Hello to everyone in the Million Dollar Community! As always, I hope this message finds you all doing well and business is booming!
I'm sorry I wasn't able to send this message out sooner, but we've been swamped today due to this UPRR issue other business interests.
As many of you know, the UPRR contract is HUGE in size and scope with GREAT upside and opportunity.
However, their rollout with regards to the UMTPG has been nothing short of, in my opinion, a disaster! In short, they were NOT prepared for all of our member-providers, bottom line.
How this problem "snuck up on them," for the life of me, I have NO idea! We sent them a list of all our active members and later associated profiles for those of you who shared such information over these past few weeks.
As Monica said in her initial email response to me earlier today, "We simply don't have the staff to manage that many suppliers.... We are definitely interested in the possibility of using some of your suppliers as subcontractors for some of our firms."
I had a conference call with Maribeth and Monica. Essentially, it was their hope that the UMTPG was going to bid directly on the UPRR contract as the "parent company" and then subcontract to all our members (Again, for the life of me, I have no idea how such miscommunication was even possible AFTER SHARING ALL OUR MEMBER PROFILES!!).
As I reminded them, it is them, the UPRR, who solicited us, the UMTPG, for this RFP a few months ago - just before we initially shared the information with all of you.
As I explained to Maribeth and Monica, they should have made such a desire abundantly clear. Even more, they would have needed to afford us more time to build infrastructure to accommodate the UMTPG potentially becoming a prime contractor to serve as the "parent company."
When I asked how this situation happened after receiving all our member profiles, they essentially said they didn't realize all of you were actually interested in this RFP! (Duh!!)
Despite this RFP rollout being a complete cluster F, in my humble opinion, they realize the benefit and increased capacity many of our members can afford their network logistics. We we're able to discuss specificity today because this RFP is still in the bidding process, but they are very interested in enlisting some of our members to serve as subcontractors to their primes.
I CLEARLY articulated, and I think they realize, the difference between using the services of our member-providers versus some of the other services such as Uber and Lyft. Without saying it directly, I think they recognize the reliability in dealing with providers such as our members who are trained, properly insured, etc., versus independent operators via rideshare.
I do know they looked through at least a large portion of the member profiles we sent over because when they mentioned their interest in some of our providers they "some have fleet sizes we would be interested in and others are too small at this point."
Long story short, the way we left our conversation is (1) we are going to remain in communication beyond the bidding process so we can, at that point, determine how and where some of our members can serve as subcontractors to their primes to help increase capacity and give them options, and (2) explore the prospects of the UMTPG becoming a prime agency for them in the future.
Although this entire situation has been quite the experience, I really think they are pleasantly impressed with many of our providers and the UMTPG overall - and that's a direct testament to all of you!!
Needless to say, we are definitely going to continue to following up with them and see where this UPRR opportunity leads us and how our member-providers can leverage the opportunity.
In the interim, there are two things I definitely encourage you all to do as follows:
1. Apply for and get all possible certifications your business might qualify for - Minority Owned Business, Woman Owned Business, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Veteran Owned Business, etc., etc., etc. Anything you qualify for - get it! It will serve you for a possible UPRR contract, VA contracts, and others.
2. If you're not yet an active UMTPG member, STOP wasting time! So many people wait until opportunity is pressing down on top of them before considering to take action, but by that time it's too late to take advantage. NO ONE has time to help you try and play catchup!
Trust me, trust me, trust me, I get it. Some of you think I'm just trying to separate you from your money and scam you out of $47 a month! Needless, to say, if you REALLY think there's enough "meat on the bone," enough margin on that amount of money after paying my staff and resources for ALL they do in support of our active members, you're seriously delusional! Seriously, do the math for yourself. It's laughable!
Bottom line, the UMTPG is here to help and support you, our active members, to the best of our ability and we will continue to share REAL opportunities whenever possible versus the good-old-boy convention clubs.
See you at the Top!
Joel E. Davis
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