Suddath CEO on military family complaints: ‘It pains us'

For the first time, the CEO of a Jacksonville-based moving company is sitting down with Action News Jax to talk about problems some military families say they’re having with their moves.

We've been telling you since last week about dozens of military families who tell us they experienced major delays, poor communication and damaged belongings during their moves with Suddath Relocation Systems.

“I’m infuriated,” said Marine Corps wife Britnye Segraves.

Segraves said only half her family’s belongings showed up at their new North Carolina home.

“We got our couch without any cushions and then with one cushion from a loveseat. And we didn’t get the loveseat. We got half of a recliner,” said Segraves.

Seagraves said, when the rest of her family’s furniture arrived weeks later, many items were damaged.

“It pains us, it pains me,” said Suddath President & CEO Mike Brannigan. “Because we’ve been in business supporting the military for 70 years.”

Brannigan said the military families’ stories in Action News Jax’s newscasts have been tough to hear.

“In this program, there are some systemic issues. And you’ve tapped into a little bit of a nerve here that is shining some light on some of the inherent challenges that we face as a provider to the military, but then also some issues that we have to deal with internally,” said Brannigan.

Brannigan first announced on YouTube over the weekend that Sudath has now launched a text message platform for communicating with customers.

During Brannigan’s Tuesday interview, he said the company also plans to add an instant messaging option, streamline communication to subcontractors, and listen to focus groups of their military customers.

Action News Jax asked Brannigan why military families seem to be experiencing more delays than the company’s private sector customers.

“In terms of the military families, there is some uniqueness to the military programs that you see because you have such a compression in this 90-day cycle, where you have half of the moves happen in a 90-day period,” said Brannigan.

Brannigan continues to point to a truck driver shortage as a big reason for this summer's delays.
Action News Jax asked Brannigan why his company accepted taxpayer dollars if they knew they couldn't move all of those military families on time.

“We’ll move the largest amount of volume that we can to be able to support the military program. And then what we will do is, where we see there isn’t capacity, we do have the ability to black out certain lanes where we know there’s going to be issues, so that we don’t exacerbate any situations,” said Brannigan.

Brannigan said Suddath has turned down some military moves this summer.

He said the company may add pre-move counseling in the future to set military families’ expectations before they move.

Cox Media Group