The short answer
If you are moving from one stateside base to another, the government almost certainly will not ship your car. You drive it, and you are paid mileage for the drive.
That mileage is called MALT, the Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation. For travel that begins on or after July 1, 2026, it pays $0.235 per mile, per authorized vehicle, along the official route on your orders. Travel that began between January 1 and June 30, 2026 was paid at $0.205 per mile. The rate in effect on the day your travel starts is the one you are paid.
If you have two cars and one licensed driver, the second car is your problem and your expense. That is the situation this page is really about, and it is the one nobody warns you about until you are standing in your driveway three days before your report date.
Overseas is a different story. That is what PCSmyPOV, the Department of Defense program at the top of the search results, is for, and it is covered below.
Updated September 3, 2026. Rates on this page were checked against the Internal Revenue Service’s 2026 mileage notices and the U.S. Army’s 2026 PCS Travel Help Sheet; sources are listed at the end. Written for Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), where the transportation office is JPPSO Northwest.
Moving stateside: you drive, they pay mileage
For a CONUS-to-CONUS PCS, the standard entitlement is travel, not shipment. You drive an authorized POV to the new duty station and claim MALT plus per diem for the days on the road. If dependents travel with you and two vehicles are actually driven, MALT is paid on both.
What that pays, in real numbers. JBLM to Fort Bragg, North Carolina (Fort Liberty from 2023 until the name was restored in 2025) is roughly 2,800 miles by road; the official DTOD distance on your orders is the figure that counts. Travel days are one day for the first 400 miles plus one for every 350 miles after that, which makes this an eight-day drive. Per diem while driving is $178 a day for the service member (the standard rate of $110 lodging plus $68 for meals and incidentals), $133.50 for each dependent 12 or older, and $89 for each dependent under 12.
| JBLM to Fort Bragg, one car, travel starting July 1, 2026 or later | Amount |
|---|---|
| MALT, one vehicle: 2,800 miles × $0.235 | $658 |
| Travel days | 8 |
| Per diem, service member only: 8 × $178 | $1,424 |
| Total for the drive | $2,082 |
Add a spouse and two children (one 12 or older, one under 12) and per diem rises to $534 a day. Over eight days that family collects about $4,930 in MALT and per diem with one car, or about $5,590 if the spouse drives the second car. That is not nothing. It is also not car shipping. You are being paid to drive.
If you are also moving your own household goods, the PPM calculator works out the rest of the entitlement alongside the drive.
Limited exceptions exist, and they are genuinely limited
The Joint Travel Regulations do allow POV transportation within CONUS in narrow circumstances, and they require specific authorization on your orders. If you think your situation might qualify, that is a question for JPPSO Northwest before you make any other plan. Do not assume, and do not pay a broker on the assumption that you will be reimbursed later. Reimbursement without prior authorization is the single most expensive mistake in this whole subject.
The second-car problem
Here is the gap. The government pays you to drive the cars you have drivers for. Most families at JBLM have two cars, and during a move there is often only one adult free to drive. If that is you, there are four options, and only one of them is free.
1. Two drivers, two cars. Free, and you collect MALT on both if both are authorized on your orders: 2,800 miles at $0.235 is another $658. It costs you a second driver for eight days plus fuel for the second vehicle. At 25 to 30 miles per gallon and $3.50 a gallon, that fuel is roughly $330 to $390; adjust for your car and the pump price when you go.
2. Tow the second car. A tow dolly or car trailer behind your rental truck is a few hundred dollars on a long move, on top of the truck. Practical if you are already doing a PPM and renting a truck. Hard on a small truck over the Rockies, and check the rental company’s towing rules before you count on it.
3. Pay a military car shipping company to ship it. Published 2025 and 2026 market guides put a standard sedan on an open carrier coast to coast at roughly $900 to $1,500 (uShip, October 2025) and $1,400 to $2,200 (FreightWaves, May 2026). The spread between those two is the market: route, season and vehicle size move the price every week. This comes out of your pocket for a CONUS move.
