Weight Allowance Guide

The Household Goods (HHG) weight allowance is the maximum pounds of household goods the government will move (or reimburse the member to move via PPM) at no cost during an authorized PCS. Weight allowances are set by pay grade and dependency status in JTR Table 5-37.

Pro-gear (Professional Books, Papers & Equipment — PBP&E) weight authorized under JTR par. 051304 is separate from and in addition to the base HHG allowance. The member is limited to 2,000 lbs of PBP&E (JTR par. 051304.A.1). A spouse's PBP&E is not an automatic add-on: the member must request through the Secretarial Process that it be shipped at Government expense, and if approved it is limited to 500 lbs (JTR par. 051304.A.4).

Excess-weight charges for government-procured moves are set in JTR par. 051306 and Table 5-36. There is no flat per-pound rate — the member repays a prorated share of the actual shipment cost: total transportation cost (including storage, accessorial services, and any other cost the Government paid) multiplied by the excess net weight as a share of total net weight transported.

Table 5-37 has no prior-enlisted officer row. Under JTR par. 051401.C, a member appointed from an enlisted or warrant grade to a commissioned or warrant grade is authorized the greater of the allowance for the grade held on the PCS order effective date or the grade held when the appointment was accepted.

The general rule is combination, not restriction: per JTR par. 051402-F.2, two service members married to each other may combine their individual Table 5-37 weight allowances for HHG transportation and NTS when each has a PCS order between duty stations where they maintain, or will maintain, a joint residence within commuting distance. Table 5-38 only comes into play at locations that carry an administrative weight allowance — there, a couple already jointly occupying a residence at the same or nearby duty stations whose new orders send both to the same or nearby duty stations to again jointly occupy a residence is limited to one administrative weight allowance based on the higher-ranking member's grade (Row 1). A couple coming from different duty stations and separate residences into a joint residence, or a couple splitting to different duty stations with separate residences, are each individually authorized an administrative allowance (Rows 2 and 3). Each member is always individually authorized PBP&E, unaccompanied baggage, required medical equipment, and gun safes (Table 5-38, Row 4).

Dependency status determines which column of Table 5-37 applies. For Table 5-37, a member "with dependents" is one who has a dependent eligible to travel at Government expense due to the PCS — whether or not the dependent actually travels. On the first PCS after the death of all of the member's dependents, or after a divorce that leaves the member with no dependents eligible to travel, the weight allowance remains at the with-dependent rate (JTR par. 051401.B).