B-310535, Utility Tool & Trailer, Inc., January 3, 2008
Decision
Matter of: Utility Tool & Trailer, Inc.
Joe
Weiland, Utility Tool & Trailer, Inc., for the protester.
Jeffrey
I. Kessler, Esq., and Christopher Van der Waerden, Esq., U.S. Army Materiel
Command, for the agency.
Linda C. Glass, Esq., and Ralph O. White, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, GAO, participated in the preparation of the decision.
DIGEST
Protest challenging an agency’s selection of an offeror with lower-rated delivery schedule and lower-priced proposal is denied where the agency reasonably decided that the price premium involved in selecting the protester’s higher-priced proposal to obtain the benefit of that proposal’s slightly more favorable delivery schedule was not justified.
DECISION
Utility Tool & Trailer, Inc. (UTT) protests the award of a requirements-type contract to Schutt Industries, Inc. under request for proposals (RFP) No. W56HZV-07-R-G094, issued by the United States Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) for 5‑ton dual axle trailers. UTT argues that the agency abandoned the stated evaluation criteria (and made an unreasonable best value decision) when it failed to select UTT’s higher-priced proposal offering shorter delivery times and applied unreasonable calculations for freight costs to portions of its proposals.
BACKGROUND
The RFP, issued on
The RFP provided for a two-phased evaluation process. Under phase I, proposals were to be evaluated as either acceptable, or not acceptable, based on the proposal’s compliance with the terms of the RFP. An acceptable proposal was defined as one “where there is essentially no doubt” that the offered trailers would “meet each of the specification requirements.” RFP at 73.
Under phase II, the proposals found to be acceptable were
to be evaluated using a tradeoff procedure considering the evaluation factors
of delivery, small business participation and price. The RFP explained that the delivery factor would
be more important than price, and price would be more important than small
business participation. RFP at 74.
With respect to the delivery factor, the RFP provided that
the agency would evaluate on the basis of the offeror’s proposed Days After
Receipt of Order (DARO) for deliveries FOB Origin, and the proposed DARO for
deliveries FOB Destination (to Umm Qasr,
Under the guaranteed shipping characteristics, offerors were required to provide, among other things, the size and weight of shipping containers and the size and type of shipping trailers. RFP para. K.2. The RFP provided that the total evaluated price would include the sum of all the hardware (and miscellaneous parts) identified in section B of the RFP, and transportation costs, as determined by the TACOM Transportation Office, for all FOB Origin items. RFP para. M.2.2.3. The RFP also included a detailed explanation of the way in which it would calculate the transportation costs for FOB Origin items. RFP at 72-73.
Five proposals were received, including those from UTT and Schutt, by the closing date for receipt of proposals. After initial review of the proposals, two proposals were eliminated from the competitive range based on unreasonably high prices. Discussions were held with the remaining three offerors, including UTT and Schutt and final proposals revisions were received and evaluated. UTT’s and Schutt’s final revised proposals were evaluated under phase II as follows:
Offeror (with delivery terms offered in DARO) |
Delivery Rating/Risk |
Price + Transp. Cost Total Eval. Cost |
Small Business Participation |
Schutt 140 days-FOB Origin 230 days-FOB Destination |
Good/ Low Risk |
$2,166,602 +190,339 $2,356,941 |
Good |
UTT 140 days-FOB Origin 210 days-FOB Destination |
Good/ Low Risk |
$2,207,819 + 361,868 $2,569,687 |
Good |
Agency Report (AR), Tab 17, Source Selection Decision, at 3.
Schutt’s total evaluated price was $212,746 lower than
UTT’s evaluated price. While Schutt and
UTT offered the same delivery schedule for the 75 FOB Origin trailers, the
source selection authority (SSA) recognized that UTT was offering a slightly
better delivery schedule for the 6 FOB Destination trailers than Schutt, but
nonetheless concluded that the Schutt proposal was the most advantageous
because of its lower price. In the SSA’s
view, it was not worth paying the significant premium (when calculated per
vehicle) for the 20-day delivery advantage offered by UTT for the six FOB Destination
trailers.
DISCUSSION
As mentioned above, UTT argues that the agency abandoned the stated evaluation criteria (and made an unreasonable best value decision) when it failed to select UTT’s higher-priced proposal offering shorter delivery times and applied unreasonable calculations for freight costs to portions of its proposal.[1]
In the agency report, the Army addresses these issues and, for the most part, UTT does not rebut the Army’s analysis, or offer any explanation about why the Army’s answers are unreasonable. Instead, UTT simply affirms its initial protest--essentially asking that our Office decide the protest issues based on the record as it stands--and reiterates its initially stated concerns--that the solicitation here should not have included both FOB Origin and FOB Destination approaches to shipping costs.
With respect to UTT’s challenge to the SSA’s tradeoff
decision, we think selection officials have considerable discretion in making
price/technical tradeoffs. Their
judgments in these tradeoffs are by their nature subjective; nevertheless, the
exercise of these judgments must be reasonable and must bear a rational
relationship to the announced criteria upon which competing offers are to be
selected. Award may be made to a firm
that submitted a lower-rated, lower-priced proposal where the decision is
consistent with the evaluation criteria and the agency reasonably determines
that the premium involved in awarding to the offeror with the higher-rated,
higher-priced proposal is not justified.
Computer Tech. Servs., Inc., B-271435,
Here, the SSA recognized UTT’s slight delivery advantage
with respect to the six FOB Destination trailers and concluded that the
advantage was not worth the price premium.
In making this decision, the SSA appropriately recognized the relative
importance of the solicitation’s evaluation factors, in particular that the
delivery factor was more important than the price factor. AR, Tab 17, Source Selection Decision at
4. Although UTT believes that its
shorter delivery schedule for the six FOB Destination trailers should have
resulted in an award to UTT, the protester’s disagreement with the SSA’s business
judgment does not show that that judgment is unreasonable.
With respect to the evaluation of transportation costs, the analysis was consistent with the approach stated in the solicitation. In essence, the Army explained that the differing shipping costs applied to the items provided by UTT and Schutt--despite the close proximity of their locations--is due to the different approaches the two companies have taken to packaging their items for shipment. Given this explanation, which appears reasonable, and given UTT’s failure to offer any analysis about why the Army’s explanation is flawed, we have no basis to reach a different conclusion.
The protest is denied.
Gary L. Kepplinger
General Counsel
[1] UTT’s contention that the RFP should have required only FOB Origin pricing--a contention which constitutes much of UTT’s comments filing--is untimely at this juncture. This argument involves a solicitation impropriety that should have been raised prior to the closing time for receipt of proposals. 4 C.F.R. sect. 21.2(a)(1) (2007).
[2]
UTT, in its comments to the agency report, also argues that Schutt should not
have been included in the phase II tradeoff decision because Schutt allegedly
had previous performance issues. As a
preliminary matter, we note that an assessment of past performance was not part
of the initial phase I determination of an offeror’s acceptability. Instead, past performance was part of the
phase II delivery evaluation. In this
regard, the RFP stated that the government would assess the offeror’s delivery
risk by reviewing, among other things, timeliness on prior efforts. RFP at 74.
In rating Schutt “good/low risk” under the delivery factor, the agency
specifically noted that Schutt had a history of satisfactory performance on
previous TACOM contracts. AR, Tab 14,
Delivery Area Evaluation, at 2. We have
no basis to question the reasonableness of the agency’s determination in this
regard. We also note that UTT offers no
evidence regarding why its performance challenge--which was not based on
information provided in the agency’s report--was timely when first raised in
its comments. See 4 C.F.R.
sect. 21.2(a)(2).