GAO Approves Defense Department's Bundled Trucking Contract The Defense Department was justified in bundling a contract for freight transportation, the Government Accountability Office has ruled. Ninety trucking and logistics companies protested the U.S. Transportation Command’s decision to hire a single contractor to manage its domestic freight shipments, replacing a patchwork of more than 600 offices around the country. DOD’s market research indicated that the contract would save more than 5% of its estimated $1.5 billion value over seven years. SBA approved the bundled contract. In denying the protest, GAO said DOD had met the legal requirement by showing it could achieve substantial savings and efficiencies through the bundled contract. GAO agreed that the current freight transportation system is “decentralized and disorganized” and would benefit from centralized management. According to the RFP, the contractor will manage all aspects of Defense freight shipments, from the initial order to hiring subcontractors to haul the cargo. The protestors said the Transportation Command could improve efficiency by hiring a contractor to coordinate its shipments, but allowing local offices to continue hiring trucking companies for individual shipments. GAO disagreed. “In sum, the agency reasonably concluded that consolidating the coordination function and transportation services extends beyond mere administrative convenience and would provide the agency with substantial monetary benefits and increased operational efficiency, as well as a number of other non-monetary benefits,” GAO said. “Further, DOD reasonably decided that an approach that did not consolidate these functions would likely not satisfy the agency’s needs for cost savings and reengineering its transportation system to obtain operational efficiency and other benefits. Here, the record reasonably supports DOD’s judgments.” The case is Matter of: 2B Brokers et al., File: B-298651.