How to Fill Out and Submit DD Form 3166: Weight Tickets and the 45-Day Deadline

To fill out DD Form 3166, the Personally-Procured Move Checklist and Expense Certification, collect your certified weight tickets, PCS orders, and every operating-expense receipt before you open the PDF, then transcribe that data into the form’s personal, weight, and expense sections and submit the package through MilMove or DPS along with scans of the supporting documents.¹ The form itself is a summary sheet. The evidence behind it is what gets you paid.

What DD Form 3166 Actually Is

DD Form 3166 packages your weight ticket data, operating expenses, and personal information so the finance office can calculate your PPM incentive payment. Under the current Joint Travel Regulations, that payment is 100% of the Government Constructive Cost for the weight you moved, minus taxes.² Because the form is a financial document, every entry has to match the underlying receipts and tickets exactly. Mismatches trigger manual review and delay payment.

Download the fillable PDF from the Executive Services Directorate. The current edition is dated February 13, 2023.¹ Older versions get bounced back, so confirm the edition date before you start typing.

Gather Your Documents First

Trying to fill out the form from memory is how claims fall apart. Have three things in front of you before you open the PDF.

Certified Weight Tickets

You need two weigh-ins for every vehicle or trailer: one loaded (gross) and one empty (tare). The difference is your net weight, and net weight drives the payment. Each ticket must include six elements:

Your full name, rank, and last four of your SSN.
A clear “EMPTY” or “FULL” notation.
A description of the vehicle weighed, such as “POV and rental trailer EMPTY.”
Date and time of the weigh-in.
The scale facility’s name, address, and phone number.
The weighmaster’s printed name and signature.

Tickets have to come from a commercially certified scale run by a licensed weighmaster — the kind you find at truck stops, transfer stations, and gravel yards. Uncertified scales, including app-based ones, will not be accepted.³

Two traps catch people every cycle. Keep the fuel tank at the same level for both weigh-ins; a half tank at empty and a full tank at loaded quietly adds around 100 pounds to your net weight and can prompt an adjustment. And nobody rides along. No spouse, no kids, no dog on the scale during either weigh-in. Extra bodies invalidate the ticket.³ The fee for the weigh-in itself is a reimbursable expense, so save that receipt too.

PCS Orders

Your orders are the legal authorization for the move. Several fields on the form pull directly from them: name and rank, SSN, losing and gaining duty stations, and the authorized travel window. The date your move commenced, which you enter on the form, has to fall inside that window. Starting a day early creates a problem the finance office will flag.

Expense Receipts

Operating expenses reduce the taxable portion of your incentive, so every receipt is worth keeping. DFAS treats the following as eligible:⁴

Truck and trailer rental, auto transporter rental or purchase, tow bars, hitch fees.
Gas, oil, electric vehicle charging, tolls.
Boxes, totes, tape, rope, tarps, tie-downs, furniture pads, locks.
Hired labor, hand truck and dolly rental or purchase.
Safe Move and Safe Tow insurance policies.
Short-term storage costs and portable storage containers.
Meals and lodging incurred during the move.
Weight ticket fees, routine vehicle maintenance, environmental fees, and applicable sales tax.

Small receipts add up. Twenty $15 items make a real dent in the taxable portion of your payment.

Completing Each Section of the Form

Personal and Administrative Data

The top of the form takes your name, rank, SSN, branch, and the contact details for your losing and gaining units. Copy every field from your PCS orders exactly. A different spelling of your name or one wrong SSN digit creates a verification failure that stalls the claim.

Weight Ticket Entries

For each vehicle or trailer, enter the gross weight and the tare weight. The fillable PDF calculates net weight for you. If you used more than one vehicle — say a rental truck plus a personal vehicle towing a trailer — give each its own line. The combined net weight is what determines your final incentive.

Type the numbers exactly as they appear on the tickets. Transposed digits are one of the most common reasons a claim gets pulled for manual review, which adds weeks.

Expense Summary

Log every operating cost with the vendor name, date, and dollar amount. Keep the entries consistent with the wording on the receipts; if the receipt says “U-Haul” and you write “truck rental company,” the processing office may ask you to clarify. The form totals your eligible expenses and subtracts them from the gross incentive to establish the taxable portion.

Submitting the Package

DoD is moving PPM processing from the Defense Personal Property System (DPS) to MilMove as installations transition onto the Global Household Goods Contract. When you go to MilitaryOneSource.mil/PersonalProperty and click the DPS link, the system checks whether your shipment belongs in MilMove and redirects you if so.²

The submission itself is the same in either portal. Upload scanned copies of the completed DD Form 3166, all weight tickets, your PCS orders, and every expense receipt. Scan at a readable resolution; blurry images get kicked back. Some installations still accept in-person submissions at the Transportation Office or Personal Property Office, but the portal is the standard path.

Processing time depends on the installation and its volume. Marine Corps Logistics Command reports 15 to 20 days from submission.⁵ Other branches and busier offices may take longer. When the review clears, you receive a settlement voucher and the payment goes to the bank account tied to your military pay.

If You Took the Advance, Submit Within 45 Days

Service members can request an advance of up to 60% of the authorized GCC before the move to cover truck rentals and supplies.⁶ If you did, your final claim package is due within 45 days of your pickup date. Miss that deadline and the advance is collected back from your pay.⁷ Personnel separating (not retiring) and Navy members moving to their first permanent duty station are ineligible for the advance in the first place.

Why Claims Get Rejected

Most rejections come back to the weight tickets, because that’s where the money is calculated. Watch for:

Missing any of the six required elements on a ticket. Some branches have no appeal process when a weight ticket is incomplete.³
Passengers or pets on the scale during either weigh-in.
Different fuel levels between the empty and loaded weigh-ins.
Scales that aren’t commercially certified or aren’t run by a licensed weighmaster.
Handwritten tickets that omit any of the required station or weighmaster details.

Beyond weight tickets, personal information on the form that doesn’t match your orders is the next most common snag. Read every field against your orders before you submit.

How the Payment Is Taxed

The PPM incentive is taxable income. Federal tax is withheld at the flat 22% supplemental wage rate on your profit, meaning the incentive minus your eligible operating expenses.⁸ Every documented expense reduces the amount subject to that 22%, which is why the receipt discipline in your expense summary translates directly into money you keep.

Expenses you claim on DD Form 3166 reduce the taxable income on your W-2 and cannot be claimed again as a separate moving-expense deduction on your tax return.⁹ If you paid moving costs out of pocket that you did not put on the form, keep those records separately. Active-duty members can still deduct reasonable unreimbursed moving expenses on the federal return.

1
U.S. Department of Defense Directives Division. DD Form 3166 Personally-Procured Move Checklist
2
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Personally Procured Moves Using MilMove
3
PCS Pay-it-Forward. How to Get Certified Weight Tickets for a PPM Move
4
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Personally Procured Moves
5
Marine Corps Logistics Command. Personally Procured Move
6
Naval Supply Systems Command. PPM Handout
7
Naval Supply Systems Command. Conducting a Navy Personally Procured Move
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (2026), Circular E, Employers Tax Guide
9
NAVSUP. DD Form 3166 Personally-Procured Move Checklist