Sources Sought
Wood Products
Department of Defense · Defense Logistics Agency
AI summaryDefense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support, Philadelphia, is asking industry for input on a follow-on to its Central Region wood products contract. This is a sources sought notice (market research), not a solicitation. The planned contracts would supply poles, railroad ties, lumber and plywood by truckload to customers in 21 states and territories, and the planned solicitation is a total small business set-aside. Survey answers go by email to Diane Bowen; the response due date is November 16, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern. More in the summary
Market research, not a bid. Replying is free and tells Defense Logistics Agency who could do this work. Send a short reply to the contracting contact; no price is needed. See the contact
AI summary Beta
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Troop Support, Philadelphia, is asking industry for input on a follow-on to its Central Region wood products contract. This is a sources sought notice (market research), not a solicitation. The planned contracts would supply poles, railroad ties, lumber and plywood by truckload to customers in 21 states and territories, and the planned solicitation is a total small business set-aside. Survey answers go by email to Diane Bowen; the response due date is November 16, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern.
Who can bid
- Small business. The agency plans a 100% small business set-aside solicitation; SAM.gov shows this notice as a total small business set-aside under NAICS 321212.
- Products must meet the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), which limits supplies to U.S. or designated-country (approved trading partner) products. The agency says it will apply.
How to submit: Email the completed survey to Diane Bowen at Diane.Bowen@DLA.mil. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (7)
From the version posted Oct 15, 2026.
- Serious: Small businesses only (planned). The agency intends to set the later solicitation aside for small businesses, so larger firms would be shut out.
- Serious: Delivery across 21 states and territories. A winner would have to ship by truckload to customers over a very large area, so a small business needs warehouses, trucking and supplier sources to cover it.
- Worth checking: Deliveries listed to Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The territory list includes places outside the United States; the notice does not say what local presence, licenses, currency or tax rules would apply.
Show all 7Show fewer
- Worth checking: Delivery is FOB destination. The seller pays for and manages shipping to the customer's site, which raises delivered cost and risk.
- Worth checking: Standard delivery time is 14 days. Standard delivery under this type of contract is 14 days, with some exceptions, so inventory and shipping must be lined up in advance.
- Worth checking: Trade Agreements Act applies. Wood products must come from U.S. or designated countries, so sourcing from other countries could rule out a bid.
- Minor: Surge quantities may be an option. The agency may ask winners to supply more, faster, in emergencies (for example 50% above normal demand).
Read from the notice and 3 attachments. Show which files.
- RFI- Central 2026.pdf (read)
- Lumber Catalog Nov 2024.pdf (read)
- CLIV Lumber 2025 booklet.pdf (read)
Full summary
What they want
- Answer a 9-question industry survey: business size, which listed products you distribute, current customers, hard-to-source items, lead time per item, delivery setup, ramp-up time, surge capacity, and truckload sizes
- Show you can supply 19 listed wood product lines (pole, railroad tie, softwood and hardwood lumber, plywood) FOB destination (the seller pays for delivery to the customer) to customers in 21 states and territories
- Lines 0003 to 0015 are lumber sold by the board foot (BF); the largest are line 0010 (2” x 6” x 16' softwood, 682,445 BF a year) and line 0007 (2” x 4” x 16’, 557,168 BF a year)
- Lines 0016 to 0019 are plywood sold by the sheet (SH): 709 SH, 4,032 SH, 11,248 SH and 14,381 SH estimated annual order quantity
- Line 0001 is a 40’ treated wood line construction pole, class 3 (QTY 3 EA, each, a year); line 0002 is a railroad crosstie (QTY 144 EA, each, a year); line 0009 is hardwood lumber (QTY 422 BF a year)
- Describe the warehouses, equipment, trucking and supplier arrangements you would set up for delivery
- Say how long you need to ramp up (get set up) and whether any items would be hard to surge (supply in larger quantities, faster) by something like 50% above normal demand
- Contract type
- Sources sought (market research) for planned competitive long-term contracts (LTCs) under DLA's Tailored Logistics Support Program (TLSP); the contract type is not stated
- Place of performance
- Philadelphia, PA, USA per SAM.gov. Deliveries are FOB destination (delivered to the customer) in 21 states and territories: ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, TX, MN, IA, AR, LA, WI, IL, MS, KY, IN, OH, MO, MI, plus Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- Contract vehicle
- Tailored Logistics Support Contract (TLSC) for wood products, Central Region (the current contract this would follow)
- Offers due
- November 16, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern
- How to submit
- Email the completed survey to Diane Bowen at Diane.Bowen@DLA.mil
What to include when you submit
- Answer survey questions 1 to 9 in the attached RFI- Central 2026 questionnaire
- Fill in the company name, CAGE code (the code that identifies your business to the government) and point of contact information
- Question 1: say whether you are a large or small business
- Question 2: say whether you distribute all the listed products, and name any you do not distribute
- Question 3: name your current commercial customers and government customers for these products
- Questions 5 and 9: fill in the per-item tables, lead time in days for each line and typical truckload quantity and surge capability for each line
- Question 6: describe the facilities, equipment, and trucking and warehousing arrangements you would use for delivery
Current contractor
No incumbent is named. The notice says this is a follow-on to the current Wood Products Tailored Logistics Support Contract (TLSC), Central Region, which will expire in September 2027. No response counts or Government estimate are given.
Not in the notice text
- The solicitation itself, its release date, contract length, ordering period, number of awards and dollar value are not given; this notice is market research only
- Whether foreign deliveries (Central America, South America, Caribbean) bring local office, license, currency or tax rules is not stated
- How price will be compared and what the award factors will be are not stated
- The middle of the attached Lumber Catalog Nov 2024 was not read; the Class IV Lumber Program booklet is background on the existing DLA program
- Whether one or several regional awards will be made is not stated
Eligibility and how to respond
- If it goes ahead as planned: set aside for small businesses: only a business that counts as small under this notice's NAICS code can bid as the prime contractor. More open small business set-asides under NAICS 321212
- To respond, send a short reply to the contracting contact near the top of this page. No price is needed.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 15, 2026
- Notice type
- Sources Sought
- Office
- DLA Troop Support, Philadelphia, PA
- Product/service code
- 5510 · Lumber and Related Basic Wood Materials
- Business type
- Manufactured parts & equipment (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 321212)
- 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
Terms on this notice: Sources sought notice, Set-aside
Full notice text from SAM.gov
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