A permanent change of station move puts thousands of dollars in motion at once. Some of that money comes out of your pocket first and returns later on a voucher, and some of it arrives as flat allowances you can plan around months ahead. The soldiers who come out ahead on a PCS are usually the ones who estimated their entitlements early, before they signed a lease, shipped a second car, or guessed at a travel budget. This calculator pulls the four biggest pieces of PCS money into one estimate: Dislocation Allowance, mileage, travel per diem, and Temporary Lodging Expense.

Nothing here replaces your finance office, and every rate in a PCS changes on a schedule set by the Joint Travel Regulations. What the estimate does is give you a realistic planning number while your orders are still fresh, so you can decide how much leave to take en route, whether driving beats flying for your family, and how much cash reserve to hold back for deposits and first month costs at the new duty station.

The Four Big Pieces of PCS Money

Dislocation Allowance (DLA) is a flat payment meant to offset the cost of setting up a household at the new station: deposits, utility hookups, restocking a pantry, and the long tail of small expenses a move creates. Your DLA rate depends on your pay grade and on whether you move with dependents. It is paid once per move in most cases, and it does not depend on how far you travel.

Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation (MALT), usually just called mileage, pays you for driving your own vehicle to the new station. It is a per-mile rate set each year, paid for the official distance between duty stations, for each vehicle you are authorized to drive. Travel per diem covers meals and incidental expenses for each authorized travel day, paid at full rate for you and at reduced rates for traveling dependents. Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE) reimburses lodging and meal costs for up to ten days in the states while you wait for housing at either end of the move.

How This Calculator Builds the Estimate

The calculator follows the same structure your voucher will follow:

• DLA is looked up from the rate table for your pay grade and dependency status.
• MALT is your driving distance multiplied by the per-mile rate, multiplied again by the number of vehicles driven.
• Per diem is your travel days multiplied by the daily rate, with traveling dependents added at 75 percent for each dependent age 12 and over and 50 percent for each dependent under 12.
• TLE is your TLE days multiplied by the daily rate you enter, capped at ten days for stateside moves.

Add the four pieces and you have the core cash picture for the move. Other entitlements sit outside this estimate: household goods shipment is arranged and paid directly rather than paid to you, Personally Procured Move payments follow their own incentive calculation, and overseas moves swap TLE for TLA and add different allowances entirely.

How to Use This Calculator

1. Select your pay grade and whether you are moving with dependents.
2. Enter the official driving distance between your old and new duty stations. The Defense Table of Official Distances figure is what finance will use, and a map estimate is close enough for planning.
3. Enter how many personally owned vehicles you will drive rather than ship.
4. Enter your planned travel days. The Army authorizes one travel day for every 350 miles of official distance, plus a day for shorter final legs, so check your estimate against that rule.
5. Enter the daily per diem rate for your route, or use the default planning rate in the field.
6. Add the dependents traveling with you, split by age, and the TLE days you expect to use.
7. Select the calculate button and review the four parts and the total.

Worked Example

Consider an E-6 moving with dependents from Fort Cavazos to Fort Campbell, an official distance of roughly 1,050 miles. The DLA table pays about $2,900 at the with-dependents rate. Driving one vehicle at the 21-cent planning rate produces about $220 in MALT. Three travel days at a $178 daily rate, with a spouse traveling at the 75 percent dependent rate, produce about $934 in per diem. Five TLE days at the same daily rate add $890. The estimate lands near $4,945 before any other entitlement is counted, which is a realistic figure for a move of that shape.

Notice how the pieces behave differently. DLA does not care about distance at all. MALT and per diem scale with the trip itself. TLE depends on housing timing, which is the least predictable part of any move and the piece most worth padding in your personal budget.

Travel Days and the 350 Mile Rule

Per diem is only paid for authorized travel days, and the authorization follows the official distance, not your ambition behind the wheel. The standard computation allows one day of travel for each 350 miles, with an extra day when the remainder is more than a token distance. Drive faster than the authorized pace and you simply arrive early without extra per diem. Drive slower and the extra days come out of your leave or your pocket. This is why the travel days field matters: matching it to the authorized count keeps your estimate honest.

Planning Around the Estimate

Treat the total as a floor for planning, not a promise. Keep receipts for lodging on travel days and through any TLE period, because TLE claims are receipt-driven even when the estimate is simple. File your voucher promptly after you in-process, since slow filing is the most common self-inflicted PCS money problem. If your move involves a Personally Procured Move, a shipped vehicle, storage, or an overseas leg, sit down with transportation and finance before you rely on any single number, because each of those choices rewrites parts of this estimate.

Soldiers with a Government Travel Charge Card should also remember that card charges and voucher payments run on separate clocks. The estimate tells you what the move should pay; it does not move the payment date. Holding a modest cash reserve through the move remains the oldest and best PCS advice in the Army.

Personally Procured Moves Change the Math

Everything above assumes the government moves your household goods and pays the carrier directly. A Personally Procured Move, still widely called a DITY move, flips that arrangement: you pack, move, or hire your own carrier, and the government pays you an incentive based on what the move would have cost the government, calculated from your actual weight up to your authorized weight allowance. Soldiers who move themselves efficiently can come out ahead; soldiers who underestimate rental trucks, fuel, and their own labor can come out behind, and the incentive is taxable income either way.

The entitlements in this calculator still apply on a PPM. You still draw DLA, you still earn MALT and per diem for the drive, and TLE still works the same at both ends. What changes is that your household goods money arrives as a separate incentive payment with its own paperwork, weight tickets, and settlement timeline. Weigh the truck empty and loaded on a certified scale and keep every ticket, because the entire incentive rides on documented weight.

