Intramodal Freight Facility Database Scoping Report
This U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) SMALL-business set-aside Request for Quotations (RFQ), for a fixed-price INTRAMODAL FREIGHT FACILITY DATABASE SCOPING REPORT, is being published in FedBizOpps. DOT's sponsoring program office for this RFQ is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), in DOT's Office of the Secretary (OST).
Accordingly, only SMALL businesses will be ELIGIBLE to submit proposals (quotations) under this RFQ. And all such proposals must be e-mailed to james.mowery@dot.gov and to Paula.Robinson@dot.gov and to Ed.Strocko@dot.gov, and must be RECEIVED by those addressees, by 11:00 PM Eastern Time September 23, 2018.
It is requested that, immediately AFTER each offeror e-mails its proposal-----WITH the offeror's proposal-file as an attachment-----to the DOT addressees specified above, the offeror please FORWARD that first e-mail, but WITHOUT any attachments in the forwarding, to those same DOT addressees. The reason for this request is that e-mails containing attachments have sometimes been known to fail to penetrate DOT's security-firewall-system.
Because of the shortness of calendar-time available for awarding this RFQ's needed resulting contract in Federal Fiscal Year 2018, DOT's cognizant contracting officer and cognizant program officers are NOT promising to answer any questions posed by prospective offerors concerning this simplified acquisition. But those cognizant DOT employees have determined, in good faith, that this RFQ (and its attached Statement of Work) does provide enough information to enable interested companies to compile and submit their proposals.
DOT's contracting officer ESTIMATES that any of NAICS Codes 541511, 541512, 541513 or 541519 could be applicable to this procurement; and each of those NAICS Codes has a small-business size-standard of $27,500,000. Therefore, each offeror's average annual gross revenue, as computed over the offeror-company's three most-recently-completed company-fiscal-years, must be less than $27,500,000.
Because this procurement's estimated total dollar-value makes it a Simplified Acquisition, and because of the need for streamlining this procurement, DOT is not insisting that an offeror's COST Proposal be submitted in a file that is separate from the other parts of an offeror's proposal. In fact----and for purposes of streamlining this procurement-----it would be better if each offeror's proposal were e-mailed to DOT's above-specified addressees as just ONE file.
Each quotation shall propose to perform the entire Statement of Work given below.
It is estimated that the resulting contract's Period of Performance will run from September 29, 2018 through January 29, 2019.
DOT ESTIMATES that the following configuration of job-titles and staffing-hours MIGHT be sufficient for performing the project envisioned in this RFQ: 20 staffing-hours to be worked by a Contract Program Manager III in Task 1; and 4 staffing-hours to be worked by a Freight Transportation Specialist II in Task 1; and 4 staffing-hours to be worked by a GIS Specialist II in Task 1; and 10 staffing-hours to be worked by a Contract Program Manager III in Task 2; and 120 staffing-hours to be worked by a Freight Transportation Specialist II in Task 2; and 256 staffing-hours to be worked by a GIS Specialist II in Task 2. But each offeror shall make its OWN decision about what configuration of job-titles and staffing-hours to PROPOSE.
The needed qualifications, for each of the job-titles (labor categories) mentioned above, are as follows:
Personnel Qualifications
The Contractor shall provide a résumé and description for each proposed key personnel and specialized skills proposed for this requirement. For key personnel, the Contractor shall describe the (1) knowledge, (2) work experiences, (3) registrations and licenses (if applicable), (4) certifications (if applicable), (5) expertise for the required discipline, and (6) experience previously performed of a similar nature.
The Contractor shall clearly describe any specific combination of experiences, education, and/or training provided to support qualification of personnel designated to perform tasks as described in this requirement
The Contractor shall staff the project with the following key personnel:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst II
Education
~ Masters degree program in a pertinent field such as geography (or related field).
Qualifications
~ Generally, have a minimum of five (5) years of documenting, researching, collecting, and analyzing geospatial information. Experience in creating technical reports for geospatial information collection and analysis, along with strong writing and oral skills.
~ Knowledge of geospatial database creation and organization
~ Experience and knowledge of geospatial theories, concepts, principles, practices and equipment, including those used in photogrammetry, remote sensing, photointerpretation, digital analysis or other techniques, sufficient to evaluate source material, research, analyze, select, and prepare geographic data.
~ Demonstrated a proven proficiency in research, data compilation, and general problem solving.
