Responses to Questions.pdf

Solicitation: 693JF720R000004 (Marine Insurance Brokerage and Fleet Protection & Indemnity Insurance Services) Questions from Vendors Date Due: January 10, 2020

1. Question: I did not find a SF 1449 form with the documents. Do we simply state that we comply with provisions of the RFP in volume I?

Answer: An SF1449 is not required to be submitted with the proposal

2. Question: The reps and certs that I need to complete in full, shall I put those in Volume II –

(PRICE)?

Answer: Reps and Certs can be included in either volume.

3. Question: Has there been any P&I insurance placed on the training vessels before? Is there P&I coverage on then now? If so, will you please share what the limits were/are and if these are/were annual policies or just a voyage specific policy for the 60 days or so that the RFP mentions the vessels are navigating for training.

Answer: See page 27 of the Solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.” Thus, this question seeks information that is immaterial to the procurement for a broker.

Notwithstanding, no P&I Insurance has been placed on the training vessels. P&I Insurance, however, has been placed on various training ships before in the context of specific missions;

therefore, those policies are not comparable.

4. Current policies:

a. What is the current expiration date to ensure the service plan is tailored around current expiration dates?

Answer: There are no current P&I policies.

b. Jones Act endorsement included?

Answer: As public vessels, training vessels are not required to have a Jones Act trading endorsement for cabotage.

5. Please provide the historical losses to provide an accurate estimate of pricing. If Loss Data is not available until award, please provide assumptions of prior losses.

Answer: Note that offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.”

This request seeks information that is not germane to the procurement for a broker.

Notwithstanding, the agency will share the requisite information with the awardee.

6. In order to get a price estimate based on market research per page 27 in the RFP, could we please obtain information below:

General Answer: Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.” This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. The agency expects offerors to submit price quotes for the service of a marine insurance broker. It could be submitted in a fixed format or commission percentage.

Questions from Vendors

a. Number of trainees on board per year per vessel (estimate is fine)

Answer:

Vessel Name / Year Built / No. Crew / No. Addl. Crew / No. Cadets /Total Persons Allowed

Golden Bear 1989 14 71 295 380

TS Kennedy 1967 20 90 600 710

Empire State 1962 14 108 666 788

Kings Pointer 1980 9 2 39 50

General Rudder 1984 11 7 50 65

State of Maine 1990 14 40 244 298

b. More details on the utilization pattern of each ship. We know that the RFP says that the vessels take at least one training cruise annually of 60‐65 days and that will include

International Waters. Could you estimate how much time the vessels are navigating for maintenance and sea trials and where that occurs. Does training occur while the vessel is at the pier as well? How often and what types?

Answer: Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.”

This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. Notwithstanding, the vessels are maintained in class.

c. Is there an agreement with each Academy that details the responsibilities of the school for safety and health of the cadets? Does the school provide any health insurance for example that may cover sickness or injury at sea?

Answer: Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.”

This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. Notwithstanding, there are

Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) with each of the State Maritime Academies (SMAs).

These voluminous documents along with other details about the SMAs’ vessel operations will be shared with the awardee, but are not relevant or needed in order to submit a proposal to be considered for the broker contract.

d. Number of crew?

Answer: See the agency’s answer to question 6(a.).

e. Please send any recent condition surveys, if any.

Answer: Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.”

This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. Surveys pertaining to the vessels will be shared with the awardee, but it is not information needed to submit a proposal for the broker competition.

Questions from Vendors

f. Are there guests allowed on board as well? How many and how often and for what purposes?

Answer: Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.”

This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. Notwithstanding, the MOA with each SMA address the permitted and prohibited personnel for each vessel. The awardee of this solicitation will be given access to the MOAs.

g. Details on any claims in the past 6 years

Answer: See the agency’s answer to question answer 5.

7. Under section 1.0 it says “The above vessel list is not all‐inclusive , MARAD may add or subtract vessels from the vessel list during the period of this contract. “ What other vessels?

Answer: The long‐term objective is for MARAD to recapitalize some of its fleet. Exactly what vessels will be added is not known now. Provisions in the final insurance policy should address the process of adding vessels to the policy and determining the cost for such addition.

However, that requirement needs to be the final insurance policy, etc. It is not a requirement of the brokerage contract, but is something MARAD will be looking to the broker for assistance in obtaining.

8. Section 1.2, paragraph 7, first sentence says....as well as on behalf of such other assureds as

MARAD may direct to be listed on the policy.” Could you please provide examples of what other assureds this could be besides those already listed in the RFP?

Answer: MARAD cannot provide further Assureds at this moment. It is anticipated that each of the six State Maritime Academies in California, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas, and Michigan will be named assureds. This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker, not the insurance policy.

9. Will you please provide copies of the “bareboat charter” agreements between MARAD and the schools?

Answer: Not at this time. Offerors are not expected to submit an estimated P&I policy price with their proposal. See page 27 of the solicitation; “[t]he P&I Policy price will not be evaluated.” This solicitation is for a marine insurance broker only. Notwithstanding, there are MOAs with each of the SMAs. These voluminous documents and other details about the

SMAs’ vessel operations will be shared with the awardee, but are not relevant or needed in order to submit a proposal to be considered for the broker contract.

10. Section 5.7‐1) Corporate Experience‐ Can the criteria of evidence producing P&I policies with mutual assurance clubs for training vessels and ocean‐going passenger vessels be modified or carry less weight? This creates a very narrow group of brokers and this criteria will hurt competition from perfectly capable Marine

Insurance brokers. The training ships carry cadets not paying passengers. There are not that

Questions from Vendors many training vessels in general. We feel like those in our industry will agree that a Marine insurance broker with lots of P&I experience can handle placing and servicing MARAD without having ocean going passenger vessel experience.

Answer: The solicitation requirements were intentionally structured to address the agency’s unique needs. The vessels the broker will help insure are largely ocean‐going passenger vessels that annually go on international cruises. At sea, many of the vessels host large crews compiled of both experienced mariners and students seeking training. In addition, all passengers benefit from food service cooked while at sea. Coupled with the fact that this solicitation is the first instance that the agency has sought P&I insurance for its training vessels, we are not inclined to modify our evaluation requirements.