SOLICITATION NUMBER: ED-98-R-0011

POC Contract Specialists Tony Williams, 202-708-8602 or James Hairfield, 202-708-8529.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education has a requirement for a bulk mailing services contractor. The contractor must offer expedited delivery (3-8 working days) on all orders, be able to track the packages and report status while the packages are in transit, and obtain a signature upon delivery. Orders range from shipments of less than 100 copies of forms to shipments of 90,000 copies in boxes of 100. During peak periods, the contractor must be able to pick up as many as 15,000 boxes per day. The contractor must pick up packages at the ED mailing warehouse (Eckington Place, NW, Washington, DC) and deliver to addresses provided by ED from the ED ordering system. The contractor must be able to deliver packages to all street addresses in North America, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands. In addition, the contractor must be able to deliver to street addresses in foreign countries open to U.S. trade. In the event the address on the ED ordering system is a P.O. Box, the vendor shall deliver to the appropriate street address for the entity that maintains the P.O. Box. The contractor must obtain the recipient's signature at the point of delivery and make the signature or the image available to ED and mailing contractor staff for immediate retrieval in the event that the entity that placed the order calls to inquire about the status of the order. For the same purpose, the contractor must also provide on-line access to its tracking system, for use by ED and mailing contractor staff. The contract shall have a base period of approximately four months. An additional four option periods consisting of twelve (12) months each may be exercised. The total possible period of performance of the contract is fifty-two (52) months.

This is a combined synopsis /solicitation for commercial items (services) prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in the files below. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are hereby being requested ; no further written solicitation will not be issued.

RFP issue date: May 6, 1998
RFP closing date: May 12, 1998.

Any firm interested in obtaining U.S. Department of Education Solicitation RFP ED-98-R-0011, please contact: Ms. Yolanda Abney, U.S. Department of Education, Contracts and Purchasing Operations, GSA Building ROB #3, 7th and D Streets SW, Room 3616 #4443, Washington, DC 20202 Phone: (202)708-6498, E-mail: yolanda_abney@ed.gov. All dates listed herein are subject to change. Contact Gary Weaver at 202/401-0083 for downloading problems only.

README.TXT (1K) - Instructions.

RFP.TXT (10K) - Combined Synopsis/Solicitation in ASCII text format for on-line viewing only.

RFP.WPD (15K) - Combined Synopsis/Solicitation in WordPerfect 6.0/6.1 format for downloading and preparation of proposals.

CLAUSES.WPD (40K) - Copies of FAR clauses referenced in, or incorporated into, this solicitation.