Bid or No-Bid Checklist for County, School, Transit, and VA Ride Contracts

A public ride contract can take a week of nights to answer, and usually only one company wins it. This checklist helps you spend that week only on bids you can win and afford to run. It works for county, school district, transit, aging agency, and VA solicitations. To find those solicitations and finish the registrations they need, start with government NEMT contracts.

How to use this template

1. Get the whole package. Download the solicitation and every addendum from the portal where the buyer posted it, and register there so you get the next addendum too.
2. Fill in Parts 1 and 2 the same day. Put the questions deadline and any pre-bid meeting on your calendar first. Some meetings are mandatory.
3. Work through Part 3 before anything else. Each row is pass or fail. One “No” that you cannot fix by the due date ends the bid.
4. Check capacity and money in Parts 4 and 5. Get the incumbent’s current rates (see who holds a ride contract) and compare them with your cost per trip.
5. Send questions while you still can. If a requirement would knock you out, ask the buyer in writing whether it can change, before the questions deadline.
6. Score Part 7 and decide. Weight each factor for your company, multiply, and add. Write down the reason for the decision either way.
7. Log it in Part 8. Record every opportunity, including no-bids. When the award is posted, add the winner and the winning price.

If you bid, the transportation services proposal template walks through the writing.

The template

Part 1: The opportunity

Item	Entry
Buyer (county, school district, transit agency, aging agency, VA medical center)
Solicitation title and number
Type: invitation for bids, request for proposals, or request for quotes
Where it is posted, and your portal login
Who pays for the rides (federal grant, Medicaid, local funds, VA)
Contract type (fixed unit prices, hourly, daily, per mile)
Base term, option years, and start date
Estimated trips, hours, or routes per year
Levels of service (ambulatory, wheelchair, stretcher, attendant)
Service area and its distance from your garage
Buyer’s contact for questions

Part 2: Dates

Date	Deadline	On the calendar (initials)
Pre-bid meeting or conference (mandatory?)
Site visit
Questions due
Answers and addenda expected
Bid or proposal due (time, place, and how to deliver)
How long your offer must stay open
Award expected
Bond and insurance certificates due after award
Service starts

Part 3: Pass-fail items

Requirement	What the solicitation asks	Can you meet it by the due date? (Yes or No)	Proof to attach
Minimum years of experience and levels of service
SAM.gov registration active, with your Unique Entity ID
State or county vendor registration
Medicaid enrollment or other program enrollment
Business licenses, carrier authority, and vehicle permits
Auto liability limit
General liability, umbrella, and other policies (crime, abuse and molestation, employment practices)
Additional insured and insurer rating
Bid guarantee: amount and accepted forms
Performance bond: amount and how long it must stay in force
E-Verify enrollment
Wage determination or prevailing wage rates
Small business, minority, or veteran subcontracting goals
Drug and alcohol testing program
Vehicle rules (age, type, lifts, cameras, tracking)
Driver rules (background checks, training, license class)
Required forms (non-collusion affidavit, certifications, business associate agreement)

Part 4: Capacity

Need	Contract requires	You have now	Gap, and how you close it by the start date
Ambulatory vehicles
Wheelchair vehicles
Stretcher vehicles
Spare vehicles
Drivers and attendants
Dispatch and phone hours
Vehicles needed at the busiest hour
Reports and data the buyer wants
Days from award to the first ride

Part 5: Price and payment

Item	From the solicitation	Your number
Units on the price form (per trip, per mile, per hour, per day)
Incumbent’s current rates, and where you found them
Your cost per unit, including wages the contract requires
Price you would bid, per unit
Bond and insurance cost built into the price
Price changes allowed in option years
Days to pay after a proper invoice, and interest if late
How often you invoice, and the backup each invoice needs
Deductions or penalties for late, missed, or refused trips
Cash you need to carry until the first payment

Part 6: Risk

Question	Answer
Can the buyer end the contract for convenience, and on how many days’ notice?
Is any trip volume guaranteed?
Is subcontracting allowed, and with whose approval?
Is there a cap on how much work you may subcontract?
What happens to your bond if you default?
Which records, audits, and reports does the contract require?
Does the work crowd out broker or facility trips you already run?

Part 7: Score and decision

Score each factor 0 (poor), 1 (acceptable), or 2 (strong). Set the weights before you score.

