County evacuation ride contracts and FEMA reimbursement: how a ride company gets paid for evacuation trips

Who pays a ride company for evacuation trips?

The county, state or Tribe that hires you pays you, and FEMA reimburses that government afterward. FEMA’s Public Assistance program does not accept for-profit companies as applicants. It does allow a government to contract with a private company for eligible emergency protective measures, and FEMA then reimburses the government, which compensates the company. A nonprofit that provides emergency services is paid through the government too, when the government asked for the service and a written agreement or contract certifies it.

The federal share is not less than 75 percent of eligible costs, and emergency work is due within six months of the declaration unless the state or FEMA extends the deadline. All of this comes from FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide, Version 5.0 Amended, which covers incidents declared on or after January 6, 2025. The county, not you, files the claim, so what you owe it is a contract it can defend and records that back every dollar.

Your company’s own plan and agreements with nursing homes and hospitals work differently, since a facility hires you for its own residents. Those are on emergency preparedness for NEMT companies.

Which evacuation trips does FEMA reimburse?

Evacuation trips are Category B emergency protective measures, and the guide spells out what is in and out. Transportation to evacuate survivors, and to return them afterward, is eligible, and the mode of transportation must be customary and appropriate for the work.

FEMA’s Public Assistance guide treats these evacuation trips as eligible:

• Patient moves. Moving patients out of an inoperable, compromised or overwhelmed medical or custodial facility to another facility or shelter, and back.
• One-time evacuations. Evacuation by bus, truck or accessible vehicle from pre-established pick-up points, including standby time for drivers and contracted equipment.
• Paratransit vans. Vans for seniors, people with disabilities or access and functional needs, nursing home and assisted living residents and homebound people.
• Care during transport. Food, water and emergency medical care.
• Staged ambulances. Staging ambulances before the event, when the contract is part of the state, Tribal, territorial or regional evacuation plan, eligible until the evacuation and return are done, the threat passes, or the area turns out not to be affected.

It does not fund ambulance service covered by private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or a pre-existing private payment agreement, or transportation for people who evacuate themselves.

The exclusion is written for ambulance services, so ask the county which payer it expects for a wheelchair van trip that a health plan would pay on an ordinary day.

How does a ride company get on the county’s list?

You get on it by winning the county’s solicitation, not by registering with FEMA, and the list that triggers a pickup is the county’s own. There are two lists to keep apart. The first is the registry of people who need help evacuating. Florida’s statute has the state emergency management division, working with each local emergency management agency, keep one (252.355), Miami-Dade County’s program gives registered residents priority, and New Orleans asks residents who cannot leave on their own to build a Smart911 profile with their medical needs. The second is the list of companies the county can call.

For the company list, FEMA’s guide says a prequalified contractor is not entitled to a standby contract and the county must still run full and open competition. A county that wants a pre-positioned contract has to buy it properly, and FEMA reimburses it only when the contract was procured in line with federal rules, covers the work done and was in force on the dates worked.

One way a county does it is to fold the evacuation duty into an everyday ride contract. Monroe County, Florida, put an agreement on its September 9, 2026 commission agenda (item Q6, staff recommending approval) for its Social Services Transportation Disadvantaged Program, which also covers declared-emergency evacuation rides for special needs clients and their caregivers. Only one proposal came in for the county’s RFP-638. The agreement totals $489,468.81 for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, with up to $65,536.70 of that for evacuation. The first calls to make are to your county emergency management office and its purchasing office:

1. Ask which registry or list triggers an evacuation pickup.
2. Ask whether a solicitation or a pre-event agreement is open, planned or already awarded, and who holds it.
3. Ask whether a state emergency management agency keeps a resource list the county uses when its own vehicles run out.
4. Send a short capability sheet: wheelchair positions, stretcher units, a 24-hour phone number and the staff you can field. Government NEMT contracts covers registration and bids.

What does a county evacuation contract look like?

Monroe’s price schedule shows the structure, with a flat price per passenger for each one-way leg.

Its terms are specific:

• All-inclusive prices. No separate mileage, staging, wheelchair or ambulatory differentials, overtime or surcharges. A passenger is one client plus a caregiver, pets and reasonable belongings. The staging area price can be added to a shelter trip.
• No pay for trips not made. A reverse trip bills at the same rate, and any trip not on the schedule needs the county’s written approval before it is made. Invoices go monthly, within 30 days after the service, on a reimbursement basis.
• Activation is controlled. Services start only after a local state of emergency declaration and a request from the county’s emergency management office. Out-of-county evacuations may begin 96 hours before sustained tropical storm force winds, and in-county trips have to be finished within 24.5 hours of those winds. For the run to an out-of-county shelter, the county uses its contracted commercial bus service first and asks the state for resources if the bus is unavailable, and it can put this contractor on standby from 96 to 24.5 hours beforehand.
• First priority. Before, during and after an emergency the county gets first call on the contractor’s services, and the contractor must keep a 24-hour phone line.
• Penalty for breach. Florida Statutes 252.505 requires a $5,000 penalty plus damages for a vendor that breaches a natural emergency response contract during the recovery period. A force majeure claim must be made within 72 hours of the start of a delay or it is waived.

What procurement and contract rules does FEMA enforce?

FEMA reimburses what the county could properly buy, so these rules are the county’s, and they land on your contract.

• Competition. Local governments and nonprofits use micro-purchases, simplified acquisitions, sealed bids or competitive proposals, with a sole-source award allowed only in narrow cases. One is a public exigency or emergency that will not permit the delay of a competitive solicitation (2 CFR 200.320(c)(3)), and it lasts only while the circumstances do.
• Price analysis. Every procurement above the simplified acquisition threshold, $350,000 under the current FAR definition, needs a cost or price analysis, and the county makes an independent estimate before it sees bids (2 CFR 200.324).
• Contract type. Fixed price and cost-reimbursement are the main types. Time and materials is limited to cases where nothing else suits, with a ceiling price and close oversight. Cost-plus-percentage-of-cost contracting is prohibited.
• Required clauses. The county’s contract must include the applicable provisions listed in Appendix II to 2 CFR Part 200 (2 CFR 200.327). For a ride contract that usually means remedies for breach above the simplified acquisition threshold, termination for cause and convenience above $10,000, clean air and water above $150,000, debarment and suspension, the Byrd anti-lobbying certification above $100,000, recovered materials, and the covered telecommunications ban. The equal opportunity clause there is written for federally assisted construction contracts, and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act clause is for contracts that employ mechanics or laborers.
• Debarment check. The county has to confirm the contractor is not suspended or debarred, so keep your registrations and certifications current.

What should you record on every run?

For a large project, the county’s claim to FEMA itemizes each contractor with its name, the dates worked, an invoice number, the amount and a description of the work, and it comes with the procurement file: the solicitation, bids, selection process, cost or price analysis, contract and change orders, and invoices. A time-and-materials contract also needs daily or weekly logs or performance meeting records as proof of oversight. Build your run log so the county’s claim writes itself:

• Activation. Who requested the run, when, in writing, and under which declaration.
• Run details. Date, vehicle, driver, origin, staging area, destination, pickup and drop-off times, and whether the trip was outbound or a return.
• Riders. Each client and caregiver, and the pets, equipment and belongings that went with them.
• Standby. Start and end times and the location for any waiting.
• Mileage and delays. Odometer readings, plus the reason for any delay.

Keeping run records in HealthRide

HealthRide’s driver app keeps working without cell service, and each trip carries GPS-recorded miles, pickup and drop-off times and signatures captured on screen. The live map shows every vehicle, and the trip log exports as a spreadsheet or PDF to attach to your invoice. See reports and the driver app.