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Is a DITY (PPM) Move Worth It? The Honest Math Before You Decide

If you've started reading about your upcoming PCS, you've run into the letters: DITY, now officially called a PPM — a personally procured move. And you've probably seen the promise that comes with it: do the move yourself and the government pays you. That part is true. What's usually missing is the honest version — how much, why, and when it's actually worth the extra work.

Here's the straight answer, with the math, so you can decide for your move instead of for someone else's.

What a PPM actually is

On a normal PCS, the government hires a moving company (a TSP — transportation service provider) to pack and haul your household goods. You don't see the bill; the government pays the carrier directly.

A PPM flips that: you move your stuff — rent the truck, do the packing, drive it — and the government pays you a percentage of what it would have paid a carrier to move your authorized weight that distance. You can also do a partial PPM, where the government moves some of your goods and you move the rest (a car-full of boxes, your motorcycle, the stuff you don't trust to a carrier) and you get paid the incentive on just that portion.

The key phrase is "what it would have paid a carrier." That number is set by your authorized weight and the official distance of your move — not by what your move actually costs you. That gap, between the government's carrier cost and your real out-of-pocket cost, is your profit.

How the incentive is calculated

The math has three inputs:

  1. Your authorized weight allowance. This is capped by your rank and dependent status — a junior single member has a much smaller allowance than a senior member with a family. You're paid on the lower of your actual moved weight and your authorized weight, so you can't pad it.
  2. The official distance of your move.
  3. The government's constructed cost to move that weight that far via a carrier. The PPM incentive is paid at a percentage of that constructed cost (the current statutory rate is high — most of it — which is what makes a PPM lucrative).

On top of the incentive, you're also reimbursed for the legitimate costs of the move (truck rental, fuel, packing materials, etc.) — and you still get the DLA, per diem, and MALT mileage you'd get on any PCS. The incentive is additional to those.

We're not going to print a fake dollar total here, because your number depends entirely on your weight, your distance, and your rank. That's exactly what the estimator is for — it asks for your inputs and shows its work: Estimate your PPM/DITY profit.

What eats into the profit (the honest part)

This is the part the "free money" posts skip:

  • It's taxable. The incentive is taxable income (your documented expenses offset it, but the profit portion is reported). Plan for the tax bite so it isn't a surprise.
  • Your real costs come out first. Truck rental, fuel, a tow dolly, pads, boxes, tape, maybe hired labor for loading — those are real dollars you front and get reimbursed for, but they're not free.
  • The work is real. You are packing, loading, driving, and unloading a household. On a long haul with a family, that's days of labor most people underestimate.
  • The weight tickets are non-negotiable. Your entire payment lives or dies on certified weight tickets — an empty truck weight and a loaded weight, from a certified scale. No tickets, no incentive. This is the single most common way people lose PPM money.

So — is it worth it for you?

A few honest rules of thumb:

  • Longer moves favor a PPM. The farther the move, the bigger the government's constructed carrier cost — so the bigger the gap you keep. A coast-to-coast PCS is where PPMs pay the most. (If that's your move, see what a Virginia-to-San-Diego PCS actually pays.)
  • Lighter, simpler households favor a PPM. Less to move = less labor for the same per-mile economics.
  • A full PPM with a big family and a short move is where it can get marginal — the labor is high and the distance doesn't stack the incentive. A partial PPM is often the smart middle: let the carrier take the heavy furniture, and get paid to move the car-load you were driving anyway.
  • If your time and back are worth more than the spread, a government-arranged move is a perfectly legitimate choice. "Worth it" includes your sanity.

The right move is to run your actual numbers before you commit — the estimate takes a couple minutes and tells you whether the profit clears the hassle for your weight and distance.

Don't leave it on the table — claim it right

If you do a PPM, the money flows through your DD 1351-2 travel voucher plus a PPM claim package with your certified weight tickets and expense receipts, filed when you arrive. File it complete and file it on time — that's the whole game. The forms library lays out exactly what goes in the package.

Run your real numbers

A PPM isn't free money and it isn't a scam — it's paid work you may already be doing. The only mistake is deciding without the math.

PCS-Move.com is independent and not affiliated with the DoD or any branch of service. PPM/DITY incentive rates, weight allowances, and tax treatment are set by DoD/DTMO policy and change; the linked estimator uses current rates and your own inputs. Confirm specifics with your CPPA / finance office before you commit to a move method.

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