SF-97 Shortage (GovPlanet)
I don't want to be a Chicken Little, however, I wanted to give everyone a heads up on a potential issue involving GP SF-97s. Apparently the order I placed through the DoD channels in April to replenish my stock of SF-97s was held up due to budget shortages on the DoD side of the house. I was notified by the DLA that they finally received approval, and my order for 12,000 blanks (which should last me until the end of the year) was placed last week. Unfortunately, the lead time for receipt is supposedly 63 days.
What does that mean? The bottom line up front is this, I have approximately 525 blanks as of this morning. We have been averaging approx. 200-325 per week to DLA for signature. At that pace, I will run through my current stock in about 2 - 3 weeks. That will leave approx 5-6 weeks that I will be unable to produce any new SF-97s. We are currently working our list by auction date, or EUC approval date for EUC related items. Once my current stock is gone, we will be at a standstill until the new batch arrives.
This obviously could not come at a worse time. When I took over I inherited a backlog of close to 800 outstanding SF97s. By revamping the process and putting an extensive tracking procedure in place, we were finally able to work through that backlog, and we were printing SF97s 10 days after the auction date, and within 5 days of EUC Approval. This allowed us to get our buyers their SF97 normally within 3 weeks after the sale or pick up date. I honestly do not know what this is going to do to that and what the coming weeks will look like. I will say that I am exhausting every favor and avenue I have to try and obtain a resupply through other agencies, but thus far I have had zero luck. It appears almost every organization that deals with SF97s is in the same boat as us.
If you have been waiting more than 60 days, with the clock starting after you have taken possession of the item, please let me know (either publicly or by PM). I will need your Item number as well at some point, and I will do my best to ensure that you are at the top of the list for the remaining SF97s I currently have.
On a side note, I currently have close to 75 SF97s/Titles, sitting on my desk due to the fact that a PO Box was given in the shipping details (even though the checkout clearly states that we need a physical address and NOT a PO Box). I have been trying to work these out utilizing USPS versus FedEx, however I am starting to get push back for the extra expenditures. If you are currently waiting on an SF-97/Title and put down a PO Box as your shipping address, PM with a good physical location (FedEx does not delivery to PO Boxes) and I will get those out within 24 hours of your PM. Also if you requested an SF97/Title, but it was missing information, you should have been provided a SF97 Request form that needs to be filled out and returned to us. We currently have close to 100 units that we have not received the SF97 request form back on. The minimum information needed to complete an SF97 is Year of Manufacture, Manufacturer (Make), Model, VIN/Serial #, Curb Weight (if applicable) and GVWR (if applicable). If ANY of this information was missing on the auction page, your SF97 HAS NOT BEEN PROCESSED, and cannot be processed until the SF97 Request form, with the minimum required information, has been returned.
Thanks for you understanding in this matter, and I can and will assist anyone who has any additional questions or issues.
