Glossary / Contracts
Contract vehicle
A contract vehicle is any already-awarded contract or agreement that a buyer can place orders against: GSA's Multiple Award Schedule, a governmentwide acquisition contract such as Alliant or SEWP, an agency's own multiple-award IDIQ, or a blanket purchase agreement. The vehicle sets the terms, the ceiling and the pool of eligible holders; each order is a smaller, faster competition among them or a direct award. Winning a seat on a vehicle is a competition of its own, and orders then flow for years.
Why it matters to your pipeline
A large share of federal services and IT dollars moves through vehicles, which means a company without a seat cannot see or bid much of that work. Holding a vehicle is a business in itself: the holder must watch the order stream and respond fast. GovSmith's Search tracks the on-ramps and the orders on the vehicles a client holds or is pursuing, including the ones forwarded from the holder-only portals.
When this term shows up in an opening GovSmith finds for you, your vCM explains what it means for that pursuit and does whatever it calls for. You decide; we do the work.
Example
A firm wins a seat on a Navy multiple-award IDIQ with twenty holders. Over three years it competes for sixty task orders and wins nine, with proposals of ten pages or fewer each time.
Find out what applies to you
Some terms will matter to your business right away and some won’t for years. A vCM can tell you which are which.