Government Work

[vharrison]

Do ya'll ever bid on government work? I have been working on a bid package ALL day. This is a bid for Monroe County and the bid package is 37 pages long. They want this and they want that. They want 2 originals and 4 copies. :what: Honestly, I had to get 4 prices per hour from John, the rest is ALL paperwork. Pain in the butt. The contract is worth the time. For the first time, they are going to let all the work out to one company as opposed to bidding each individual project. The contract is worth $ 80,000.00. That is not a huge chunk of money, but not chump change either.

The grant they will be working off of dictates that the company that is awarded the contract has to have a special endorsement on their Pesticide license. So, not only have we dealt with all the paperwork, Jeff and Greg had to go to Miami to take a test. Both passed and we believe they are the only tree guys in the County to hold this license. We will see if anyone else from the mainland bid on it.

[Skwerl]

Good luck getting on the governmnet gravy train. Lots of red tape and lots of hoops to jump through, but once you're in then you can pretty much write your own ticket because so few companies will deal with all the paperwork. Just be sure to include your hourly rate for paperwork! ;)

[MasterBlaster]

Good luck with it!

[Chisel Tooth]

Like Brian said it's a lot of red tape, but once you are in you have it made. Good Luck!
See Ya
Mike

[treetx]

I do a lot of selling to the govt. Takes time and yes, hoops. In my line of work it is about getting in early so you can lead the person writing the specs rather than try to meet already written specs.

That way you can help them find a solution and you can match your strengths to be the solution to their problem. Of course this requires getting in early on the process.

This way when it goes to a bid process, hopefully you are the only one qualified for the neutral, performanced based specs......... (by getting in early you tailor performance based specs so you can still charge a fair price and get the work)

Possible in tree work if you know the guys/gals who put together these projects.

If you don't get in early, sharpen your pencil and slim down those margins.

.02

[Lucifer]

Over here in England red tape and hoop jumping are a daily occurrence.

[vharrison]

Takes time and yes, hoops. In my line of work it is about getting in early so you can lead the person writing the specs rather than try to meet already written specs.

Possible in tree work if you know the guys/gals who put together these projects.

If you don't get in early, sharpen your pencil and slim down those margins.

.02

We have worked with this young lady for 5 years, first she was with DEP, then The City of Marathon, now Monroe County. We all know the specs and the regs, it is just a matter of paperwork and putting a number on it that is good for everyone. After all, it is my tax dollar at work.
No bubba system at work when dealing with her, like in other municipality's down here. She appreciates people that know what they are doing and admit it when they screw up. We screwed up big time when she was with the DEP, cost us 5 grand in fines. A supervisor (that is no longer with us) told us the permit was in hand, when it was not. Can't blame him altogether, we had more checks and balances in place, but did not follow them. That one hurt the pride more than anything. We try to do the right thing and be the best at it.

[sotc]

state jobs have lots of paper work here. i do alot of city work and am on the county list but havent done anything for them. tommorrow i go do a walkthrough at ashlands lithia park. probably a waste of time as others bid way low but i think its still good to show my face

[Bodean]

Darin and I's former boss does gov't jobs,
demand the job be done now and cheaper than bid and don't get paid for months.

He says he went deeper in debt waiting for the checks to come.
The money was spent before it was received.

Though there usually fun. In my humble opinion and experience.

[vharrison]

Well, they opened the bids on Tuesday and there is a public meeting on Friday to evaluate the bids. A selection committee will go over the bids and see who is actually qualified to meet the terms of the grant. We will attend the meeting and answer any questions that might come up about our qualifications. :\:

:/: I hope we get it.

[MasterBlaster]

Good luck!!!

[Chisel Tooth]

I hope it works out for you.
See Ya
Mike

[sotc]

lithia park opens theirs tommorrow. i may get 1 part but im sure i wont get the other

[TC3]

Holding thumbs for you, Gigi !

[stehansen]

Good luck V. I'm bidding on one also. It is network of 16 subsidized housing complexes around here. It is funded by USDA. I got a little bit of an "in". My neighbor is a fencing contractor who is working for them and has recommended me to the superviser.

[squisher]

Cool, good luck!:thumbup:

[Al Smith]

Some gov. contracts are stcky as honey.You about need a Philidelphia lawyer to sort them out. Lots of what if's and where as's in them as a general rule.

[vharrison]

True Al, the biggest pain I have found is the Certified Payroll. Who worked when, where and for how much. Our leasing company provides the completed certification, but I have to know who was where, doing what and how much were they paid. With 3 different crews working on the same project, it can be a pain. Especially when Johnny from crew 1 didn't show up at all and Billy from crew 2 went home mid day with a running nose.

[Jonseredbred]

If Johnny and Billy don't fill out a complete time report for you they dont get paid right??

[vharrison]

Johnny and Billy can't spell. :lol: Just kidding. Our record keeping for time is done by the supervisors, so that really is not a problem. It is keeping track of what crew is where and when and for how long.

[Paul B]

gps locators for the vehicles. can we as employers put a chip in our employees? :D

[Frans]

gps locators for the vehicles. can we as employers put a chip in our employees? :D

:lol: I love that idea.

I can see it now, me with this gun type thing, taking ambush shots at the employees as they walk into the yard in the morning 8)

[Paul B]

:blob6: "boy there are big skeeters around here!" as jimbo the groundie slaps at his neck while walking through the gate into the yard, Frans hidden in the scrub with his dart tagging gun....

the next thing is how to install the internal, remote control defibrillator. :shifty:

[DTW902]

Then you have to plan on there payment terms. Anywhere from 30 days to 90 days. But once your in the system it all works out. Good Luck

[vharrison]

sotc and Stehansen, good luck to both of you!

