Questions and Answers Document - Gas and Dry Ice Delivery Requirement.docx

Questions and Answers for Gas and Dry Ice Delivery Requirement Question 1: What is the Current Contract Number for this same requirement and who is the current supplier?

Answer 1: The current Contract Number is W91ZLK-22-F-0236 and the Incumbent is RCG of North Carolina, LLC.

Question 2: What are the Statement of Work/Service requirements for the Government Owned Liquid Nitrogen Portable Dewar as there is minimal info on what is required? Specifically:

· What are the sizes of the Government Owned Dewar and how many does the Government own on its property books?

· How often does the facility require the Dewar to be filled?

· Are any Dewar currently on a recurring fill schedule? If so, which ones?

· Are these Dewar currently being filled by incumbent on-site from the truck (“transfill”/”curbside service”) or are the empty Dewars picked up, filled and re-delivered full?

Answer 2: There are two different sized Dewar Tanks (160 Liters and 240 Liters) that are used regularly. The tanks get filled every week. The tanks are on a recurring fill schedule. Dependent on the mission, DCPH-A has 4-5 Dewar Tanks get filled a week, however if mission requirements go up, more Dewar Tanks are filled. Dewar tanks are currently being filled by the incumbent on-site. Dewar tanks are filled from their trucks. The Contractor is not allowed to take the Dewar tanks off-site.

Question 3: What are the procedures for scheduling a site visit to observe the microbulk tank site locations?

Answer 3: The Government is allowing for Site Visits between 5 August 2025 and 8 August 2025. If Offerors would like to schedule a Site Visit, please reach out to the Contract Specialist, Mr. Brandon Roebuck at brandon.m.roebuck.civ@health.mil and state the date that you are available for the Site Visit. The Contract Specialist will then reach out to the DCPH-A Representative to see their availability and once DCPH-A responds, the Contract Specialist will contact the Offeror representative who sent the email to the Contract Specialist.

Question 4: What is the anticipated award date for this RFQ?

Answer 4: The Government is intending to award this RFQ by the end of August.

Question 5: Is the Government willing to negotiate the 4-hour delivery window for dry ice delivery with the awardee?

Answer 5: Due to the DCPH-A mission requirements, the Government is not able to negotiate the 4-hour delivery window for dry ice delivery.

Question 6: In regard to the Monthly Cylinder Rentals, will the Government please add Line Items for Monthly Cylinder Rental as there is currently no means to account for these costs (cannot be incorporated into fill price as fill quantities are only estimates)?

Answer 6: The Government refers Offerors to FAR 52.212-1(e), “Multiple Offers which states, “Offerors are encouraged to submit multiple offers presenting alternative terms and conditions, including alternative line items (provided that the alternative line items are consistent with FAR subpart 4.10), or alternative commercial products or commercial services for satisfying the requirements of this solicitation. Each offer submitted will be evaluated separately.”

Additionally, FAR 52.212-1 Addendum Section 4.3(a) states, “If the listed quantities and/or units of issue (months, job, etc.) are not consistent with an Offer’s commercial practices (for example, the Hazmat fee being applied on an annual basis instead of a monthly basis), the Offeror may adjust these items to reflect the Offeror’s commercial practices.”

Finally, the Government has added a Supplemental Pricing Sheet Attachment for Cylinder Rental, Delivery, Hazmat and Lost Cylinder Pricing. Offerors can use the Supplemental Pricing Sheet Attachment for their breakdown of pricing or as stated they can provide their own alternative line items for evaluation.

Question 7: What are the estimated end of the month balances for the cylinders gases that would depict estimated monthly rental quantities?

Answer 7: Approximately 80 to 90 cylinders are in DCPH-A’s use monthly (for reference for any rental fee if applicable).

Question 8: In regard to the Dry Ice Pellets, is the Government amenable to allowing offerors to price this “per pound” or is the Government adamant for offerors to provide a Unit Price per 50 LB Dry Ice box?

