!

Fast, electronic reimbursement of travel expenses. Thanks to DTS, DoD will now be able to reimburse its business travelers quickly and electronically.

Worksite approvals and certifications. DTS places approval of travel arrangements and certification of travel vouchers at the traveler's worksite instead of at a servicing finance location. This places the authority to make travel decisions with the leaders and managers responsible for completing the mission.

Significant reduction in the time spent administering travel. Reports to Congress based on field-testing of DTS indicate that on average the time spent administering travel is cut to one-third of what it had been before DTS. Saving time also means saving money.

Reduced paperwork. As DoD's single end-to-end electronic solution for Defense business travel, DTS is online travel. It provides electronic connectivity between the traveler, the authorizing official, the service/agency accounting and disbursing systems, the local comptroller's budget, the commercial travel service provider, the commercial bank card service and the electronic archive of travel-related documents, to include required travel receipts. This electronic connectivity and archival process eliminates the reams of paperwork previously required for business travel.

Automated payment of government charge cards. DTS takes much of the after-the-fact bill paying responsibility away from the traveler and will work to reduce delinquencies caused by having the extra delay in the payment and repayment chain. Once a voucher is approved for payment, reimbursement for expenses charged to the traveler's government charge card is made.