~ Experience with the remaining suite of ESRI software, including:
- ArcMap
- ArcCatalog
- ArcToolbox
- Spatial Analyst
- Network Analyst
- ArcGIS Server
~ Demonstrated skills and abilities necessary to perform Task 2
Freight Transportation Specialist II
Education
~ Masters degree program in a pertinent field such as engineering, logistics, planning, geography (or related field).
Qualifications
~ Generally, have a minimum of five (5) years of documenting, researching, and analyzing freight transportation facilities and supply chains. Experience in creating technical reports and analysis related to for freight transportation facilities and supply chains, along with strong writing and oral skills.
~ Comprehensive experience and knowledge of the freight industry and intramodal freight movement for five (5) modes of transportation (truck, waterway vessel, rail, air, and pipeline) within the United States
~ Demonstrated a proven proficiency in research, data compilation, and general problem solving.
~ Demonstrated skills and abilities necessary to perform Task 2
Contract Program Manager III
Education
~ A Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Masters in Public Policy, Economic, Statistics or Social Sciences or related degree is required. Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP) or equivalent is desirable.
Qualifications
~ Demonstrated skills and experience with a history in project management and oversight capabilities as described for this TO.
Each proposal shall include resumes showing the qualifications of the offeror's proposed staff-members.
Although DOT is not setting an inviolable absolute maximum permissible number of pages for an offeror's proposal, the contracting officer estimates that, for this Simplified Acquisition, an offeror probably would not need to exceed an aggregate grand total of about 20 pages in compiling its proposal.
DOT will technically-evaluate all quotations (proposals) according to the following Evaluation Factors:
Evaluation Factor 1 (Maximum of 75 points)
Technical Approach
The offeror's proposal shall demonstrate an understanding of the nature of the work to be performed as described in the RFQ and shall offer a technical approach to fully meet or exceed the Government's expectation.
Evaluation Factor 2 (Maximum of 25 points)
Management Approach
The offeror's proposal shall demonstrate the ability to identify and manage well-qualified labor resources capable of accomplishing the requirement in the most cost effective manner to meet required schedules and submission of prescribed deliverables.
In the contract-awardee-selection process, each offeror's overall achieved technical evaluation rating will be more important than the offeror's total proposed fixed-PRICE. But each offeror's total proposed fixed-PRICE will, nevertheless, be very important in the contract-awardee-selection-process. DOT will make a best buy / best value selection-decision. Therefore, this RFQ's resulting contract will not necessarily be awarded to the offeror that proposed the lowest total price, and the resulting contract will not necessarily be awarded to the offeror that achieved the highest overall technical standing.
The following is the Statement of Work for this project:
OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
OFFICE OF SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION INTRAMODAL FREIGHT FACILITY DATABASE SCOPING REPORT
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
A. OBJECTIVE
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology's (OST-R) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Office of Spatial Analysis and Visualization (OSAV) develops geospatial analysis, geospatial datasets, visualizations and maps relating to the transportation system for use across the Nation by government agencies, transportation providers and the public. Contract support is required to determine the best approach for creating a geospatial database showing intramodal freight facilities throughout the United States.
B. BACKGROUND
The BTS is the Principal Federal Statistical Agency that provides objective, comprehensive, and relevant information on the extent and use of the Nation's transportation system, how well the system performs, and the effects of the system on society and the environment. BTS collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistical and geospatial information on the factors contributing to the demand for transportation; on the extent, use, condition, performance, and safety of the transportation system; and on the economic, environmental, and social consequences of transportation. The BTS Director is the senior advisor to the Secretary on data and statistics, and represents DOT statistical programs with other federal agencies. BTS promotes improvements in data quality, accuracy, and timeliness for statistical programs throughout DOT; assists public access to DOT research reports and databases; and operates the National Transportation Library. All BTS products are available at www.bts.gov.
The OSAV develops geospatial information and visualization tools for use across the Nation by government agencies, transportation providers and the public. The office also conducts spatial and network analyses that facilitate the understanding of major issues and inform investment and policy decisions. In addition to publishing the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD), OSAV employs high quality cartography and innovative web applications to produce relevant, high quality, timely, comparable, complete, and accessible geospatial products.
OSAV seeks a contractor to provide insight, define terms, develop approaches, analyze options, identify appropriate data sources, and data collection methodologies to build a geospatial intramodal freight terminals database for five (5) modes of transportation (truck, waterway vessel, rail, air, and pipeline). This database will enhance projects and analysis within both BTS and the Department, and will be part of the NTAD for public consumption.
