POPE AIR FORCE BASE, NC -- Among the benefits DTS brings to travelers, authorizing officials, managers and commanders, those most touted include: fast, electronic reimbursement of travel expenses; approvals and certifications tied directly to mission; a significant reduction in time spent administering travel; reduced paperwork; and the automated payment of government charge cards.
On December 24, 2003, DTS became the official DoD temporary duty travel system and was approved for fielding to the entire Defense Department.
"Within the next two years we will deploy DTS to the most high-volume travel sites within DoD," said Col. Brandy Johnson, DTS program director. "It will take time to deploy DTS to all of the DOD, but the process is well underway."
Colonel Johnson describes DTS as "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 and responsive travel system." She further explains, "DTS will mean online TDY travel for virtually every person in the Department of Defense, both civilian and military. This is a quality of life issue for our people. They deserve DTS."
DTS will provide the following to military traveler:
Fast, electronic reimbursement of travel expenses. This is a priority item. "Why should our travelers be financing our operations? That's what happens, in effect, if we don't reimburse them promptly," said Colonel Johnson. 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, in fact, online travel. DTS 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 Travel Cards. This attribute makes DTS "a knight in shining armor" for many travelers and for military services and defense agencies. It takes much of the after-the-fact bill paying responsibility away from the traveler. It will work to reduce those delinquencies that are caused by having the extra delay in the payment/repayment chain. Once a voucher is approved for payment, reimbursement for expenses charged to the traveler's GTC is made electronically directly to the traveler's GTC account.
Besides Pope, other branches of the military and government agencies where DTS is or soon will be operational. Other Air Force locations will include:
Ellsworth AFB, S.D.
Minot AFB, N.D.
Tyndall AFB, Fla.
Vance AFB, Okla.
Nellis AFB, Nev.
Kirtland AFB, N.M.
Laughlin AFB, Texas
Fairchild AFB, Wash.
Altus AFB, Okla.
Holloman AFB, N.M.
Goodfellow AFB, Texas
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
McChord AFB, Wash.
Little Rock AFB, Ariz.
Cannon AFB, N.M.
Scott AFB, Ill.
Buckley AFB, Colo.
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho
Hurlburt Field, Fla.
Hanscom AFB, Mass.
Columbus AFB, Miss.
MacDill, AFB, Fla.
Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.
Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Rome Labs, N.Y.
Sheppard AFB, Texas
Maguire AFB, N.J.
Beale AFB, Calif.
Maxwell AFB, Ala.
Travis AFB, Calif.
Edwards AFB, Calif.
Barksdale AFB, La.
Patrick AFB, Fla.
Charleston AFB, S.C.
Dyess AFB, Texas
Peterson AFB, Colo.
Schriever AFB, Colo.
Eglin AFB, Fla.
Moody AFB, Ga.
Grand Forks AFB, N.D.
Lackland AFB, Texas
Whiteman AFB, Mo.
Hill AFB, Utah
Keesler AFB, Miss.
Hickam AFB, Hawaii
F. E. Warren AFB, Wyo.
Warner Robins AFB, Ga.
Andrews AFB, Md.
Spangdahlem AFB, Germany
Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C.
Luke AFB, Ariz.
As of the end of June 2005, DTS had been deployed to more than 170 major high-volume-travel locations across DoD. Current plans call for the system to be deployed to more than 200 major high-volume-travel locations by the end of fiscal year 2005. In addition, numerous smaller sites have self-deployed DTS with limited assistance from the PMO.
As of June 30, DTS is being used at more than 5,200 sites worldwide. It is envisioned that DTS will be deployed to approximately 11,000 locations by the end of fiscal year 2006, at which point the new travel system will support more than 90 percent of all DoD business travel.
To learn more about the capabilities and functionalities of DTS, visit the Defense Travel System Travel Center Web site at
www.dtstravelcenter.dod.mil.