Project Information

Bid Title

DAILY MAIL PROCESSING AND BULK MAILING SERVICES

Issuing Agency

City of Lynchburg

Location

Virginia

Published Date

Apr 22, 2026

Closing Date

May 21, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Ref. #

2026-082

Original Source

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Bid Inquiries

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

Bid Number:	2026-082
Bid Title:	DAILY MAIL PROCESSING AND BULK MAILING SERVICES
Category:	Request for Proposals
Status:	Open

Description: OPTIONAL VIRTUAL PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING You can now submit your IFB or RFP response online. Simply click the button below, fill out the form, and attach your documents. Submit Online Publication Date/Time: 4/22/2026 2:30 PM Closing Date/Time: 5/21/2026 4:00 PM Pre-bid Meeting: 04/30/2026 @ 10:00 A.M. Contact Person: MATTHEW.MARSTELLER@LYNCHBURGVA.GOV Related Documents: 2026-082 DAILY MAIL PROCESSING AND BULK MAILING SERVICES

Attachment Preview

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS TITLE PAGE

Include This Page as the First Page in Your Proposal Response

City of Lynchburg, Virginia

Procurement Division

Proposal Title: Daily Mail Processing and Bulk Mailing Services

This is the City of Lynchburg's Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 2026-082, issued April 22, 2026.

Direct inquires for information to: Matt Marsteller; Phone: 434-455-4233 or e-mail at

matthew.marsteller@lynchburgva.gov All requests for clarification of or questions regarding this RFP

must be made in writing and be received by 4:00 p.m. on May 14, 2026. All Addenda shall be issued

no later than 4:00 p.m. on May 15, 2026. All responses to this solicitation shall be in strict accordance

with the requirements set forth in this proposal document and the ensuing contract documents.

Sealed proposals will be publicly accepted prior to 4:00 p.m., May 21, 2026; however, only the names

of firms responding will be available for announcement. Proposals received after the stated due date and

time shall not be considered. Submit proposals electronically through the City’s Bid Postings website as

noted below. Acknowledge all addenda so issued in the space provided below. Any alteration or changes

to this Request for Proposals will be made only by written addendum issued by the City of Lynchburg,

Procurement Division.

An Optional Virtual Pre-proposal meeting will take place on April 30, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. via a Microsoft

Teams link posted to the City’s website at the address listed below.

All Offerors are responsible for obtaining issued addenda from the City’s Procurement website:

http://www.lynchburgva.gov/Bids.aspx

Acknowledge receipt of addenda here: No. ________ Date: _______ No. _______ Date: _______ No. _______ Date:

______

Information the Offeror deems Proprietary is included in the proposal response in section(s):

See Paragraph B. on page 2 for guidelines on submitting proprietary

information.

In compliance with this Request for Proposals and all the conditions imposed therein, the undersigned

offers and agrees to furnish the services in accordance with the attached proposal or as mutually agreed

by subsequent negotiations. By my signature below, I certify that I am authorized to bind the Offeror in

any and all negotiations and/or contractual matters relating to this Request for Proposals. Sign in ink and

type or print requested information.

Full Legal Name of Offeror:

Fed ID OR SOC. SEC. NO.:

Date:

Address:

Signature:

Phone: ( )

E-mail address:

Typed or Printed Name, Title

City Procurement Signature

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I. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

A. To submit a proposal, access the Submit Online button as part of the RFP description on the City’s Bid

Postings webpage: https://www.lynchburgva.gov/Bids.aspx. All proposals submitted should be uploaded

as a single PDF file and must be submitted by the deadline. Late proposals will not be considered.

Proposals will be stored in a secure folder until after the deadline has passed then accessed by

Procurement staff.

B. Submission of Proprietary Information

Trade secrets or proprietary information submitted by an Offeror in connection with this procurement

transaction shall not be subject to public disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act;

however, the Offeror must invoke the protection of this section prior to or upon submission of the data or

the materials, and must identify the data or other materials to be protected and state the reason why

protection is necessary. (Section 2.2-4342 F. of the Code of Virginia). Offerors shall submit, in a

separate section of the proposal, any information considered proprietary and any copyrighted

material and clearly identify the information as proprietary and/or copyrighted information.

Offerors may not declare their entire proposal proprietary nor may they declare proposed pricing

to be proprietary. References may be made within the body of the proposal to proprietary information;

however, all information contained within the body of the proposal not in the separate section labeled

proprietary shall be considered Public Information.

C. Proposals having any erasures or corrections must be initialed by the Offeror in ink.

D. The City reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals, to waive informalities, and to

reissue any request for proposals and to award contracts to multiple Offerors. Any contract resulting from

this Request for Proposal shall not be exclusive to the successful firm. The City reserves the right to

contract with firms not party to the resultant contract for similar work if it determines this to be in their

best interest.

E. By submitting a proposal, the Offeror agrees that the proposal will not be withdrawn for a period of 90

days following the due date for proposal responses.

