Pennsylvania COSTARS Cleaning Contracts

Pennsylvania runs its public purchasing through two separate lanes that a janitorial contractor needs to understand before quoting anything: the Department of General Services' direct agency procurement system, and COSTARS, the statewide cooperative that lets counties, school districts, municipal authorities, and nonprofits buy off contracts DGS already competed. Confusing the two wastes bid cycles. COSTARS is not a place you submit a proposal for a specific building; it is a master contract vehicle that thousands of local buyers piggyback on once DGS has awarded it.

How COSTARS actually works for a cleaning company

COSTARS is administered out of DGS's Bureau of Procurement. DGS runs the competitive solicitation, negotiates pricing and terms, and awards a master agreement to one or more suppliers in a given commodity or service category. Once that award is final, any of the program's registered local public purchasing agencies (municipalities, school districts, county governments, volunteer fire companies, and certain nonprofits) can order directly from the awarded vendor at the contracted price, with no additional bid required on their end. For a cleaning contractor, that means one successful proposal to DGS can open the door to work with a large pool of buyers across the commonwealth, but it also means you never negotiate one-off pricing with each town or school district that calls; you are bound to the rate card in the master agreement.

Janitorial and custodial work under COSTARS typically falls into two buckets: bulk consumables and equipment (mops, liners, chemicals, paper products) procured under supply-focused categories, and actual cleaning labor procured under service categories that DGS opens on a periodic cycle. The service side draws fewer bidders because it requires bonding, staffing capacity across a state-sized territory, and insurance limits that smaller regional companies often cannot carry, which is exactly why the field stays less crowded than a single-building commercial bid.

Getting your firm registered to sell into the Commonwealth

Before you can chase either COSTARS or a direct agency bid, you need a Commonwealth vendor number. Registration runs through the Department of State's Bureau of Commonwealth Solicitor filings paired with the DGS supplier registration on the eMarketplace portal, free with no third-party fee required, though the intake paperwork (W-9, insurance certificates, references) takes most first-time applicants a week or two to assemble properly. Once registered, you self-certify or apply for small business status with DGS's Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities (BDISBO). Self-certification as a Small Business Vendor is a short online process, typically completed same-day once your documentation is ready. If you hold or want a Small Diverse Business (SDB) or Veteran Business Enterprise (VBE) designation, BDISBO verifies an existing third-party certificate within roughly 10 business days, or up to about 90 days if you are applying fresh through a third-party certifier they recognize.

These designations are not decorative. On Commonwealth-run solicitations, DGS builds evaluation criteria that credit SDB and VBE participation, and many agencies set participation targets for prime contractors to hit through subcontracting with certified small and diverse firms. A janitorial company that runs its own certification and can also document a subcontractor plan with certified partners is competing on more than price.

When COSTARS opens a janitorial services category

DGS does not run janitorial service solicitations constantly. The custodial supplies category (commodities like paper, liners, chemicals, and equipment) tends to have multiple active suppliers at any time, but the labor/services side opens far less often, historically on a multi-year cycle when the incumbent's term nears expiration. Watching for a services solicitation means monitoring the PA eMarketplace bid listings directly rather than waiting for a COSTARS newsletter. Once DGS publishes the RFP, expect the standard Commonwealth proposal structure: technical narrative, staffing and supervision plan, references from comparable-scale accounts, and a firm price schedule that DGS will hold you to for the life of the award, typically with defined escalation language for subsequent contract years.

If you are not positioned to win the full statewide award, do not ignore the parallel track: individual school districts, boroughs, and authorities that are COSTARS members can still choose to run their own local bid instead of buying off the cooperative contract, particularly for building-specific service needs that a statewide vendor cannot staff efficiently. These smaller, local solicitations post on district and municipal websites and in local legal notices, and they are where a regional BSC without statewide staffing capacity has a realistic shot.

Pricing a Pennsylvania bid without losing money on year two

The mistake we see most often from BSCs new to Commonwealth work is pricing the first year tight to win, then discovering the escalation clause in a COSTARS or agency contract caps annual increases below what health insurance and payroll actually cost. Build your rate assuming the award will run three to five years and that your escalation ceiling, not your input costs, controls what you can recover in year three. Pennsylvania does not set a statewide prevailing wage floor for commercial janitorial contracts the way it does for public works construction under the Prevailing Wage Act. That statute applies to construction trades, not routine custodial service labor. Your wage floor on a COSTARS or agency janitorial award is generally whatever you bid, constrained by any minimum-wage or living-wage ordinance in the specific municipality where the work sits. Check the local ordinance for any city or county named in the solicitation before you finalize labor cost; several PA municipalities carry higher local minimums than the state rate.

On the supplies side of COSTARS, margin discipline matters more than most contractors expect: because thousands of buyers can order at the listed price with zero negotiation, a chemical or equipment line priced too thin in year one becomes an unrecoverable loss multiplied across every school district and township that reorders for the life of the contract.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to be a COSTARS supplier to sell to a Pennsylvania school district? No. School districts can run their own procurement for janitorial services rather than buying off COSTARS, especially for building-specific labor contracts. COSTARS is one channel, not the only channel.

How long does a COSTARS award last? Award terms vary by category and solicitation, but DGS typically structures cooperative contracts to run several years with option periods, meaning the next open competition for janitorial services may not appear for a while after an award is made.

Does PA give a bid preference for small or diverse businesses? DGS builds SDB and VBE participation into agency evaluation criteria and subcontracting expectations rather than a single fixed statewide percentage discount; check the specific solicitation's evaluation section for how participation is weighted.

Where do I watch for new janitorial solicitations? The PA eMarketplace bid opportunities listing under DGS is the primary source; COSTARS-specific award notices post on the COSTARS program pages at dgs.pa.gov.