Delaware County, Ohio JFS Transportation: The Transit Contract, Its Rates, and the Next RFP (2027)

Delaware County Job and Family Services (DCDJFS) in the city of Delaware buys the rides it pays for without a broker. It holds one contract for curb-to-curb rides, rebids it by request for proposals (RFP) about every three years, and the county’s own transit system has held it since 2016. Here is what that contract pays, when it opens again, and what the transit system’s move to a regional authority means for it.

Who arranges JFS rides in Delaware County

Under rule 5160-15-10, Ohio’s county JFS offices cover the Medicaid trips no health plan must provide, a program called non-emergency transportation (NET). The Ohio guide covers the plans and their brokers, and how Ohio counties buy NET rides compares the county contracts side by side.

In Delaware County, a caseworker approves each ride before anyone drives it:

1. DCDJFS emails the contracted provider a trip authorization as an encrypted PDF.
2. The provider replies to the caseworker to confirm it accepts the trip.
3. The rider calls the provider to set the pickup.
4. You keep a sign-off form for each one-way trip, signed by the rider.

The same contract carries more than Medicaid riders. It serves low-income clients going to medical care, work, child care, and other social services, paid from Medicaid, TANF, Title XX, and SNAP employment and training funds. The 2022 RFP put medical trips at about 90% of the total. Most trips stay in the city of Delaware or the rest of the county. Some, mostly for Medicaid, go to Franklin, Marion, and other central Ohio counties, and none leave Ohio.

The RFPs also give the volume. The contract averaged 508 one-way trips and 4,522 miles a month in 2021, and 479 one-way trips and 5,126 miles a month in 2024, about 11 miles a trip.

Who holds the contract now

Delaware County Transit (DCT), governed by a Delaware County Transit Board the commissioners appoint, has carried JFS riders under a purchase-of-service contract since June 27, 2016. A 2018 amendment raised that contract’s ceiling to $300,000 and, from July 1, 2018, set DCT’s rate for trips inside the county at $3.25 a loaded mile, with a $13.00 minimum for trips of 4 miles or less. Trips to a neighboring county paid $1.08 a loaded minute.

The county has rebid the work twice since then:

1. RFP 01-CY22. Approved February 28, 2022, with proposals due April 22, 2022, for a contract from July 1, 2022 capped at $200,000 a year. DCT’s next contract began that day, and a fifth amendment, approved July 28, 2025, raised its final year (July 2024 to June 2025) to $300,000.
2. RFP 01-CY25. Approved March 6, 2025, capped at $300,000 a year. The commissioners’ notice set proposals due April 1, 2025, though the packet’s own timetable said April 21. On July 28, 2025 (Resolution 25-552), the commissioners signed DCT for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, on DCT’s proposal dated April 1, 2025.

On June 8, 2026 (Resolution 26-391), the commissioners used the first of two one-year extensions, carrying the contract to June 30, 2027 at the same $300,000 cap. County purchase orders show the money set aside: $150,000 for DCT for state fiscal year 2026 in August 2025, and another $150,000 for DCT client transportation in January 2026.

DCDJFS also buys a smaller share of NET rides outside that contract. It opened purchase orders for NET transportation with a vendor listed as EMT Transportation, $30,000 in January 2025 and $35,000 in January 2026, charged to its client services account. Ask DCDJFS how a vendor is added for that kind of work.

What the contract pays

The rate sheet attached to the June 2026 extension prices a one-way trip the same in all three zones the RFP uses: the city of Delaware, the rest of the county, and the rest of Ohio.

• $17.50 flat for trips of 0 to 5 miles.
• $4.25 a mile for each mile past 5.
• A $4.15 administrative fee on every one-way trip.
• $25.00 for each no-show or cancellation, and the return trip is then cancelled.
• Nothing for wait time or special needs, and nothing for the first two extra passengers. A third extra passenger bills as another trip.

At those rates, the 2024 average trip of about 11 miles bills $17.50, plus $25.50 for 6 miles past the first 5, plus $4.15, or $47.15. A 4-mile trip bills $21.65. For comparison, the 2018 rates paid $3.25 a mile inside the county, so the same 11-mile trip then billed $35.75.