Location of Services
Contractor performance under this contract shall take place at the offices of the contracting company or at an agreed upon location set forth by the Contracting Officer.
Type of Contract
Firm Fixed Price
Period of Performance
The period of performance for this task order is from September 29th, 2018 through January 29th, 2019. Base period: four (4) months.
The contractor shall begin work immediately after the award meeting (see next section). Work shall not take place on Federal holidays and weekends unless directed by the Contracting Officer. Overtime and compensation time shall also not be granted unless directed by the Contracting Officer.
General Requirements
The contractor shall perform the following work under the GSA IT Schedule 70. The contractor shall provide expertise in spatial data collection methodologies and freight movement including how domestic freight moves through the country via one mode of transportation from an origin to a destination. The contractor shall create a written report that documents the findings of the following requirements:
•· Determining and defining terms and criteria for identifying and designating an intramodal freight facility (i.e. truck terminals, waterway ports for ocean going vessel to barge transfers, intramodal rail yards, etc.)
•· Understanding data sources options to build the geospatial intramodal database
•· Identifying the appropriate methodologies to collect the data
•· Identifying methodologies to analyze the data to obtain locational and attribute information of intramodal freight facilities
•· Identifying schema and workflow for building the database.
Tasks will include:
Task 1: Kick Off Meeting and Project Administration
Task 2: Intramodal Freight Facility Report
During the duration of this project, the Contractor shall submit, but not be limited to written, monthly progress reports, quarterly status briefings on critical tasks, meeting reports, and liaison activities as directed by the task monitor. Reports shall include activities related to schedule and resources, any current problems and delays, and future concerns. The Contractor shall hold team meetings on a monthly basis, or as needed. By the 10th of each month the contractor shall submit a status report to the COR and/or TE designee. The COR may reassign or reprioritize tasks as necessary. The report shall include, at a minimum:
a. Brief description of completed tasks and deliverables
b. Brief description on completion status and current and future tasks, including budget impact.
c. Identification of problems and proposed resolutions.
In addition to submission of proper invoice, the contractor shall provide the following information-either incorporated in the invoice or as an attachment:
• Staffing hours and rates
• Travel
• Administrative costs
• Fees
• Burden
• Amount spent to date
• Amount remaining
• Other standard budget items
• Travel expense report
• Receipts for all "other direct costs" that equal or exceed $50.00
Contractor shall invoice once a month for all work that has been delivered and accepted by the COR during the previous month.
COR
Paula Robinson
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Paula.robinson@dot.gov
Phone: 202-366-2984
CO-COR
Dominic Menegus
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
dominic.menegus@dot.gov
Phone: 202-366-8717
All written work shall be phrased in layperson English language. Geospatial and technical terminology shall not be used without providing an explanation of terms.
All products of this project are the property of the United States Government. USDOT shall be the owner of and have all rights to the print and electronic products (report) developed under this task. The contractor shall provide the report and all other to USDOT at the end of the project.
Contract Award Meeting
The contractor shall not commence performance on the tasks in this PWS until the Contracting Officer has conducted a kick-off meeting. The meeting shall occur within two weeks of the award date. The Contracting Officer may delegate this task to assign the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and the appropriate Technical Experts (TE).
Customer Service
The contractor shall provide staff that will give high quality customer service. The contractor shall provide a senior level person as program manager to oversee the performance staff, address and resolve all time and attendance issues, personnel issues, and ensure all core duties are covered in spite of outside professional development or requirements due to membership affiliations. This person will provide general oversight, will train the personnel, assist and guide them as needed. The contract program manager will also review products and deliverables for accuracy and completeness. The contractor must provide a plan for quality control and reporting.
The contractor shall adhere to DOT, OST-R, & BTS Standards.
C. MANDATORY TASKS & DELIVERABLES
The contractor shall supply and assign qualified staff to all activities identified below, as needed and within the scope and level of effort of this contract. Contract staff should have an understanding of intramodal domestic freight movement in the US.
