GUS Mueller Equipment, LLC

GUS Mueller Equipment, LLC, doing business as GUS Mueller Transport, a self-certified small disadvantaged business based in Santa Margarita, California, supplies heavy equipment for fire suppression and emergency incident response to the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides.

GUS Mueller Equipment operates exclusively as a prime vendor (100% of recent awards) with no subcontract footprint. The company holds two indefinite delivery contracts with the Forest Service's National Interagency Fire Center under the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system: a $500,000 multiple-award IDIQ awarded February 6, 2026, with an ultimate completion date of July 27, 2028, and a $250,000 single-award IDC awarded July 27, 2023, also running through July 27, 2028. Both vehicles are reserved for total small business and fund the rapid deployment of heavy equipment such as dozers and excavators across West Zone Regions 5 and 6 in the western United States. The company has issued three delivery orders under the first IDC (combined potential value $135,000) and one under the second (combined potential value $47,000). Recent representative work includes a $75,250 firm fixed-price delivery order from the Forest Service on August 21, 2025, for equipment deployment to Solvang, California, a $46,615 delivery order from USDA Region 5 on August 12, 2026, for emergency response and fire suppression operations, and two prior delivery orders valued at $28,226 and $31,200 from USDA Region 5 in 2024.

Customer concentration is extreme. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service accounts for 100% of awards across all three tracked subdivisions: the National Interagency Fire Center (2 awards, $750,000 combined potential value) and the Region 5–Pacific Southwest Region (4 awards totaling $181,000 combined potential value). Activity has been modest and episodic — one award in 2023, two in 2024, one in 2025, and two in 2026 — with combined potential value across all six awards of $931,000 and only $181,000 obligated to date (19% drawdown). Performance locations cluster in Solvang, California and West Zone Regions 5 and 6. The vendor's footprint is concentrated entirely within NAICS 335313 (Support Activities for Forestry) and PSC Natural Resources/Conservation–Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression.