How to Find Out Who Won a Government Ride Contract and What It Pays (2027)

Every public ride contract leaves a paper trail. The award, the yearly amounts, the renewals, and often the rates sit in a federal database, a county agenda packet, or a records request away. Read that trail before you price a bid. It tells you what the buyer pays today, how much work moves, and when the current deal runs out.

For where new bids are posted, see government NEMT contracts. This page is about the contract that already exists.

Why the current contract sets your price

The company holding the work is called the incumbent. Its contract answers four questions you cannot price without:

• What the buyer pays now. Per trip, per mile, per hour, or per day. That is the number your bid is measured against.
• How much work there is. Yearly spending, trip counts, or hours billed tell you how many vans and drivers it takes.
• When it ends. Option years and extensions show when the next bid is coming, before it is posted.
• What went wrong. Complaints, missed trips, and penalties show what the buyer will score hardest next time.

Public buyers have to disclose most of this. You only need to know where each kind of buyer keeps it.

Federal ride contracts: USAspending.gov and SAM.gov

Federal contract data starts with the contracting officer, who must complete the contract action report in FPDS within three business days after an award (48 CFR 4.604). As of October 2026, SAM.gov says FPDS.gov’s search tool has been retired and contract award searches now happen in SAM.gov. USAspending.gov publishes the same awards in an easier form.

Search USAspending.gov by agency, by NAICS code 485991 (Special Needs Transportation), or by a contract number. Each award page shows:

• the company that holds it and the office that awarded it
• the period of performance and the total ceiling
• the amount obligated, order by order
• the number of offers received and any set-aside
• every modification, with its date, amount, and a short reason

Here is what that looks like for a real contract. The Philadelphia VA’s wheelchair van contract, signed September 24, 2026, runs October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2031. It has a ceiling of $12,861,206.20, was set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and drew 18 offers. As of October 2, 2026, no money had been obligated on it yet, because orders come later.

Reading a contract’s history

A contract that has run a few years tells you much more. Take the wheelchair van contract that VA Network Contract Office 8 awarded on August 25, 2021, paid through the Orlando VA. It drew 5 offers, was set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, and has a $55,000,000 ceiling. As of October 2, 2026, USAspending.gov shows these yearly orders:

Contract year	Period	Obligated
Base year	Sept. 25, 2021 to Aug. 31, 2022	$4,827,483.84
Option year 1	Sept. 1, 2022 to Aug. 31, 2023	$8,548,654.64
Option year 2	Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024	$9,712,846.53
Option year 3	Sept. 1, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2025	$10,797,616.71
Option year 4	Sept. 1, 2025 to Aug. 31, 2026	$11,524,584.38
Six-month extension, revised pricing	Sept. 1, 2026 to Feb. 28, 2027	$10,000,000.00

Three things jump out. Yearly spending grew from $4.8 million in the base year to $11.5 million in option year 4. Option year 4 has ended, and a six-month extension now runs to February 28, 2027, so a new contract has to be in place soon. And the modifications explain price moves: on September 19, 2025, VA added $524,584.38 to option year 4 for a wage determination adjustment, and on March 26, 2026, it revised the price schedule.

Award notices and unit prices

Contracting officers must post an award notice on SAM.gov for awards over $25,000 that are likely to lead to subcontracts or fall under a trade agreement (48 CFR 5.301). Two exceptions matter here: orders placed under an existing contract, such as the yearly orders above, and awards at or under the simplified acquisition threshold when the solicitation ran on SAM.gov and allowed electronic responses. So many awards never get a notice of their own. USAspending.gov still lists them.

The prices matter most, and the FAR is clear on them. After a negotiated award, the contracting officer notifies each losing offeror in the competitive range, and the items, quantities, and any stated unit prices of each award must be made publicly available on request (48 CFR 15.503). Since November 12, 2025, VA has followed the rewritten FAR Part 15 from the FAR overhaul, which keeps the same rule in section 15.207-2.

If you bid and lose a negotiated contract, ask for a debriefing in writing within 3 days of the award notice. It must include the winner’s overall evaluated price and technical rating (48 CFR 15.506, or section 15.301-1 in the overhaul text). For how VA buys these rides, see VA transportation contracts.