F. By submitting a proposal, the Offeror certifies that it has not combined, conspired or agreed to

intentionally rig, alter or otherwise manipulate, or to cause to be rigged, altered or otherwise manipulated

its proposal for the purpose of allocating purchases or sales to or among persons, raising or otherwise

fixing the prices of the goods or services, or excluding other persons from dealing with the City.

G. By submitting a proposal, the Offeror certifies that its proposal is made without collusion or fraud and

that it has not offered or received any kickbacks or inducements from any other Offeror, supplier,

manufacturer or subcontracting firm in connection with its proposal; and that it has not conferred on

any public employee having official responsibility for this procurement transaction any payment, loan,

subscription, advance, deposit of money, services or anything of more than nominal value, present or

promised.

H. Nothing herein is intended to exclude any responsible Offeror or in any way restrain or restrict

competition. All responsible Offerors are encouraged to submit proposals.

I. It is the policy of the City of Lynchburg to maximize participation by minority and women owned

business enterprises in all aspects of City contracting opportunities. The City does not discriminate

against faith-based organizations.

J. The City will not be responsible for any expense incurred by any Offeror in preparing and submitting a

proposal. All proposals submitted will become the property of the City.

K. By submitting a proposal, the Offeror is certifying that Offeror is not currently debarred by the City, or in

a procurement involving federal funds, by the Federal Government. A copy of the City debarment

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procedure in accordance with Section 18.1-10 of the City’s Procurement Ordinance is available upon

request.

II. Purpose

The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to obtain proposals from qualified vendors for the

Processing of Daily Mail, Data Processing, Printing, Folding, Inserting, and Bulk Mailing of Specified Bills for

the City of Lynchburg. Vendors will be permitted to sub-contract for the daily mail to be picked up and

delivered to a location and for commingling/pre-sorting/metering services at such location as noted below.

III. Background

The City of Lynchburg has previously contracted the above-mentioned services through BMS Direct, Inc. in

Lynchburg, VA and desires to continue outsourcing them to meet current needs. The current contract expires in

November 2026 and there are no renewal options available.

IV. Scope of Services

A. DATA PROCESSING, PRINTING, FOLDING, INSERTING, & BULK MAILING OF SPECIFIED

BILLS

1. The City of Lynchburg creates either a unique fixed length flat file of data, an XML file, or a PDF for

each billing or form type that is outsourced for printing. The generation of this file is part of an

automated bill run or other process that is performed by customers in various departments. The City

currently uses the following platforms: Tyler Technologies (New World ERP), Catalis, Inc., and other

in-house applications associated with City billing.

2. The file formats, other than PDF, can be one record for an account or multiple records per account.

3. Files that contain multiple records per account can have the same format for each line of data or a

separate “record types” with different data on each of the lines.

4. The length of the file is dependent on the bill type or form type and can range from several

hundred characters to approximately 6,000 characters, with a size range of approx. 60 KB. ‘

5. For the five billing file types (Utility Water Bills, Real Estate, Personal Property, Miscellaneous

Billing, and Miscellaneous Billing Customer Statements), a control record is created that

includes a total number of bills created and a total amount due for all bills. This control record is

used to validate that the printer has received all of the records that are to be printed. As the print

job runs, the printer should be matching their internal control values to the ones supplied by the

City.

6. The billing file and control file are compressed into a single “zip” file.

7. The process that produces the file automatically transmits the “zip” file to a secure FTP site without

intervention of the person who generated the file or without intervention from a computer operations

staff.

8. The vendor must map the data from the fixed length file, or XML file to the City’s pre-designed form. In

some instances, total columns are included as a field in the file and, sometimes, the printer performs

calculations to calculate the total amount based on data in a particular data field or column.

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9. The vendor must be able to filter and segregate some bills from printing based on a column (typically

an account number, but could be some other data field). Sometimes, these bills will not be produced at

all and sometimes they will be printed and returned to the City.

10. The vendor must sort the documents combining like mailing addresses into a single mailing

envelope.

11. Upon receipt of the fixed length flat file, XML file, or PDF file, the printer will perform their processes

to create a proof file to provide back to the City. The printer will provide the proof in an automated

fashion, done either by the printer’s software package, or by allowing a City application to connect to

the printer’s software package to retrieve the proof. Email notifications of job completion should

include the job control totals (number of bills and total amount) from the printing process.

12. The City file originator will review the proof file for accuracy, format, and quality and respond by either

email notification to the vendor, or by use of a vendor portal reporting any problems that need to be

resolved or approval to proceed with printing and mailing the bills or other form types.

13. The vendor must print on 8 ½ X 11” twenty pound bond perforated paper, fold, insert the document,

plus a #9 payment return envelope where applicable, and insert any communication documents into a

#10 double blank window envelope with Return Address Service Requested visible in the top blank

window. The placement of data including the OCR scan line on the payment remit stub is critical to our

ability to process returned payments in an automated scanner environment. The OCR scan line will

contain a modulus 11 check digit.