Tasks
The Contractor shall perform the following tasks:
Task 1: Kick Off Meeting and Project Administration
The contractor shall hold a kick-off meeting with the OSAV to review the roles, authorities, and responsibilities of involved individuals, reach agreement on common issues, resolve and identify potential problems, and clarify understandings of technical aspects of the task order. The kick off meeting will be used to discuss aspects of the work plan about which USDOT has questions and to come to agreements on those. The kick-off meeting shall be scheduled by the contractor as soon as possible after the task order is awarded, but no later than two weeks after the award. The Contractor shall hold team meetings on a monthly basis or as needed and provide monthly progress reports.
Task 2: Intramodal Freight Facility Database Report
The purpose of this task is to provide insight, define terms, develop approaches, analyze options, identify appropriate data sources, and data collection methodologies to build a geospatial intramodal freight terminals database for five (5) modes of transportation (truck, waterway vessel, rail, air, and pipeline). This task's final product will be a written report documenting the above work and options for the government to consider, when building a geospatial intramodal freight facility database.
The contractor shall:
•· Define terms and various criteria that BTS can use for identifying a facility to be considered intramodal for each of the following five (5) modes of transportation; truck, waterway vessel, rail, air, and pipeline.
•· Provide estimates regarding the universe size and number of each type of intramodal facility based on the various criteria proposed.
•· Discover, analyze and recommend various data sources and methodologies for successfully obtaining these data for the five (5) modes of transportation listed above, needed to build the database. This should include SWOT, feasibility and cost analyses. If data sources contain proprietary information and are needed, methodologies of how to obtain such information should be included.
•· Identify, analyze and recommend various spatial methodology options to analyze the recommended data to obtain locational and attribute information of intramodal freight facilities. Locational and attribute information to be collected for each facility are:
•o Unique identifier from data source
•o Name
•o Latitude
•o Longitude
•o Owner
•o Operator
•o Address (street address, city, state (abbreviation and FIPS code), zip)
•o Mode/Type (of transportation)
•o Facility internal building size/capacity (square feet)
•o External size/capacity (area around facility building in square feet)
•o Maximum vehicles handled (number of truck bays, waterway vessel docks, etc)
•o Size of vehicles that can be accommodated (truck length/axles, waterway vessel length, etc)
•o Volume
List of attributes will be further defined during the kick-off meeting.
•· Dependent on the data sources and information developed for the prior sub- tasks, recommend a database schema and workflow for building the database.
•· Complete a preliminary draft report containing all the above information.
•· Complete a final draft report addressing and reflecting all BTS edits and comments.
•· Complete a final version of the report
Personnel Qualifications
The Contractor shall provide a résumé and description for each proposed key personnel and specialized skills proposed for this requirement. For key personnel, the Contractor shall describe the (1) knowledge, (2) work experiences, (3) registrations and licenses (if applicable), (4) certifications (if applicable), (5) expertise for the required discipline, and (6) experience previously performed of a similar nature.
The Contractor shall clearly describe any specific combination of experiences, education, and/or training provided to support qualification of personnel designated to perform tasks as described in this requirement
The Contractor shall staff the project with the following key personnel:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst II
Education
•· Master's degree program in a pertinent field such as geography (or related field).
Qualifications
•· Generally, have a minimum of five (5) years of documenting, researching, collecting, and analyzing geospatial information. Experience in creating technical reports for geospatial information collection and analysis, along with strong writing and oral skills.
•· Knowledge of geospatial database creation and organization
•· Experience and knowledge of geospatial theories, concepts, principles, practices and equipment, including those used in photogrammetry, remote sensing, photointerpretation, digital analysis or other techniques, sufficient to evaluate source material, research, analyze, select, and prepare geographic data.
•· Demonstrated a proven proficiency in research, data compilation, and general problem solving.
•· Experience with the remaining suite of ESRI software, including:
- ArcMap
- ArcCatalog
- ArcToolbox
- Spatial Analyst
- Network Analyst
- ArcGIS Server
•· Demonstrated skills and abilities necessary to perform Task 2
Freight Transportation Specialist II
Education
•· Master's degree program in a pertinent field such as engineering, logistics, planning, geography (or related field).
Qualifications
•· Generally, have a minimum of five (5) years of documenting, researching, and analyzing freight transportation facilities and supply chains. Experience in creating technical reports and analysis related to for freight transportation facilities and supply chains, along with strong writing and oral skills.
•· Comprehensive experience and knowledge of the freight industry and intramodal freight movement for five (5) modes of transportation (truck, waterway vessel, rail, air, and pipeline) within the United States
•· Demonstrated a proven proficiency in research, data compilation, and general problem solving.