I just got out of the selection meeting, and SWEET, we got the contract. It has to go before the County Commission in January and is to start February 1st!

The meeting was very interesting. Only 4 companies bid the project. One was disqualified right away for not preparing the bid package properly. That left us with 2 to bid against. They began to evaluate each package, detail by detail.

Since we were only there as spectators, so to speak, we could not offer any clarifications on any thing they might not be clear about. They evaluated the previous work completed by each company and how that might be relevant to the scope of work being bid on, the equipment available to the company, the amount of manpower available, and the ability to finish the project within the time frame allotted. Of course, price per hour was factored in as well. Points were also given on the overall package presented as the bid. In the end, we won by a very slim margin, only 1.5 points higher than the second place company.

Out of 55 points, we got 50, the next company got 48.5, and the last company got 28.

[MasterBlaster]

Dot Palm RULZ!!! :rockon:

[Chisel Tooth]

Sweet indeed! That's cool I'm glad things worked out for you. Congratulations!
See Ya
Mike

[Skwerl]

Congrats on doing your homework Gigi. :thumbup: On government work, preparing the bid properly is one of the biggest parts of the job.

[sotc]

sweet! my bid closes in 8 minutes. theres also another coming up in medford soon. an old street of american elms that create a full canopy over the road

[vharrison]

sweet! my bid closes in 8 minutes. theres also another coming up in medford soon. an old street of american elms that create a full canopy over the road


Good Luck sotc!!

Brian, thank you! I moaned and groaned about the bid package, but at the end of the day it is the company and the men that represent the company that won the bid. They are awsome.

[sotc]

shoot they called and said they wernt going to announce till monday

[MasterBlaster]

Bummer!

[stehansen]

Congratulations Gigi. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you Willie.

I got a phone call today saying I got my gub-ment job also. It still has to be approved by a bureaucrat one step higher than the one that I'm dealing with.

[sotc]

awesome!

[vharrison]

Congrats Stehansen! Sotc, you are next!

[TC3]

Even if a company doesn't get a contract like this that's been bid on, it's really useful to go look at all the bids after the process (public info). I found it really educational, and it let me know more about my competition & the bidding process.

[sotc]

i do that to tc, very informative

[stehansen]

Our county and Modesto city will email all the bidders a spreadsheet with all the bids on it and the scores of any other items like in Gigi's bid with various things given a point rating. Modesto City is the worst for having all sorts of stuff in the bid. They want a transition plan, non-pollution plan, list of all the certs in your company, list of equipment (no equipment over 5 years old), list of other govt. jobs you have completed. The price of the job was 60% of the total with about 10% to each of the other catagories. They then hire a consultant for the city employees and they bid on the project also. This consultant has 3 months of nothing to do except prepare the bid package for the city employees and so they always win. They don't have to pay any insurance as they are covered under the city umbrella. The request for proposals with a sample contract is easily 50 pages. The county was pretty simple, they wanted your insurance info, and how much you would do the job for.

[Jonseredbred]

How can they dictate age of equipment?? I betch I got stuff thats 30 yrs old in better shape than some 5 yr old stuff I have seen.

Eff them.

[TC3]

Ahhh, and it harks back to 'who you know'.
Politics, m'friends. Politics.

[stehansen]

The City updates their equipment at 5 years and says it is unfair to their tree dept if the other bidders aren't doing the same.

[Jonseredbred]

What??? I know of no company around here (large or small) that turns equipment every 5 yrs.

Asplundh doesn't even do that

[stehansen]

Crazy huh.

[Jonseredbred]

Stoopid. I could see my now in front of council argueing that one.

[stehansen]

I was looking at your avatar. Did you say something? I think she is smiling at me.
I don't live in Modesto so I don't know all what goes on there in their tree dept. I assumed it was normal for a city to do that. I think the whole thing was a Circle J. It was all to show the city council that keeping the city tree dept intact was the most economical avenue instead of hiring a contractor. It was also for the city council to show the citizens that it was exploring ways to cut expenses and not just sitting around with a huge deficit looming. The big tree companies didn't even bid on it.
Only Grover our local large tree company bid on the project besides the city employees. My bid was rejected as incomplete on the transition plan and my equipment was too old. The job was really too big for me, it would be about 4 trees to remove per day. Mountains of paper work. The specs for grinding the stumps was over 2 pages in the sample contract. They wanted all the grindings removed and the hole filled level with dirt. There, that is a lot less than 2 pages.
It is the same contract that I talked to you about on the phone Jonsared. They also wanted one of your company radios installed in their office and maintained at your expense. Hell we just use our cell phones. They wanted a live person to answer the phone at your office, a landline not a person on a cell phone, between 8 and 5 and a cell phone would be acceptable for after hours calls with a guaranteed 2 hour response time. The crap was endless. It would be nice to have guaranteed work for 3 years. It was just a waste of time for me.

[sotc]

id check up on them and make sure they are doing 3 trees a day and not cheating on their stumps:D
and by the look of things you dont want to work for them anyway, theyd nickel and dime ya to death

[stehansen]

They are cheating on the stumps. It was in the contract that the stump needed to be out no more than 5 working days after the tree was removed and I've seen them sit for 3 weeks. There was even some crap in there about the ratio of grindings to dirt in the hole. Like I said the whole thing was just a show.

[Jonseredbred]

I remmeber that phone call now Steve. It does sound like a Circle J.