U.S. Postal Service, Headquarters Purchasing, Room 4541, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 20260-6230

B -- HOUSEHOLD DIARY SURVEY SOL 102590-99-A-0026 DUE 122198 POC Gordon MacMahon, 202-268-2216 E-MAIL: Click here to contact the purchasing specialist by, gmacmaho@email.usps.gov. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is soliciting proposals for a 4-year effort that involves surveying 5,300 households a year and reporting the results. Potential offerors will be prequalified to compete for this contract (the DUE date in the heading is the date Prequalification Statements, as explained below, will be due). USPS has conducted this survey and reported the results in the Household Diary Survey every year since 1987. The data is used to support decisions regarding the mailstream and how it is affected by our rate structure. The contract resulting from the solicitation will be for the next 3 "study years" (fiscal years 2000, 2001, and 2002). Each "study year" currently takes 26 months to complete. The 5,300 households are randomly selected but distributed by ZIP Code throughout the 48 contiguous states (the sample has been divided into clusters of between 4 and 12 households within a randomly-selected ZIP Code, and the clusters dispersed throughout the nation). For the 18 weeks between Labor Day and the end of December, 200 diaries are completed each week. For the remaining 34 weeks of the year, 50 diaries are completed each week. Each household volunteers to participate and to be interviewed in person by the contractor before it begins tracking mail coming in and leaving the household in a "diary" for 1 week. The interview portion of the survey asks detailed questions about the household, such as the number of people in the household, their educational levels, income, whether they own a PC or plan to buy one, if they use credit cards, how they pay their bills, etc. The diary portion records the amount of mail, types of mail, content, senders and recipients, etc. Although the diary is self administered by the respondent, the interviewer must be available by phone to answer questions. Households are paid a $20 for participating in the survey. The data from the interviews and diaries are entered, cleaned, weighted by U.S. Census demographics, and put into report format both quarterly and annually. At the end of the year, the contractor produces the Household Diary Study, an extensive report (currently about 700 pages), available to the public, which contains summary data from the most current year, as well as previous years. The contractor will produce the Household Diary Study for fiscal years 2000, 20001, and 2002. For consistency and integrity, the contractor must follow the existing methodology adapted from already-developed materials, with minor revisions, unless superior technologies or methods are proposed. Over the course of the contract, the contractor will have to revise the interview and diary materials to accommodate new rate structures, mail identification requirements, and rate schedules as they occur; to respond to analyses of study data indicating the need for new or expanded response codes, and to accommodate evolving Postal Service priorities (by trading new materials for old). The solicitation requires potential offerors to submit a Prequalification Statement addressing specific pastperformance and capability elements. A list of prequalified sources for this requirement will be developed from offerors submitting Prequalification Statements. Not all suppliers responding to the solicitation will necessarily be placed on the prequalified list. The prequalified list may be limited to suppliers considered most qualified to meet this requirement, or to a smaller list that will provide adequate competition. Offerors on the list will be contacted to submit a written price proposal and make oral presentations of their price and technical proposal. The solicitation is expected to be issued on 12/7/98. Requests for the solicitation must be in writing and be received by 12/3/98. You may fax your request to Gordon MacMahon at 202-268-3888, or send it by e-mail to gmacmaho@email.usps.gov. Posted 11/24/98 (W-SN274508). (0328)

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