Request for qualifications (RFQu): the pre-qualification step before a county or broker offers you rides

What a request for qualifications decides

It decides which companies are approved to be offered work, not who wins one contract. The buyer reads each company’s fleet, insurance, driver files and references, and approves the ones that meet its minimums. Ride companies see it two ways.

• A broker’s enrollment round. Verida starts with a form that comes with a driver list and a vehicle list. It checks whether the region needs more providers, and only then calls for an interview and the documents. Community in Motion, a Washington broker, opens a Request for Qualification for a transportation type or county it is short of, and keeps interested companies on file for the next round. See our broker credentialing guide and the Verida guide.
• A county or transit agency’s contractor pool. Volusia County, Florida, issued a Request for Statement of Qualifications for paratransit contractors, closing April 7, 2026. Two companies responded, and the evaluation committee recommended both for contracts. The county runs about 70 percent of its paratransit trips in-house and contracts the other 30 percent to private for-profit operators.

What a qualification packet asks for

It asks for proof you can run the service, and some buyers add rates. The paperwork is similar from one buyer to the next. Paratransit Services’ packet checklist, for one, lists insurance, a business license, proof of state industrial insurance, a training plan, drug and alcohol policies, a vehicle inventory, letters of reference and a W-9. It also lists ambulatory and wheelchair rate sheets, which means price can be part of the first packet. The full list is on the Paratransit Services guide.

Verida splits it differently, with a short form first and the documents only after it has confirmed a need. Volusia’s awarded agreements attach a fee schedule of rates by contract year, so the county’s round led to priced contracts. Read each checklist before you assume price comes later.

What happens after you qualify

You join a pool, and the buyer then assigns trips as it needs them. Paratransit Services says on its provider page that rides are allocated on a cost basis, so a subcontractor is not guaranteed any amount of work. Volusia’s scope of services says its trip counts are informational and not a guarantee of service levels, and it lets the county change the number of trips it assigns to a contractor by written order. Dispatch sends work through its own system: if a will-call return is not answered within two hours, VoAccess dispatch reassigns the trip. The agreement also says the contractor is not exclusively bound to the county and may serve other buyers.

Terms run for years. Volusia’s agreements run for three years with two optional one-year renewals. In December 2024 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved successor master agreements for as-needed patient transportation with private ambulance companies, whose ambulance and ambulette units the county’s dispatch office calls on. They run from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2030, with up to five one-year extensions to 2035. The county can end an agreement for convenience on 10 days’ written notice, so a qualified spot is a position in a pool and not a guaranteed revenue stream.

Does federal money change how a pool works?

It adds one rule about keeping the list fair. Under 2 CFR 200.319(e), a recipient or subrecipient spending federal funds must keep any prequalified list current, with enough qualified sources to ensure open competition. It must also not preclude potential bidders from qualifying during the solicitation period. Some pools stay open for new entrants: the Los Angeles County request for statement of qualifications is described as continuously open, so more providers can become a resource for the county’s patients over time.

If a county or transit agency tells you its list is closed, ask when the next window opens and whether federal funds pay for the service.

Where an RFQu sits among the other solicitations

A request for qualifications pre-approves companies, a request for quotation asks for a price on a defined purchase, and an RFP asks for a full proposal to win one contract. Some buyers use the letters RFQ for either of the first two, so read the full title. Our government contracts guide shows where each kind is posted.

Keeping your file current

A qualified file is only as good as its dates. HealthRide keeps the expiration dates for each driver’s and vehicle’s licenses, insurance, registrations and certifications in one registry and sends reminders ahead of time. See fleet for how it works.