Military Moving Help: Make the Most of Your PCS Allowance with HireAHelper

A Personally Procured Move (PPM) — what used to be called a DITY (“Do It Yourself”) move — is when you arrange your own PCS move instead of using the government’s contracted mover. HireAHelper is a great fit: book vetted movers by the hour to pack, load, and unload, pair them with your own rental truck, freight trailer, or container, and keep the cost down.

On a PPM you’re reimbursed up to what the government would have paid to move you — and whatever you don’t spend, you keep. Because hiring labor plus renting your own truck, freight trailer, or container costs far less than a full-service van line, more of that reimbursement stays in your pocket.

For labor-only help, no — you rent the truck, freight trailer, or container (a freight trailer like ABF U-Pack is often the cheapest long-distance option short of driving yourself) and our crews bring the muscle to load and unload it. If you’d rather put your allowance toward a full-service local move, you can book that through HireAHelper too.

Yes. You’ll get an itemized receipt for every booking that you can submit with your PPM paperwork. Hold onto your weight tickets and rental receipts too — you’ll need those as well to claim your reimbursement.

Yes. Book a crew to load at your old duty station, unload at the new one, or hire help for both ends. Just tell us which you need when you get your quote, and we’ll show vetted Helpers available for each leg.

For a long-distance PCS within the U.S., we can load your container or freight trailer that’s headed cross-country, or hire a separate crew to unload it when it arrives — see our long-distance moving page. For an overseas (OCONUS) PCS, the government typically ships your household goods, but you can still hire help to pack and load what’s going into storage or a partial PPM.

The earlier the better — summer is peak PCS season and the best crews book up fast. As soon as you have your report-no-later-than date and a rough move date, get a quote and lock in your Helpers. You can always adjust details later, and you’re not charged until 24 hours before the job.