Certifications

Select Certification DBE MBE WBE SBE DVBE HUB Section 3 ELBE SLBE

State

Select a State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

California Department of Transportation DVBE program update The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has failed to meet the annual 3% Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) participation goal for each of the past three years. In response to this shortfall, the Department will increase the DVBE goal on all contracts and implement new bid award procedures in an effort to ensure that the goal is met. While Caltrans has not revealed exactly when the new bid award procedures will be implemented, they have indicated that they be appearing soon in its construction contract advertisements.

Contractors will be required to contact more DVBE firms on Caltrans projects to meet the increased goals

In order to meet the 3% annual DVBE goal, Caltrans is initiating a temporary increase in their DVBE contract goals to 5%, which is to remain in effect until July 2008. This may be an effort for Caltrans to get ahead of the curve in meeting its DVBE participation obligations for 2008. As a result, firms bidding on Caltrans projects must attempt to subcontract at least 5% of the contract work to DVBE certified firms. This percentage increase also means that contractors will need to contact more DVBE firms on every Caltrans project that they plan on bidding. When bidders are unable to procure DVBE participation, they are required to provide evidence that they made a good faith effort to obtain the necessary percentage of DVBEs for the project, as is currently the standard procedure. In the past, the lowest bidders who made a good faith effort without including DVBEs in their bid were often awarded the contract; however, the bid award procedures to be employed by Caltrans will make it more difficult for bidders who only use good faith efforts and reward those contractors that utilize DVBEs in their bid.

New Caltrans bid award procedures implemented to increase DVBE participation

The new Caltrans bid award procedures stipulate that bidders who secure over 1% DVBE utilization on a contract will be entitled to bid incentives. In this process, the Department will consider the three lowest bidders if the second and third lowest bids are within 5 percent or $100,000 from the lowest bid. Once this is determined, Caltrans will then apply the DVBE incentive to the three lowest evaluated bid amounts and determine if the bid ranking changes. For example, the lowest bidders are on a contract are businesses A, B, and C, who have bid $100,000, $102,000, and $103,000, respectively, and have obtained DVBE participation of 0%, 3%, and 5%, respectively. Business A, who has not included a DVBE firm, will receive no incentive and have a net bid of $100,000. Business B, who has secured 3% DVBE participation on the same contract, will receive a $3,000 incentive and have a net bid of $99,000. Business C, who has 5% DVBE utilization, receives the maximum 5% incentive which in this case equals $5,000. Subsequently, Business C has the lowest net bid, $98,000, and wins the contract. Even though Business C initially had the highest bid amount of the three contractors, the fact that it met the contract’s DVBE goal allowed it to win the project.

Caltrans has not yet announced this increase on their website, but plan on doing so very soon. Also project plans and special provisions may start to have show the increased 5% requirement by February 2008.

How can DBE Goodfaith help?

DBE Goodfaith offers fax and telephone solicitation assistance (under our Silver and Gold Package Service) to help bidders meet these requirements. Our call center calls all firms chosen by the bidder to let them know about the project bid, logs the date and time of the call, notes the name of the person spoken to, and makes notes on each call indicating whether or not the firm is interested in participating. Two sets of phone calls are made to fulfill the Caltrans requirement for following up on initial solicitations. This level of outreach increases your potential for locating available and qualified DVBE firms willing to bid on your project. Phone calls made by third party referral organizations to perform outreach to DVBE firms are acceptable by Caltrans. DBE Goodfaith maintains up to date databases of DVBEs to choose from to provide your company with the competitive advantage to win your project bid and fulfill the bid incentive without having to spend the time and effort needed to perform all the steps of the solicitation. By subcontracting your outreach to DBE Goodfaith, your firm is better able to meet these requirements and fulfill incentives to help you win your project bid. Call our support line at 877-802-3394 for more information on how to meet Caltrans bid incentives for your next project.