Solicitation
Charleston VAMC wheelchair transportation service
Department of Veterans Affairs
AI summaryOnly service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) listed as certified in the SBA database can bid. The Department of Veterans Affairs wants wheelchair transportation for veteran patients for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC. It is a single-award, fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ: orders placed as needed) contract with five one-year pricing periods, December 1, 2026 to November 30, 2031. The response due date is November 16, 2026, 8:00 AM Eastern, by email. More in the summary
A newer version of this notice was posted Oct 27, 2026. See the latest version.
AI summary Beta
Summary of the version posted Oct 15, 2026. The notice was amended Oct 27, 2026. Check what else changed on SAM.gov. The notice looks incomplete: The middle of the 76-page solicitation PDF (about 66,500 characters) was attached but not read here. It holds the rest of the performance requirements table, the Section B.3 price schedule with quantities, the delivery schedule and most contract clauses. Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
Only service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) listed as certified in the SBA database can bid. The Department of Veterans Affairs wants wheelchair transportation for veteran patients for the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC. It is a single-award, fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ: orders placed as needed) contract with five one-year pricing periods, December 1, 2026 to November 30, 2031. The response due date is November 16, 2026, 8:00 AM Eastern, by email.
Who can bid (7)
- Service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) set-aside: you must be listed as a certified SDVOSB in the SBA certification database (veterans.certify.sba.gov) at the time of offer and at the time of award
- Active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) when you submit the offer, kept through award, performance and final payment
- Insurance coverage documentation with the proposal; offers without it are rejected
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- Completed Limitations on Subcontracting certificate (VAAR 852.219-75) with the proposal; the contract is also subject to the limits on subcontracting in FAR 52.219-14
- Signed Business Associate Agreement (Section D.1) returned with the proposal
- If bidding as a joint venture, a signed certification from each SDVOSB partner with the proposal
- Quality control plan (QCP: how you will check the quality of your work) from the apparent successful offeror only, within 14 calendar days of the contracting officer's request; award waits for an acceptable plan
How to submit: Email to Thomas.Nicholls@va.gov with the solicitation number in the subject line; no postal mail, phone calls or automatic receipt email. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (12)
- Serious: Only certified SDVOSBs can bid. Offers from firms not listed as certified SDVOSBs in the SBA database at both offer and award are not considered.
- Serious: Insurance proof due with the offer. An offer without insurance coverage documents is rejected, so line up insurance before the response due date.
- Serious: Subcontracting certificate due with the offer. The VAAR 852.219-75 certificate must come with the proposal or the offer is rejected, and the contract limits how much work can go to subcontractors.
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- Serious: Strict compliance review can reject an offer. Offers that do not strictly follow every instruction are rejected before experience and price are looked at.
- Worth checking: Signed Business Associate Agreement required with the proposal. The health-privacy agreement in Section D.1 must be signed and returned, or the offer is not considered for award.
- Worth checking: Email-only submission, PDF files only. Proposals go by email at 8:00 AM Eastern on the response due date, with no automatic receipt email and no phone calls allowed.
- Worth checking: Round-the-clock service and a manager on call at all times. Service must be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and the contract manager or alternate must be reachable at all hours.
- Worth checking: Coverage across three states. The catchment area is Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and trips can cross state lines, so you need enough drivers and wheelchair vehicles to cover it.
- Worth checking: Toll charges stated two ways. One section says rates include all toll charges; another says rates do not include tolls and tolls are listed separately on the invoice. Ask the contracting officer which applies.
- Minor: Service Contract Act wages apply. Drivers must be paid at least the Department of Labor wage rate for the county, including while driving to and from trips; wage determination 2015-4427 (Revision 35) covers Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.
- Minor: Questions were due Oct 23, 2026. Check the amendments for the agency's answers.
- Minor: 150-day price hold. Prices must stay firm for 150 calendar days after the response due date.
Read from the notice and 1 attachment. Show which files.
- S02-RHJ WC-36C24726R0123-FINAL.pdf (read)
Full summary
What they want
- Ground wheelchair transport of veteran patients, one patient per trip, between the VA medical center, VA clinics, community hospitals, homes and other places the VA requests
- Service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; most trips are expected Monday through Saturday, 0500 to 2100 EST
- On-time trips: a 15-minute grace period for scheduled trips and a 2-hour response to unscheduled requests
- Take trip requests through the VA's VetRide software, and use encrypted email for patient-related messages
- Vehicles with wheelchair lifts and tie-downs, GPS, air conditioning, a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit, inspected by the VA at the start and when a vehicle is added
- Drivers with clean driving and criminal records, CPR and first aid training, and VA background checks; send the VA an updated driver list by the fourth day of each month when drivers change
- Bill monthly in arrears: a base rate plus mileage for trips past the base distance; round trips are billed as two one-way trips
- Work across a catchment area (the area where trips start and end) of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, including trips across state lines
- Contract type
- Single-award, fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract; each pricing period is exercised by a task order
- Period of performance
- Five pricing periods, each December 1 to November 30: December 1, 2026 to November 30, 2027, then through November 30, 2031; the evaluation also allows for extensions of 1 to 6 months in total under the extension clause (52.217-8)
- Place of performance
- Charleston, SC, USA (SAM.gov). The solicitation's catchment area is Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- How they'll choose
- Best value: award to the responsible offeror whose offer is most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. Experience is more important than price. An initial compliance review rejects offers that do not strictly follow the instructions. Past performance is reviewed only for the contracting officer's responsibility determination.