•· Demonstrated skills and abilities necessary to perform Task 2
Contract Program Manager III
Education
•· A Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Masters in Public Policy, Economic, Statistics or Social Sciences or related degree is required. Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP) or equivalent is desirable.
Qualifications
•· Demonstrated skills and experience with a history in project management and oversight capabilities as described for this TO.
D Packaging and Marking
E Inspection and Acceptance
Performance Surveillance Method
The Government shall perform surveillance of this in accordance with the minimal Performance Requirements Summary (PRS) described below pursuant to the Government's Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP). Additional performance requirements may be added as determined by the Program Manager. The Contractor shall be notified in advance of any changes to how surveillance will take place by the Government. Quality Assurance Surveillance reporting shall take place on a quarterly, annual, and at contract completion. Reports shall be provided indicating the Government's rating for the metrics described in the PRS. Reporting shall commence 90 days after contract performance. Below are the PRS metrics for which this contract shall be rated.
The QASP's primary focus is to provide oversight of the Contractor's efforts to assure that they are timely, effective and are delivering the results specified in the contract/task order. The QASP facilitates the Government in explaining to the contractor what the Government's expectations are, how the deliverables or services will be monitored and evaluated, and what the negative and positive performance incentives will be. The Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan describes the Government's approach, which is governed pursuant to FAR Subparts 46.103, 37.7 and 42.15.
QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN (QASP)
PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT SUMMARY (PRS) METRICS
OFFICE OF SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION INTRAMODAL FREIGHT FACILITY DATABASE SCOPING REPORT
RFP Number:
TO Number: TBD Contract Number: TBD Contractor: TBD
PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS
STANDARDS
ACCEPTABLE
QUALITY LEVEL
(AQL)
SURVEILLANCE
METHOD
INCENTIVES/
DISINCENTIVES
PRODUCTS ARE ACURATE
TRANSPORTATION AND GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS ARE COMPLETE AND WORK AS NEEDED
RESPONSIVENESS AND TIMELY DELIVERY
POSSESS KNOWLEDGE OF INDUSTRY, DOT AND OMB POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND BEST PRACTICES
FULL COMPLIANCE WITH TERMS OF TASK REQUIREMENTS, GOVERNING POLICIES, PROCEDURES, AND REGULATORY LAW
ADHERE TO QUALITY CONTROL PLAN
ACCURATE DOCUMENTATION
FULLY COMPLIANT DOCUMENTS
100% ACCURACY OF DATA AND INFORMATION SUBMITTED FOR GOVERNMENT REVIEW AND APPROVAL
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS MONITORED THROUGH COMPLAINTS, SURVEYS, IN PROGRESS ASSESSMENT/ REVIEWS OF PERFORMANCE, AND QUALITY ASSURANCE PLAN
TASK AND CONTRACT SCHEDULED MEETINGS WHERE STATUS OF PROGRESS IS DISCUSSED
INCENTIVE
FAVORABLE PAST PERFORMANCE REPORTS AND EXERCISE OF ADDITIONAL OPTION PERIODS BEYOND BASE PERIOD
DISINCENTIVE
ISSUANCE OF CURE NOTICE; TERMINATION OF TASK ORDERS OR CONTRACT FOR UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE AND DANGER OF NOT HAVING OPTION PERIOD EXERCISED
F Deliveries and Performance
Deliverables
The Contractor shall provide the following deliverables by the specified due date, including format identified. The deliverable deadline can only be adjusted by the assigned COR:
Task Item Number
Deliverables
Deliverable Date
Task 1
Project Administration
Monthly reports
Ongoing
Task 2
Intramodal Freight Facility Report
Data sources and methods of collection completed
October 16, 2018
Draft preliminary report due
November 13, 2018
Draft final report due
December 18, 2018
Final report due including edits remedied
January 29th, 2019
G. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS AND WEB SITES
•· Privacy Provisions of Section 208 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda/m03-22.html
•• Accessibility Standards of Section 508 http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/procurement/section508memo081105.pdf
•• DOT and OST-R Internet and Intranet Policies http://cio.ost.dot.gov/portal/site/cio/menuitem.9927580d73bc98d5361fb93631008a0c/
•• OST-R and BTS Guide to Style and Publishing Procedures
•• OST-R and BTS Web Standards
James H Mowery III, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-366-4959, Email james.mowery@dot.gov