Factor	Weight (1 to 3)	Score (0 to 2)	Weight × score
Fits your fleet, levels of service, and service area
Profit at a price that can win
Chance of winning (scoring factors, incumbent, set-aside)
Cash flow under the payment terms
Risk (penalties, bonds, term, termination)
Long-term value (references, steady volume, growth)
Total

Decision	Entry
Bid, no bid, or team up (name the partner)
Reason in one sentence
Decided by and date

Part 8: Bid log

Opportunity and number	Buyer	Due date	Questions due	Decision	Your price	Result, winner, and winning price

How public buyers pick the winner

Buyers that spend federal grant money must follow 2 CFR 200.320, and many county and transit buyers do. Above the buyer’s simplified acquisition threshold, it must use one of two formal methods except in a few narrow cases, and each one changes how you answer Part 7:

• Sealed bids. The buyer publishes an invitation for bids and awards a firm fixed-price contract to the lowest responsive bid from a responsible bidder. Local governments must advertise the invitation and open bids in public. Price decides, so a sealed bid is only worth answering if you can be the lowest price and still make money.
• Proposals. The buyer publishes a request for proposals that names every evaluation factor and its relative importance, and awards to the responsible offeror whose proposal is most advantageous, considering price and other factors. Score yourself against those exact factors.

The same rules ask buyers to put small, minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned businesses on their solicitation lists, and to split large buys into smaller ones where that helps them compete (2 CFR 200.321). If a contract is too big for your fleet, ask the buyer whether it will divide the work by area or level of service next time.

Pass-fail items that end bids

Most no-bids come from a short list of requirements. Two recent solicitations show how high the bar can be: Washington County’s Medicaid ride contract, and West Shore’s school bus contract, which also prices wheelchair van runs:

Item	Washington County Health Department, Maryland NEMT (April 2026)	West Shore School District, Pennsylvania (January 2025)
Experience and track record	At least 6 years in the last 8 in ambulatory, wheelchair, and ambulance transportation	A client list of school districts served, a five-year accident record, financial statements, and a driver staffing plan
Pre-bid meeting	Optional online conference on May 4, 2026	Mandatory meeting on January 28, 2025
Offer must stay open	120 days, and the proposal bond holds your prices for 180	90 days from opening
Bonds	Proposal bond of 5% of the total evaluated price, and a $1,000,000 performance bond	Performance bond each year for 75% of that year’s price
Insurance	$1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 aggregate general liability, plus $1,000,000 crime coverage	$1,000,000 per occurrence, $1,000,000 auto, and a $5,000,000 umbrella
Term	July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, plus two option years	Five years, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2030

West Shore also asks for $5,000,000 in aggregate sexual abuse and molestation coverage and insurers rated A+ by AM Best. Call your agent about limits like these before the questions deadline, not after you win.

Bonds. A bid guarantee promises you will sign if you win, and a performance bond promises you will do the work. New Jersey’s school transportation rules require a performance bond of at least one year of the contract, and when a district asks for a bid guarantee, it must be at least 5 percent of the bid, capped at $50,000 (N.J.A.C. 6A:27-9.5 and 9.6). Federal agencies, by contrast, generally do not require performance bonds on contracts other than construction (FAR 28.103-1). See performance bond for how to get one.

E-Verify. Federal contracts over $150,000 with a performance period of 120 days or more carry the E-Verify clause, FAR 52.222-54 (FAR 22.1803, as of October 2026). If you are not enrolled when you win, you must enroll within 30 calendar days of award, then run every new hire through E-Verify as well as each employee assigned to the contract. The clause also goes into your service subcontracts over $3,500. Some states go further. Florida’s 2026 statutes require every public agency contract to make the contractor and its subcontractors register with and use E-Verify for all new employees, and each subcontractor gives the contractor an affidavit (s. 448.095(5)). The Southern Mississippi aging agency’s fiscal year 2026 transportation contract requires E-Verify under Mississippi’s Employment Protection Act.

Wages. On a federal service contract over $2,500, the wage determination in the contract sets the lowest wages and fringe benefits you may pay (Department of Labor). Fill in Part 5 from those rates, not your own pay scale. The 2026 VA ride solicitations attach one for each county served (see VA transportation contracts).

Subcontracting limits on set-aside contracts

If you plan to win as a small business and hand trips to a partner, check the cap before you count the partner’s vans in Part 4. On a federal set-aside services contract, the small business that wins may pay firms without its small business status no more than half of what the government pays it (13 CFR 125.6). Government NEMT contracts explains which set-asides that covers. Local contracts add their own consent rules, so name any partner in your proposal and get it approved up front. See subcontracting NEMT trips.

Payment terms to price in

A public buyer pays on its own clock, and the clock usually starts only when it receives a proper invoice. Washington County’s 2026 contract wants each month’s invoice by the 15th of the next month and pays within 30 days of a proper invoice. It pays 9 percent a year interest on a late payment only if you invoice for the interest within 30 days after you are paid. So a ride on July 1 can be invoiced as late as August 15 and paid as late as mid-September, two and a half months later. Florida’s counties and school districts have 45 days after a proper invoice. Price in the wages and fuel you carry until then. The prompt payment laws guide explains the clocks and the interest you can claim, and the cash flow guide shows how to cover the gap.