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Sales Manager, Mohawk Lifts
Cooperative Procurement— once known as "piggybacking"— is a public procurement method that has skyrocketed in recent years for many reasons.
Cooperative procurement is a method whereby if a government agency has gone through the procurement (bid) process, established a contract for an item or groups of products or issued an award or awards to several vendors, this award can be used by many government agencies for a fixed period of time.
There are many reasons for the growth in cooperative procurement: Groups have more buying power, procurement staffs are shrinking, and writing specs for every single purchase is no longer necessary. As one state procurement director said before his state joined a large procurement co-op, "Why re-invent the wheel when another state and their procurement staff have done all of the work?"
In focusing on the equipment required to maintain public sector fleets, there are several options and opportunities to participate in cooperative procurement for garage equipment, such as the Western State Contracting Alliance; commonly known as the WSCA contract.
This contract—titled vehicle lifts and related garage equipment—is being used by 20 different states. When a state joins a WSCA contract, every city, county or state agency can use the contract. Terms and conditions are clearly spelled out, while the contract itself has a mandate for guaranteed lowest government pricing. Contracting officer Breann Hollandsworth said the contract was one of their fastest-growing contracts and has exceeded anticipated purchases.
All WSCA contracts are competitive bids; multi-year contracts with multiple vendors and a variety of equipment offered on these multiple award schedule (MAS) contracts. Our research on the vehicle lift contract shows there are four brands of lifts offered, multiple vendors and the contract also offers wheel balancers, tire changers and alignment and exhaust evacuation equipment.
An example we found was one vendor's Web site at www.govlifts.com where each state shows a specific state contract, terms, conditions and net discounted and delivered government price.