Advances, Weight Allowances, and Other Money in the Move

Several smaller entitlements sit around the big four. Advance DLA can be requested before the move in many situations, which matters when deposits at the new station come due before the voucher settles. Advance pay is a separate option that pulls future pay forward and repays it over time, and it should be treated as the loan it is. Your household goods weight allowance rises with rank and dependency status, and shipping more than the allowance can generate excess cost bills months after the move, long after the PCS money has been spent.

Storage is another quiet factor. Temporary storage at government expense covers a set window around the move, and vehicles shipped or stored under specific orders follow their own rules. None of these pieces appear in the four-part estimate above, which is deliberate: the calculator prices the cash most soldiers can count on, and your transportation office prices the rest move by move. Ask both offices for their numbers before you commit to a timeline.

Common PCS Money Mistakes

The most expensive mistakes are boring ones. Soldiers guess at travel days instead of computing them from official distance, then wonder why per diem came up short. Families book TLE lodging above the local cap and absorb the difference. Vouchers sit unfiled while receipts fade and memories blur, and card balances age into trouble. Each of these is preventable with an early estimate, a folder for receipts from day one, and a voucher filed in the first week after arrival.

Keep the Paper Trail From Day One

Every dollar in the estimate eventually meets a document. Orders authorize the move, the distance table fixes the mileage, lodging receipts drive TLE, and weight tickets drive any PPM incentive. Start a single folder, paper or digital, the day orders arrive, and drop each document into it as the move unfolds. The soldiers who settle clean vouchers in one submission are rarely better at math than everyone else; they are simply the ones whose folder was complete before the questions started.

A Note on Rates and Years

Every figure in this estimate belongs to a rate year. DLA tables are republished, the mileage rate is reset, and per diem tables shift by location and season, sometimes mid-year for high-cost areas. An estimate built in January can be a few hundred dollars off by a December move without anything being wrong. Rebuild your numbers once your orders are in hand and your travel dates are set, and treat the freshest run as the one worth budgeting against.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DLA and who receives it?

Dislocation Allowance is a flat payment that helps cover the cost of relocating a household during a PCS. Most soldiers who move with an authorized household receive it, at a rate set by pay grade and dependency status. Some moves, such as a first move from home, follow different rules.

How is MALT mileage calculated?

MALT pays a set rate per mile for the official distance between duty stations, for each vehicle you are authorized to drive. This calculator uses a 21-cent planning rate. Finance pays the rate in effect for your travel dates and the official distance, not your odometer reading.

How many travel days will the Army authorize for my drive?

The standard rule allows one travel day for every 350 miles of official distance, plus one more day when the leftover distance is substantial. Your orders and finance office confirm the exact count, and per diem is paid only for authorized days.

What per diem rate do dependents get while traveling?

Dependents traveling with you are paid at reduced percentages of the daily rate: 75 percent for each dependent age 12 and older, and 50 percent for each dependent under 12. The calculator applies those percentages automatically when you enter your travelers.

What is TLE and how many days can I claim?

Temporary Lodging Expense reimburses lodging and meals for up to ten days on a stateside move, split between the old and new stations as your situation requires. It is a reimbursement based on actual costs up to the daily cap, and it requires lodging receipts.

Is this estimate what finance will actually pay me?

No. Rates change yearly, partial DLA rules apply in some cases, and your voucher is settled from your orders, your actual dates, and the receipts you file. Use the estimate for budgeting, then confirm the details with your finance office.

Does the calculator include household goods shipping?

No. A government-arranged household goods move is paid directly to the carrier, so it never passes through your hands. Personally Procured Move incentive payments follow a separate calculation based on weight and the government cost estimate.

When do I receive my PCS money?

DLA can be requested in advance in many cases, while mileage, per diem, and TLE are typically settled on your travel voucher after the move. Vouchers are usually paid within days of a clean submission after you in-process at the new station.

What if my spouse drives a second car?

A second vehicle driven to the new station usually earns its own MALT at the same per-mile rate, subject to authorization limits. Enter two vehicles in the calculator to see the effect, and confirm the authorization on your orders.

Do I get DLA for an overseas move?

DLA generally applies to overseas moves as well, but overseas moves also involve different lodging and allowance systems, including TLA instead of TLE and possible advance pay rules. Treat this calculator as a stateside planning tool.

What is partial DLA?

Partial DLA is a smaller flat payment that applies in certain cases, such as some moves into government quarters or moves where a full household is not relocated. If partial DLA applies to you, your actual payment will be lower than the table estimate.

Can I be paid per diem for days I take as leave en route?

No. Per diem covers authorized travel days only. Days you spend on leave during the trip are yours, and the clock for travel days pauses while you are in a leave status. Plan the route first, then place leave days where they cost you least.

Where do I find the official per diem rate for my route?

Per diem rates are published by the Defense Travel Management Office and vary by location and season. Your finance office works from those tables, and the rate field in this calculator lets you drop in the current figure for your destination.

What happens if my actual lodging costs pass the TLE cap?

TLE reimburses the lesser of your actual cost or the daily cap for your location and family size. Costs above the cap come out of pocket, which is why booking within the cap and keeping every receipt matters during the lodging window.

Should I use my Government Travel Charge Card for PCS expenses?

Many soldiers are directed to use the card for official travel expenses, and the voucher payment then settles the card balance. Track the due dates yourself, because the card bill can come due before a delayed voucher pays out.