Someone mentioned to me that they heard of a type of contract vehicle where by an agency can "boot a contractor" off of a Multiple Award Schedule if they so choose, and replace them with another contractor. I am told this method is used at ARMY SOCOM and TRANSCOM. I googled this, and could not find any helpful information. Can anyone shed light on this? I have never heard of such a mechanism. If this is in the FAR, can you give me the FAR cite?

I'm not aware of what those two agencies specifically do but the general concept is often described as "off ramp" and "on ramp". It is used with respect to pools of multiple award IDIQ contracts. Essentially the "off ramp" provisions allow the agency to not continue further with contractors for various reasons - a small business grew to large status, failure to win a minimum amount of business, past performance data not meeting criteria, etc. Often this occurs simply by the agency not exercising the next option period.

"On ramp" is more like an open season where the competition is opened up for additional firms to compete for available slots. This might be for a reason such as replacing contractors thqt went through the "off ramp" experience.

Real world example - GSA's 8(a) STARS vehicle had 2 off-ramp provisions at the end of the base period. First one was if vendor could not re-certify that they were still an 8(a). Second was for vendors that had not received $100K worth of orders in the base period (3 year period). Option period was not exercised for vendors falling into these categories. Don't remember the exact number but want to say over 100 vendors did not get their options exercised.

Along these lines. Are we required to have the on/off ramp provisions in the solicitation/contract? Is there anything that prevents us from, for example, opening up the competition in an effort to add to the pool of contractors without the onramp clause?