14. The City will set up and maintain a Postage Escrow Account with the vendor to prepay applicable

postage charges for each job. The vendor must be able to maximize bulk mailing postage rates

under their postal permits with the United States Postal Service. (USPS)

15. The vendor must audit the mailing addresses and correct any format errors in accordance with the USPS

rules for presort bulk mailing. The City requires this to occur prior to sending any bulk mailing to citizens

to have addresses run through the National Change of Address Search process. This is in an effort to

decrease the number of returns and/or incorrect addresses. (The attempt is to update the system of records

prior to mailings being sent.)

16. The vendor will meter the job and deliver the presorted work to the USPS by midnight of the third

workday after the file is released to the vendor. (i.e., Utility Bills are created on Wednesday and

released to the vendor during the afternoon hours. Proofs are sent back to the City within a few hours

and approved or rejected within an hour of transmission. The completed mail is delivered to the USPS

by midnight on Friday. This process repeats every other week throughout the year.)

17. The vendor will provide back to the City a job summary as to the number of bills and total amount of

money billed on each job. The City also requires a report on the number of yellow Cut Off Notices

printed in each job.

18. The vendor must establish internal parameters on each job to accomplish unique features of each job.

(i.e. language/ink coloring on delinquent water bills is made to stand out)

19. The return payment remit stubs cannot have a curl at the top of the form from an improper fold. The OCR

line must measure an exact distance from the bottom of the stub.

20. The vendor must submit itemized invoices including the service date, job description, printer counts,

metered counts, and amount of postage per job. The amount due on the invoice will be for data

processing and print shop services.

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21. The postage charges listed on each invoice will be summarized in a monthly report to the City.

22. The vendor must provide for periodic address validation of the City’s existing billing address files. The

City sends the account number, billing name and address to the printer, they return an Excel spreadsheet

of accounts that need attention. The spreadsheet contains the account number, the address the City has for

the account and the recommended address change based on the NCOA database.

23. Informed Delivery Service – The City would like to begin utilizing a service with tracking capacities

similar to that of Informed Delivery through USPS, which would track every single envelop with a

barcode that would tell City staff if each piece of mail had been delivered, to what address, the date, and

if not, why it was returned (USPS has approx. seven categories) in a format that can then be uploaded to

the GIS dashboards designed for the City.

24. The City has furnished examples of bulk mailings that are necessary. See Attachment B.

B. DAILY OUTGOING MAIL PICKUP AND PROCESSING

1. Picked up and sent as First-Class Mail (commingling/pre-sorting/metering service is required– the

City currently uses such service; the use of a sub-contractor to perform the daily mail pickup and

commingling/pre-sorting/metering service is acceptable to the City)

2. Mail must be picked up daily (Monday – Friday, except Holidays) no sooner than 3:30 p.m. at two

(2) locations, Human Services at 99 9th Street and City Hall at 900 Church Street.

3. Vendor will commingle/pre-sort, meter, seal and deliver all mail to the United States Postal Service

within 24 hours of mail pick up.

4. Vendor will supply forms for each department to attach to bundles of mail for billing purposes.

(samples will be provided to the awarded vendor)

5. One (1) electronic invoice provided in either Excel .xls or .csv format is required for Daily

Outgoing Mail Pickup and Processing. The invoice must be broken down by departments

and include a breakdown of each service charged. Daily Outgoing Mail Pickup and

Processing invoices should be sent directly to the City Finance Department c/o Accounts

Payable. (samples will be provided to the awarded vendor)

6. Vendor shall afford the City all postage savings associated with the bulk metering of

mail. (The City will not accept a vendor or sub-contractor handling daily mail that

passes along full pricing to the City for postage related to daily mail pickup.)

C. GENERAL ITEMS TO NOTE

1. Vendor shall notify the City when a disruption of services is planned or occurs unplanned. For large-scale

system changes such as modifying encryption algorithms, the Service Provider will notify the City at

least one week prior to such change. For planned maintenance and/or upgrades, the vendor will notify

the City at least 24 hours prior to such change. For unforeseen hardware or network failures, the Service

Provider shall notify the City immediately of such disruption in service. All notifications shall include the

type of disruption, anticipated duration, and contact information of a representative of the vendor who is

familiar with the disruption.

2. Vendor shall be SOC II Type II compliant and shall provide their most recent SOC II Type II audit report

from within the past 12 months of operations prior to award of a contract and during any initial or

subsequent contract term as requested by the City. As required by SOC II Type II compliance, vendor

shall have in place an adequate data recovery / business continuity plan capable of complete data

recovery from a different geographical location to protect against regional disaster or catastrophe or in

the event of complete data loss in the local/regional data housing location. Vendor shall include its SOC

II Type II audit report and brief description of their disaster recovery plan with their proposals. This

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Commodity Codes

• NAICS 518210Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
• NAICS 541860Direct Mail Advertising
• NAICS 561431Private Mail Centers
• NAICS 561499All Other Business Support Services

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