Three rules in the contract shape your price:

1. The cap is a ceiling on costs too. The county pays the lesser of $300,000 or what the provider actually spent delivering the service, so keep cost records behind every invoice.
2. Late invoices shrink. Invoices are due monthly, within 30 days after the service month. One that arrives 31 to 45 days after the service month loses 10%, 46 to 60 days loses 20%, and later loses 30%. A final invoice more than 60 days after the contract ends is not paid.
3. The form is fixed. You bill on the county’s spreadsheet, and each trip’s sign-off form records the rider, origin, destination, drive time, distance, wait time, and any no-show.

Start your own number from your cost per trip, then check it against the $47.15 benchmark above.

The transit system becomes a regional authority

On June 29, 2026 (Resolution 26-466), the commissioners created the Delaware County Regional Transit Authority for every part of the county outside the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) area. DCT keeps its name. The seven trustees moved to the new board on July 1, 2026, and on December 29, 2026 the Delaware County Transit Board dissolves. That day the commissioners assume its contracts, property, debts, and employees, and they then plan to convey the system to the authority.

For the JFS contract, that means a change of holder partway through the term, so watch the commissioners’ journals for an assignment or amendment. DCT carried 200,478 rides in 2025, up from 66,846 in 2015, and 29,592 of them were demand-response rides, 15,479 of those for medical trips. Its demand-response service runs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with no Saturday service, and riders must book by noon the business day before.

How the RFP works

Both recent RFPs followed the same pattern:

• Timing. Commissioners approved the notice in late February or early March, DCDJFS held a public information session in March at the Hayes Administration Building, 145 North Union Street, and proposals were due one to two months after approval, for a July 1 start. No deadline extensions are granted.
• Format. You email the proposal on the DCDJFS Transportation Services Proposal Form and add nothing it does not ask for. Questions go by email only.
• Pass or fail items. You must not be debarred, must have a written statement on nondiscrimination, wage and hour, workers’ compensation, and ADA rules, must lock client files, and must disclose any conflict of interest.
• Records. Copies of past proposals, score sheets, or contracts are public records requests, not RFP questions.

Reviewers score 100 points:

• 10 points each: your rates, agreeing to the trip authorization process, the monthly invoice spreadsheet, and the county’s standard contract terms.
• 6 points each: references, your driver safety program, license checks, criminal background checks, and willingness to drive anywhere in Ohio.
• 5 points each: hours of operation and your vehicle maintenance program.
• 4 points each: business history, office and technology setup, your fleet, help for riders with disabilities, and car seats for infants and small children.

The form also asks about drug screening, cameras, how drivers reach dispatch, and smoke-free vehicles. It asks you to confirm that no driver has a conviction for the offenses against children it lists from the Ohio Revised Code. A subcontractor must be named, with a signed letter committing to the work.

The 2025 contract requires Ohio workers’ compensation, general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, auto liability of $1,000,000 combined single limit, and a $2,000,000 umbrella policy. You may skip the umbrella by carrying $3,000,000 per occurrence and $4,000,000 aggregate in general liability and a $3,000,000 auto limit. The Board of Delaware County Commissioners and DCDJFS must be additional insureds, the board must be the certificate holder, every insurer must be licensed in Ohio, and a provider with fewer than five employees signs an OPERS independent contractor acknowledgment. Either side may end the contract on 30 days’ written notice.

How to get JFS ride work in Delaware County

1. Watch the county bids page from January 2027. If DCDJFS skips its last extension, the next RFP would arrive in early 2027. If it uses it, expect the RFP in early 2028 for a July 1, 2028 start.
2. Request the 2025 file now. Ask DCDJFS for DCT’s proposal, the score sheets, and the sample trip authorization and invoice spreadsheet as public records.
3. Price three zones. Build a rate sheet for the city, the county, and the rest of Ohio, with lines for extra passengers, waiting, no-shows, and cancellations, because that is the grid the form asks for.
4. Line up insurance early. Get quotes for the $3,000,000 limits or the umbrella option before the RFP opens, since the certificate is due before service starts.
5. Take other rides meanwhile. Health plan trips, including wheelchair van rides, go through the brokers the Ohio guide lists, and the neighboring Franklin County and Union County programs buy rides on their own schedules.