Get the second car quoted
Option 3 above is the one that costs money, and the price moves every week by route and season. Tell us the route and we will put one carrier on it — one request, one company, no auction of your phone number.
ScoutLocale is a relocation guide, not a moving company. We pass your details to one provider per item you tick, only if you tick the consent box, and only for the items you ticked. We never sell your details, never send the same request to several companies bidding for it, and never call you ourselves. Privacy policy.
4. Sell it and buy at the other end. Sometimes the honest answer, particularly for an older second vehicle where shipping costs a meaningful fraction of what the car is worth.
Run option 3 against option 1 before you book anything. If the second driver exists, driving usually wins on money. If they do not, shipping is often cheaper than the leave you would burn making two trips.
Moving overseas: this is where PCSmyPOV comes in
For an OCONUS PCS (Germany, Japan, Korea, and in most cases Alaska and Hawaii), eligible orders may authorize the government to ship one qualifying vehicle at government expense. That process runs through PCSmyPOV, the website of the Department of Defense's global POV contractor, International Auto Logistics. You book an appointment there, hand the car over at a Vehicle Processing Center, and track it to the destination.
What to know before you count on it:
- Your orders have to authorize it. Eligibility comes from the orders, not from the program. Read them, and if the language is unclear, ask JPPSO Northwest.
- The vehicle has to qualify. Size, condition, lien status and destination-country import rules all matter. Some countries will not accept certain vehicles at all.
- Timelines are long. Ocean transport plus port processing is measured in weeks, sometimes months. Plan for a period at the new station with no car.
- One vehicle is the authorization. Only one vehicle ships at government expense. A second vehicle is at your expense, and the destination country may charge import duty on it.
If your orders are OCONUS, start at PCSmyPOV rather than with a commercial broker. The government program is the entitlement you already have.
What a military car shipping company actually costs, and how not to get burned
If you are paying out of pocket, a few things are worth knowing.
Brokers versus carriers. Most companies advertising military car shipping are brokers. They do not own trucks; they post your vehicle to a load board and a carrier picks it up. That is normal and not a problem in itself, but it means the quote is an estimate until a carrier accepts, and a price well below everyone else's usually means the load will sit.
Open versus enclosed. Open transport is the standard and what nearly everyone uses. Enclosed runs 30 to 60 percent more (both market guides above agree on that range) and makes sense for a classic, a high-value vehicle, or a long winter route.
Military discounts are real but modest. Most brokers advertise one. Expect a percentage or a flat amount off, not a transformation of the price. Ask whether it stacks with seasonal pricing.
Book early for summer. Peak PCS season is May through August, and carrier capacity out of the Puget Sound region tightens exactly when everyone at JBLM is moving. Prices rise and pickup windows stretch. Three to four weeks of lead time is reasonable; a week is not.
Questions worth asking before you pay a deposit:
- Are you a broker or a carrier?
- Is the quote binding, or does it change when a carrier accepts?
- What is the actual pickup window, not the best case?
- What insurance is included, what is the deductible, and does my own policy cover transport?
- What happens if nobody picks up the load?
Document the car before it leaves. Photographs of every panel, dated, plus the odometer. Damage claims without before-photos are difficult to win.
Where this leaves you
If you are moving stateside, the government pays you to drive and nothing toward shipping a car you cannot drive. Decide early which of the four options fits your household, because the cheapest one, a second driver, is also the one that needs the most planning.
If you are moving overseas, your entitlement runs through PCSmyPOV and starts with your orders.
Either way, the people to ask first are at JPPSO Northwest, not a broker. They are the ones who know what your specific orders authorize.
JPPSO Northwest
Building 9501, 9501 Rainier Drive, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA 98433
520-706-8613 or 253-967-5093
Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; call center 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Shipments start in the Defense Personal Property System (DPS); entitlement counseling is through the installation's personal property counseling office.
