Travers Excavator Service Inc.

Travers Excavator Service Inc., an SBA-certified HUBZone small disadvantaged business based in Thompson Falls, Montana, provides heavy equipment and operator services to the USDA Forest Service and related federal land management agencies as a prime contractor across four indefinite-delivery contracts under the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime (100% of recent awards) and competes under total small business set-asides across its IDC holdings. Travers is a for-profit Subchapter S corporation specializing in dozers, excavators, feller bunchers, mulcher/masticators, road graders, skidders, and related operator support for wildland fire suppression, forestry management, and all-hazard incident response.

Customer concentration is acute and regional. The USDA Forest Service dominates the footprint: the Northern Region (Region 1) accounts for 59 awards worth $1.8 million in combined potential value, while the National Interagency Fire Center (which oversees VIPR blanket purchase agreements for the East Zone across Regions 1, 2, 4, and 9) anchors 6 awards also valued at $1.8 million combined. The two rankings align — Forest Service demand drives both volume and dollars — with 85% of awards concentrated in these two customer nodes and 97% of total combined potential value sitting within the USDA Forest Service ecosystem. The vendor has served three distinct agencies total; the Eastern Region (Region 9) represents a single $96 thousand award.

Travers holds four active indefinite-delivery contracts, all awarded through the National Interagency Fire Center under VIPR. Two contracts, each valued at $500,000 with completion dates of May 14, 2029 and June 1, 2028, were awarded on February 6, 2026 and cover heavy equipment for the East Zone (Regions 1, 2, and 4). Two earlier contracts, each with a $250,000 ceiling, were awarded on May 14, 2024 and June 1, 2023, and also extend through 2028–2029 for Regions 1, 2, 4, and 9. Task orders drawn against these IDCs represent the bulk of recent activity: the top five parent vehicles (all BPAs or IDCs) account for 37 task orders and roughly $1.8 million in potential value. Recent representative delivery orders include a $59,490.50 call from Forest Service Region 1 (Northern Region) on August 8, 2026, for heavy equipment services in Dillon, Montana; a $96,468.34 delivery order from Forest Service Region 9 (Eastern Region) on July 20, 2026, with performance in Duluth, Minnesota; and a $67,120 delivery order from Region 1 on September 5, 2023, for excavator services in Missoula. Awards are firm fixed-price, with individual orders ranging from $7,500 to $96,468 and performance windows typically spanning 1–3 weeks for incident response or seasonal forestry work.

Activity has remained modest but steady — three awards in 2022, four in 2023, two in 2024, five in 2025, and five year-to-date in 2026 — with combined potential value across all 78 awards totaling $3.9 million and obligated dollars at $1.5 million (39% draw-down). The vendor has no subcontract footprint; all work is performed as prime. NAICS coding reflects the equipment-intensive forestry focus: 70 of 78 awards fall under Support Activities for Forestry (NAICS 561730), with the remainder in highway construction and heavy civil engineering. PSC breakdown centers on Natural Resources/Conservation forest-range fire suppression/presuppression (42 awards) and other forest/range improvements (19 awards).