- Offers due
- November 16, 2026, 8:00 AM Eastern (from the version posted Oct 15, 2026; amended since)
- How to submit
- Email to Thomas.Nicholls@va.gov with the solicitation number in the subject line; no postal mail, phone calls or automatic receipt email
What they'll judge offers on
- Factor 1, Experience: relevant experience with contracted, non-emergency ground wheelchair transportation of similar size, scope and complexity; the number, dollar value, duration and relevance of contracts, including comparable volume, geographic scope and patient population
- Factor 2, Price: reasonableness of each unit price, the total for each of the five pricing periods, and the total for all five combined; prices that are significantly unbalanced across periods may be found unacceptable
What to include when you submit
- Send the full proposal as PDF files; Word documents are not accepted
- Include a signed Standard Form 1449 (SF 1449: the form you sign and return as your offer) and an acknowledgment or signed copy of every amendment
- Sign and return the Business Associate Agreement (BAA: a health-privacy agreement) in Section D.1 with the proposal
- Fill in the Price Schedule in Section B.3, including estimated use; no other format is accepted. Each contract line item number (CLIN: one priced line of the order) amount is unit price times quantity
- Include insurance coverage documentation that meets State and local requirements and VAAR 852.228-71
- Return a completed Limitations on Subcontracting certificate (VAAR 852.219-75) with the proposal
- Experience narrative: for each reference contract give the other party's legal name, contract number, tasks performed, location, dates, number of patients served, whether the work was done by you or a proposed subcontractor, whether you were prime or subcontractor, and a contact name, phone and email who can verify it
- A joint venture must include a certification from each SDVOSB partner, signed by an authorized official, that the joint venture agreement meets 13 CFR 128.402(c) and the venture will perform under it
- Offer must include the solicitation number, your name, address, phone and Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), and a statement of how far you agree with all terms
- Hold your prices firm for 150 calendar days after the response due date
After award, you must have
- Drivers must hold current CPR certification and complete a standard and advanced first aid course; they also need a clean driving and criminal record and a formal background check From S02-RHJ WC-36C24726R0123-FINAL.pdf:
…the services they perform. All drivers must have a current CPR certification and have successfully…
- Register in the Contractor Performance Assessment Rating System (CPARS: the federal past-performance database) no later than 30 days after award From S02-RHJ WC-36C24726R0123-FINAL.pdf:
…no later than thirty days after contract award and must be kept current should there be any change to the…
Current contractor
No incumbent is named, and no sources sought, market research or Government estimate is given in the text read.
Not in the notice text
- The middle of the 76-page solicitation PDF (about 66,500 characters) was attached but not read here. It holds the rest of the performance requirements table, the Section B.3 price schedule with quantities, the delivery schedule and most contract clauses.
- Unit prices, estimated use and quantities for each pricing period are in the Section B.3 price schedule, which was not read.
- The minimum and maximum order limits (clause 52.216-19) and the base-rate mileage threshold were not in the text read.
- The insurance coverage amounts (VAAR 852.228-71) and the percentage limit on subcontracting (52.219-14) were not in the text read.
- The text read does not say how many reference contracts to send for the experience factor.
- The Government's estimate or contract value is not stated; the $19 Million on the form is the size standard for the NAICS code.
Eligibility and how to respond
- Only service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) certified through SBA's VetCert can bid as the prime contractor. Not certified through VetCert yet? Apply on VetCert (SBA), or start with the SDVOSB guide. More open service-disabled veteran-owned set-asides under NAICS 485991
- How to submit, from the AI summary: Email to Thomas.Nicholls@va.gov with the solicitation number in the subject line; no postal mail, phone calls or automatic receipt email. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
- Service contracts usually set minimum pay rates (the Service Contract Act). Price the labor with the SCA price calculator.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 15, 2026
- Notice type
- Solicitation
- Office
- 247-Network Contract Office 7 (36C247), Augusta, GA
- Product/service code
- V212 · Transportation/Travel/Relocation – Travel/Lodging/Recruitment: Motor Passenger
- Business type
- Transportation, logistics & vehicles (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 485991)
- Versions
4 versions have been posted, newest first.
- Oct 27, 2026 · Amendment 0002Due Nov 16, 2026
- Oct 21, 2026 · Amendment 0001Due Nov 16, 2026
- Oct 15, 2026 · Solicitation (this version)Due Nov 16, 2026 (changed)
- Oct 15, 2026 · PresolicitationDate Oct 15, 2026
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
- Open SDVOSB set-aside contracts
Terms on this notice: Solicitation, SDVOSB (service-disabled veteran-owned small business), Set-aside
Full notice text from SAM.gov
Please see attached RFP for the Charleston VAMC wheelchair transportation service. See attachment with Q&A and responses and revised RFP. See attachment with Q&A and responses.