Which base are you moving to?
This page is the same wherever you are posted — the entitlement rules, the carriers and the paperwork do not change with the installation. What does change is gates, housing, the local offices and the housing allowance, and that lives in each base guide.
Our base guide today is Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington. More are in the works.
Frequently asked questions
For a move within the continental United States, usually no. You drive it and receive MALT at $0.235 per mile for travel starting July 1, 2026 or later, plus per diem. For overseas moves, eligible orders may authorize shipment of one qualifying vehicle at government expense through PCSmyPOV.
Only under limited exceptions that must be specifically authorized on your orders. Ask JPPSO Northwest before making other arrangements. You cannot reliably get reimbursed for a shipment you arranged on your own.
Published market guides put a standard sedan on an open carrier coast to coast at roughly $900 to $1,500 (uShip, October 2025) or $1,400 to $2,200 (FreightWaves, May 2026), more for larger vehicles or enclosed transport. This is out of pocket for a stateside move.
Overseas, one vehicle ships at government expense; a second is at your own expense. Stateside, the government does not ship cars but does pay MALT on a second vehicle when dependents travel with you and both vehicles are actually driven.
Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation, the per-mile payment for driving your own vehicle to your new duty station. It is $0.235 per mile per authorized vehicle for travel that begins on or after July 1, 2026, and was $0.205 for travel that began earlier in the year. It is calculated on the official DTOD distance, not your odometer.
Most do. They are usually a modest percentage or flat amount, not a dramatic reduction, and they may not stack with seasonal pricing. Ask directly.
Three to four weeks ahead at minimum. Peak season runs May through August and carrier capacity out of the Puget Sound region tightens exactly when JBLM is moving.
Acronyms on this page
The short version of each term used above. Every one links to its full entry in the military moving acronyms dictionary, which defines 74 terms from PCS to VA home loan.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| PCS | Permanent Change of Station, the official move to your next duty station. |
| POV | Privately Owned Vehicle, meaning your car. The regulations say "privately owned"; you will hear "personally owned" just as often. Same thing. |
| CONUS | Continental United States, the lower 48 states. |
| OCONUS | Outside the Continental United States: overseas, plus Alaska and Hawaii. |
| MALT | Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation, the per-mile payment for driving yourself. |
| DTOD | Defense Table of Official Distances, the mileage table your MALT and travel days are computed from. Not your odometer. |
| JPPSO | Joint Personal Property Shipping Office, the transportation office that arranges and pays for your move. At JBLM it is JPPSO Northwest. |
| PPM | Personally Procured Move. You move your own household goods and the government pays you for it. Formerly called a DITY (do-it-yourself) move. |
| VPC | Vehicle Processing Center, where you drop off or collect a vehicle the government is shipping. |
| JTR | Joint Travel Regulations, the rulebook all of this comes from. |
Sources and data notes
- MALT rates: the Defense Travel Management Office mileage-rate table and the Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowance Committee notice of July 30, 2026 updating the calendar-year 2026 POV mileage rates ($0.235 from July 1, 2026; $0.205 from January 1). The change tracks the Internal Revenue Service's mid-year increase of the military moving rate to 23.5 cents, effective July 1, 2026.
- Per diem, travel-day rule and the January MALT figure: U.S. Army 2026 PCS Travel Help Sheet.
- Broker price ranges: uShip, cross-country car shipping costs (October 27, 2025) and FreightWaves, how much it costs to ship a car in 2026 (May 29, 2026). Both are market estimates, not quotes.
- Overseas shipment and PCSmyPOV: Military OneSource and Military.com (updated April 6, 2026).
- JPPSO Northwest details: the office's page on the Joint Base Lewis-McChord garrison site.
- Rates change every January and can change mid-year; confirm the rate in effect on your departure date with JPPSO Northwest. Where this page cannot verify a figure, it says so rather than guessing.