Asking a federal agency for records under FOIA

For the documents behind an award, such as the signed contract, the price schedule, and modifications, file a Freedom of Information Act request. VA’s FOIA page sends requests for Veterans Health Administration awarded contracts through its online Public Access Link.

Under 5 U.S.C. 552, the agency must decide within 20 working days whether it will comply. It can add up to 10 more working days in unusual circumstances, with written notice. Because you are asking for business use, the agency may charge for search, review, and copying. If it denies the request, it must give you at least 90 days to appeal.

Know what will come back blacked out:

• Proposals stay closed. A proposal submitted in a competition cannot be released under FOIA, unless it was set forth or incorporated by reference in the contract (48 CFR 24.202). Ask for the contract and its price schedule, not the winner’s proposal.
• Confidential business data stays closed. FOIA Exemption 4 protects trade secrets and confidential commercial or financial information. Since the Supreme Court’s 2019 Argus Leader decision, information counts as confidential at least when its owner customarily and actually keeps it private and gives it to the government under an assurance of privacy, as the Justice Department’s FOIA guide explains. Expect cost breakdowns, profit, and overhead rates to be withheld.
• Award prices are different. The FAR rule above makes awarded unit prices public on request, so cite 48 CFR 15.503 (section 15.207-2 for VA) when you ask for them.

State and county contracts: public records laws

Medicaid, paratransit, county, and school ride contracts are state or local, so state law applies. Here is how four states’ laws answer a records request:

State law	When the agency must answer	What to watch for
Florida, chapter 119	Promptly, in good faith. No set number of days.	Sealed bids stay exempt until the notice of intended decision or 30 days after opening.
Texas, Government Code 552	Promptly. Past 10 business days, it must set a date in writing.	The agency has 10 business days to ask the attorney general to rule on withholding.
Ohio, Revised Code 149.43	Promptly, with copies at cost in a reasonable time.	No office may require your name or your reason.
Pennsylvania, Right-to-Know Law	5 business days, extendable by up to 30 days.	Proposals are exempt until award. State evaluation committee records stay exempt after it.

Florida. The custodian must acknowledge your request promptly and respond in good faith (section 119.07, 2026 statutes). Unless another law sets the fee, copies cost up to 15 cents a one-sided page, and an agency may add a special service charge when a request takes extensive staff or computer time. Sealed bids and proposals open up once the agency posts its intended decision, or 30 days after opening, whichever comes first (section 119.071).

Texas. Contracting information is public unless an exception applies (Government Code 552.0222). The trade secret exceptions cannot be used to withhold a contract’s total price, item prices, parties, subcontractors, dates, and extension options. The same goes for performance records such as breaches, liquidated damages, key measures reports, and amendments. If the agency wants to withhold anything, it must ask the attorney general within 10 business days and tell you it did. A company whose information is involved gets notice and 10 business days to argue its side. Send your request by mail, email, or hand delivery to the agency’s designated address.

Ohio. Section 149.43, effective September 7, 2026, requires records promptly and copies at cost. An office may deny a request that is too broad to fill, but it must then tell you how its records are kept so you can revise it. If an office fails to comply, you serve a complaint on the court of claims form and give it three business days to fix the problem before you go to court. For one use of this law, see Ohio county NET contracts.

Pennsylvania. A contract dealing with an agency’s spending counts as a financial record. No answer within five business days counts as a denial, and you can appeal to the Office of Open Records within 15 business days. Under the office’s fee schedule adopted December 30, 2024, black and white copies cost up to $0.25 a page, and records sent by email carry no added fee. An agency does not have to create a record that does not already exist, so ask for reports it already keeps.

Where counties post the numbers

County ride contracts go through a public board vote, so the agenda packet, resolution, and minutes are often online. Search the commissioners’ agenda archive for the program name and the word transportation. Three examples show how much you can find:

• Franklin County, Ohio. Resolution 0109-26, dated February 17, 2026, extended Consolidated County Transportation Services contracts with 29 providers from March 1, 2026 to January 31, 2028, with a 2 percent raise and a combined ceiling of $39,380,000. Its second page prints every provider’s per-mile and escort rates. Eleven of the 27 companies that price non-lift rides charge the same $6.58 a mile. The full ranges are in Ohio county NET contracts.
• Charlotte County, Florida. During the 2025 bid for transit contract drivers, a bidder asked what the current contractor billed. Addendum 3, dated May 28, 2025, answered: 41,655.61 hours and $1,152,125.00 for fiscal year 2024, about $27.66 an hour. Ask your question during the question period and the answer goes to every bidder.
• Collier County, Florida. The county’s Transportation Disadvantaged Service Plan lists the per-trip rates for state-funded trips that the local coordinating board approved on March 4, 2026, for fiscal year 2026/2027: $35.05 for an ambulatory trip and $60.09 for a wheelchair trip. These are the rates the state program pays the county as its coordinator, not what a subcontractor earns, and the state commission’s approval was still pending when the plan was adopted in May 2026.

School boards work the same way. In New Jersey, the minutes that award a pupil transportation contract must list the contractor and the route costs of every bidder (N.J.A.C. 6A:27-9.10). See New Jersey school transportation contracts.

What to ask for

When a document is not already posted, request it. Ask for these, for the contract you plan to bid against:

1. The signed contract with every amendment, renewal, and extension.
2. The rate or price schedule now in effect.
3. Twelve months of invoices or trip reports, which show volume by month and service level.
4. Performance and complaint reports, with any notice of breach or penalty.
5. The last solicitation with its addenda, the list of bids received or bid tabulation, and the scoring sheets.

Some of these may be withheld while a new bid is open, under the state rules above. File early, before the next solicitation is released.

A sample records request

Keep it to one page and send it to the records officer, not to the procurement staff running a bid.

To: [Records officer or FOIA officer], [agency name]

Re: Records request for [contract name and number]

Under [Florida Statutes chapter 119 / Texas Government Code chapter 552 / Ohio Revised Code 149.43 / the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law / the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552], I request copies of these records for [contract number], held by [company], for [service]:

1. The signed contract and every amendment, renewal, and extension.
2. The rate or price schedule now in effect.
3. Invoices or monthly trip reports paid from [month and year] to [month and year].
4. Performance and complaint reports, and any notice of breach or penalty, for the same months.
5. The solicitation that led to this award, its addenda, the bid tabulation, and the evaluation scoring sheets.

Please send the records by email as PDF or spreadsheet files, in parts as they are ready. If you withhold any part, please release the rest and cite the exemption. If fees will be more than $[amount], please tell me before you start.

[Your company, email, and phone]

Five habits get you an answer faster:

• Name the contract. A contract number, a resolution number, or an award date beats “all transportation contracts.”
• Set a date range. Twelve months of invoices is a request. Every invoice ever is a project.
• Ask for what exists. Monthly reports the agency already keeps come faster than a custom summary.
• Take it electronically. Email delivery carries no added fee in Pennsylvania and saves mailing time everywhere.
• Accept partial releases. Take the contract now and the invoices later.

Contact rules while a bid is open

A written records request to the records office is not the same as pitching the people who will score your bid. Even so, once a solicitation is out, keep every contact in writing and follow its rules.

• Florida state agencies. Every state agency solicitation must say that respondents may not contact state employees or officers about it from its release until 72 hours after the notice of intended award, except in writing to the procurement officer (section 287.057, 2026 statutes). Breaking the rule can get your response rejected.
• Miami-Dade County. Its Cone of Silence, in section 2-11.1(t) of the county code, starts when a bid or proposal is advertised and ends when the county manager issues a written recommendation. Written messages copied to the Clerk of the Board are allowed at all times.
• Federal buyers. Send questions to the contact the solicitation names, by the deadline it sets.

Read the communication section of every solicitation before you make a call, and keep your questions in writing.

How to research a ride contract before you bid, step by step

1. Name the buyer and the service. For example: the county job and family services office, ambulatory and wheelchair NET rides.
2. Find the current award. Search USAspending.gov for federal work, and the board’s agenda archive for local work.
3. Write down the end date. Note the remaining options and any short extension, which signals a coming bid.
4. Collect what is posted. Download the last solicitation, its addenda, the award notice or resolution, and the bid tabulation.
5. Request the rest. Send the sample request for the contract, rates, invoices, and performance reports.
6. Build your price. Compare the current rates with your own cost per trip, then add the bid’s wage, insurance, and bond costs.
7. Decide whether to bid. Run the work through the bid or no-bid checklist. For a state broker contract, see NEMT broker RFPs.