Mecklenburg County, through its Department of Social Services, is soliciting and will receive proposals for non-emergency transportation services as outlined in the following specifications. This Request for Proposals (RFP) process is the means by which Mecklenburg County DSS (referenced as “the County” or “DSS”) will determine which Service Provider is most qualified to meet the transportation needs of DSS passengers.
Recent sourcing initiatives have led Mecklenburg County to re-evaluate all current spending habits and contracts with vendors. The County has aggressive savings targets for the years 2012 - 2014 and is keen to explore creative solutions to generate savings in the non-emergency transportation services category on behalf of the Department of Social Services (DSS). This is an exciting opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to make a significant impact from both a financial and operational perspective. Mecklenburg County is planning to bid out roughly $3.0M - $4.0M of non-emergency transportation service contracts per year for the next three years with each year being renewable. We sincerely hope you can become a strategic partner for our non-emergency transportation needs.
There are two main reasons this RFP will be helpful to you as a potential vendor:
- Provide an opportunity for greater volume of work every year
- Provide you with an opportunity to become a DSS contracted vendor for non-emergency transportation services , which will give vendors priority in receiving County trip requests Currently the county uses seven DSS contracted transportation vendors for its non-emergency transportation needs, with no single vendor providing more than 40% of the county's needs based on expenditure. The main benefit to vendors derives from consolidating $3.0M - $4.0M in spend to a select group of preferred vendors. This will represent a significant increase in volume to both new and incumbent vendors who are chosen as part of this select group.
Mecklenburg County is currently identifying suppliers with advantaged cost structures to enter into agreements, and to provide optimal price and service levels to meet our needs. Successful suppliers can achieve increased volumes and reduced costs:
- For companies we have not worked with in the past, this is an opportunity to work with Mecklenburg County to develop new markets and strategic relationship
- For companies currently doing business with Mecklenburg County this is an opportunity to change the way we interact for mutual benefit and potentially increase the current business we do with you.
The future vision is to utilize suppliers that can significantly reduce total service cost on many/all of the services covered non-emergency transportation services.