Amendment 0002-Non-emergent Wheelchair Transportation Services 07-17-2026.pdf

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice

*= Required Field Combined Synopsis/Solicitation Notice

SUBJECT* Clarification to Questions for Non-Emergent Wheelchair Transportation Contract

GENERAL INFORMATION

CONTRACTING OFFICE’S ZIP CODE* 77056-5643

SOLICITATION NUMBER* 36C25626R0073

RESPONSE DATE/TIME/ZONE 07-29-2026 13:00 CENTRAL TIME, CHICAGO, USA

ARCHIVE 10 DAYS AFTER THE RESPONSE DATE

RECOVERY ACT FUNDS N

SET-ASIDE SDVOSBC

PRODUCT SERVICE CODE* V212

NAICS CODE* 485991

CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS Department of Veterans Affairs

Network Contracting Office 16 5075 Westheimer Road, Suite 750 Houston TX 77056-5643

POINT OF CONTACT*

Oney Kelly Oney.kelly@va.gov

NO FURTHER QUESTIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED

Clarification to Questions & Answers posted on 07/10/2026

The PWS requires the contractor to provide wheelchair transportation services 365 days per year, 24 hours per day, regardless of distance, and also requires communication methods available at all times for requests and incidents. Please confirm whether contractor drivers, dispatch personnel, or other covered service employees who are required to remain available, on-call, assigned to shifts, or otherwise restricted in order to meet these 24/7 requirements must be compensated in accordance with the applicable Service Contract Labor Standards wage determination for all compensable hours worked, including standby/readiness periods where the employee is engaged to wait.

Under the SCLS applicable wage determinations the

Government must adhere to all DOL regulations and interpretations. Therefore, yes, contractors must be compensated for all hours worked to include standby, on call, waiting periods once personnel are required to remain available to maintain 24/7 operations.

The solicitation states that the Department of Labor has held that contractors must pay employees the Service

Contract Labor Standards wage while driving both to and from destinations for VA. Please confirm whether compensable time includes not only loaded patient time, but also required travel to pickup, return travel, repositioning/deadhead travel, pre-trip/post-trip inspections, dispatch communications, waiting time, vehicle readiness tasks, documentation, and other required activities performed in support of VA transportation.

All required work activities must be included in total compensable hours to be determined compliant with

SCLS wage determination. Also see above response.

For purposes of price evaluation, should offerors price labor based only on active one-way transports, or should offerors include the cost of maintaining sufficient paid staffing, dispatch, vehicle readiness, and coverage capacity to meet the PWS 24/7 availability, response, VetRide/telephone request, and after-hours requirements?

The solicitation states that prices will be evaluated for reasonableness, completeness, and fairness; please confirm whether a price that omits required readiness/coverage labor may be considered incomplete or unrealistic for the stated requirements.

Price must cover all aspects of the PWS. If any aspects of the PWS is left out, then this will be deemed incomplete as all aspects of the labor laws are not addressed.

Contractors must ensure they fully understand the scope pf work to be performed, then provide a response to reflect the vendor’s determination.

The solicitation states that contractors must have dedicated staff available to monitor the VetRide or VA-approved transportation portal 24/7. Please clarify whether this dedicated monitoring function must be performed by paid personnel during all required coverage periods, and whether offerors should include those costs in their proposed pricing.

Monitoring the Vetride portal is compensable work IAW

DOL regulations. All labor associated with any aspect of

PWS must be included in the proposed price. Also see above answers.

Will the Service Contract Labor Standards (SCLS) wage determination(s) be incorporated into the solicitation by amendment? If so, which wage determination(s) apply and for which geographic areas? Does the VA intend to include a fuel escalation clause or economic price adjustment provision in the resulting contract?

See clause 52.222-41/42/43. All wage determination applies to primary work by county/city/state.

This is an FFP contract.

The prohibition against billing unloaded mileage does not determine whether employee time spent driving, repositioning, inspecting vehicles, communicating with dispatch, waiting, documenting trips, maintaining readiness, or performing other required work is compensable under applicable labor requirements.

This is compensable IAW SCLS wage determination. All work to be accomplished IAW PWS must be compensated and included in responses.

Each contractor remains responsible for compensating its employees for all compensable hours worked in accordance with applicable labor laws and the incorporated Service

Contract Labor Standards requirements, regardless of whether the corresponding activity is separately billable under a CLIN.

Yes, all work stated in PWS is compensable under labor laws and SCLS, this must be included in price. However, the CO has made a determination that a separate CLIN is not required. All work will be captured and billed by contractor. If VA requests proof, it shall be provided to

CO. In other words, contractors must track and compensate all work.

Offerors are expected to include within their proposed pricing the labor and operational resources they determine are necessary to satisfy the solicitation’s continuous operational requirements, including dedicated dispatch capability, VetRide monitoring, same-day response, after-hours response, vehicle readiness, and all other required contract function.

Yes, proposals must addressed all necessary labor and operational resources to achieve all aspect of the PWS, to include dispatch, monitoring, readiness and any other related functions and as stated above.

Technical acceptability requires a credible staffing and operational approach capable of satisfying the Performance

Work Statement. Pricing should therefore reflect the labor resources the offeror determines are necessary to perform those requirements in compliance with applicable law.

Yes, technically acceptable solution must address all areas of the PWS.

END OF SECTION