Answer 8: As long as the Offeror is able to meet the Delivery Requirements as identified in PWS Section 5.2(C)(b), then Offerors can price the requirement however they see fit. See Answer to Question 6 which discusses alternative line items.

Question 9: In regard to the Delivery Fee CLIN, will the Government allow offerors to price separate/individual delivery fees unique to each required service (e.g., bulk delivery, cylinder delivery, dry ice delivery)?

Answer 9: Yes. Please provide the individual delivery fees for each item. Refer to the answer in response to Question 6 which discusses alternative line items.

Question 10: In regard to the Hazmat Fee CLIN, does this apply to any particular service or is this applicable to all services?

Answer 10: Hazmat applies to all services. If an Offeror does not typically require a Hamat fee, the Offeror can state this is not separately priced. If an Offeror does not have a single Hazmat fee to cover a given period, the Offeror may utilize the added Supplemental Pricing Sheet to specify the appropriate information.

Question 11: In regard to the Hazmat Fee CLIN, is there a specific purpose for having this as a “per month” Unit instead of “Each”?

Answer 11: The Government refers to the answer in response to Question 6 which discusses alternative line items.

Question 12: In regard to the Lost Cylinder CLIN, is it the Government’s expectation that these costs will be priced only at the time of identified lost cylinders? Please note, offerors cannot project the cost of materials for (3) years down the road given the volatility of materials (steel and aluminum) with tariffs. Additionally, the cylinders depicted in this RFQ do not all have the same replacement costs, so we recommend the GOV allow the awardee to price Lost Cylinders respective to each specific line items gas.

Answer 12: The Government is willing to set prices for the initial annual period. This Government recommends Offerors to price out the highest priced cylinder under this requirement and provide a pricing sheet that shows the pricing for each Cylinder. If an Offeror is not willing to price cylinders for one or more option periods, pricing for those option periods will mirror the latest pricing given, and language will be added to the awarded contract to state that the awardee will be offered the opportunity to update the price of this CLIN when exercising the next option period – the Government will still need to determine any revised pricing as fair and reasonable though.

Question 13: What are the procedures for identifying the quantity of Lost Cylinders (CLIN 0021) for each contract year? Please note, this can only be identified as a result of a joint cylinder audit between facility and contractor. If the facility requires audits every contract year, there are additional costs to deploy a contractor POC to the facility for each contract year. This is not addressed in the RFQ other than a provided line item.

Answer 13: DCPH-A does not require an audit every year which eliminates the additional cost. A cylinder audit has not historically been required for these services. Empty Cylinders go from the DCPH-A Storage Area to the Vendor’s Truck. As of the current period of performance for the current contract, no cylinders have been lost by the DCPH-A. If a cylinder is lost by DCPH-A, then they will reach out to the Contractor to let them know in order to bill against the CLIN.

Please provide the current pricing for a replacement cylinder for each cylinder. Refer to Section 6 when it comes to how to quote the Lost Cylinders. To establish a price for the CLIN, the most expensive cylinder will be used, although the added Supplemental Pricing Sheet will be associated to this CLIN.

Question 14: Regarding Insurance, how is the Government going to validate that offerors are properly insured for NAICS 325120/221210 – the actual requirement for this work to comply with the RFQ as there is no mention of insurance requirement which is standard in compressed gas RFQs? How do offerors confirm to the Government that they have the correct type of Liability Insurance, and does this need to be affirmed at the time of bid submission (if not, an awarded firm could be turned down or not be able to afford this coverage in the amounts the Government requires, respective to NAICS 325120?

Answer 14: FAR 52.228-5 has been added to the solicitation. Verification of any insurance is not required at time of quote submission.

Question 15: Will the Government consider adding a CLIN for cylinder rental?

Answer 15: Refer to the answer in response to Question 6 which discusses alternative line items.

Question 16: Regarding CLINs 0019 and 0020: The Unit of Measure is currently listed as “Month” with a quantity of 12. Would the Government consider changing the unit of measure to “Each” and updating the quantity to reflect actual usage?

Answer 16: Refer to the answer in response to Question 6 which discusses alternative line items.

(End of Summary of Changes)