Why aren’t I able to use the Government CTO/TMC to booked my rental car and lodging for official travel as a contracted employee?
Contractors are NOT Government employees. Therefore, any travel rates offered by transportation carriers, negotiated by the Government for “employees or uniformed personnel” (such as the city-pair air fare contracts negotiated by GSA and the rental car rate agreements negotiated by the (Military) Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC)) for official government business) do NOT apply to contractors or contractors’ employees. (Commercial car or hotel vendors may voluntarily offer-discounted rates for contractors’ employees at their discretion or contractors can even negotiate rates for their employees with the carrier, hotel, or rental car vendor.)
It can easily cause the contractor to misunderstand for what the contractor’s employees can/can’t do/be paid under the Government contract. The contracting officer should be consulted and perhaps the contract made to reflect what specific travel and transportation rules are to be followed – recognizing that the use of the JTR is NOT appropriate.
The CTO/TMC refused to schedule my airlines reservation despite the DD Form 1610 issued by the Government Contractor Office Representative authorizing the use of City Pair Program. Why?
The DD Form 1610 is reserved for Defense civilian employees performing official travel in accordance with the JTR. Some Services, at their option, use the DD Form 1610 for their uniformed personnel as well. The DD Form 1610 is NOT available for contractors traveling in the execution of their contracts as its use would tend to ‘disguise’ contractor personnel as Defense employees and mislead those who base decisions on the presumption that only Defense employees and/or uniformed members are issued DD Form 1610. Contractors often sit next to federal employees, work on the same projects as federal employees, and travel with federal employees. However, contractors are not federal employees. All of the major airlines have made it clear that because the contract rates city-pair fares are so low and the terms so favorable, the airlines would not extend the contract rates to contractors.
Find more Contractor Travel FAQs
http://perdiem.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem/faqcontr.html