[TowerTalk] US Tower Pricing

Fri Jan 6 18:21:04 EST 2017

Let’s get some facts on the table re US Tower prices than maybe this thread can be closed or taken off-line. Don’t worry about cost pricing, IFB’s and all that.

1. US Tower is considered a Commercial Off The Shelf supplier (COTS) and a Small Business (giving it a preference over non-small businesses)

2. US Tower has a GSA Schedule contract that runs Feb 15. 2015 through Feb 14 2020. It appears everything they make or sell is on it.

3. Prices exclude shipping cost.

4. TO THE ISSUE - It would appear (a guess on my part but I negotiated such contracts for many many years) that US Tower increased its amateur radio and other non-government buying prices based on its price disclosures (or maybe not in this case) when negotiating its GSA Schedule. I would hazard a guess that after the contract was in place the GSA Contracting Officer might have found  US Towers selling the same items to non-government entities at lower prices than under the GSA schedule. I’d further guess that perhaps the prices to amateur radio folks had not been disclosed to GSA when negotiating the schedule contract (by oversight I’d hope) but other factors could prevail. If there was a nondisclosure issue their choice to satisfy the Feds may have been to reduce the prices to the government via the GSA Schedule or raise the lower prices (to the non-government and amateur radio market).  If there was a non-disclosure issue there may even have been some nasty penalties involved, not least which would be refunding the difference in price for all sales to the those eligible to buy through the GSA Schedule contract until the price issue was resolved. 

If the government is the predominant buyer of US Tower products, what would you do?

5. Following is a cut of the standard crankups that are on the GSA Schedule contract. The Schedule Price List itself is available for public view. The GSA Schedule contract number is GS-03F-0082W.

MFG P/N Item               DESCRIPTION                                                                                                          LIST PRICE  GSA Disc  GSA With IFF  GSA Disc  QTY PRICING  FOR 26-99 UNITS With IFF GSA Disc QTY PRICING FOR 100+UNITS With IFF

10200-0002-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TMM433HD - 33FT 4 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $2,942.00 3% $2,875.30 1% $2,846.55 5% $2,731.54
10200-0003-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TMM541SS - 41FT 5 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $3,189.00 3% $3,116.71 1% $3,085.54 5% $2,960.87
10400-0001-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TX438 - 38FT 2 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $2,275.00 3% $2,223.43 1% $2,201.19 5% $2,112.25
10400-0002-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TX455 - 55FT 3 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $3,146.00 3% $3,074.68 1% $3,043.93 5% $2,920.95
10400-0003-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TX472 - 72 FT 4 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $5,170.00 3% $5,052.80 1% $5,002.27 5% $4,800.16
10400-0004-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TX472MDP - 72FT 4 SECTION W/ POSITIVE PULL DOWN MOTOR DRIVE $8,318.00 3% $8,129.43 1% $8,048.14 5% $7,722.96
10400-0006-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS TX489MDPL - 89FT 5 SECTION W/ LEVEL WIND MOTOR DRIVE $13,488.00 3% $13,182.23 1% $13,050.40 5% $12,523.12
10600-0001-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX538 - 2 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $2,699.00 3% $2,637.81 1% $2,611.44 5% $2,505.92
10600-0002-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX555 - 55FT 3 SECTION W/ HAND WINCH $4,722.00 3% $4,614.95 1% $4,568.80 5% $4,384.20
10600-0004-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX572MDPL - 72FT 4 SECTION W/ LEVEL WIND MOTOR DRIVE $12,365.00 3% $12,084.69 1% $11,963.84 5% $11,480.45
10600-0005-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX589MDPL - 89FT 5 SECTION W/ LEVEL WIND MOTOR DRIVE $16,186.00 3% $15,819.06 1% $15,660.87 5% $15,028.11
10600-0006-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX689MDPL - 89FT 5 SECTION W/ LEVEL WIND MOTOR DRIVE $43,552.00 3% $42,564.68 1% $42,139.03 5% $40,436.44
10600-0007-0000 TELESCOPING FREE STANDING TOWERS HDX5106MDPL - 106FT 6 SECTION W/ LEVEL WIND MOTOR DRIVE $44,417.00

Let’s look at the HDX689MDPL since it has been mentioned. The GSA Price List says the US Tower commercial List Price is $43,552. I do note that the contract was modified in Feb of 2016. My bet is on 4 above. Since these are commercial items there is nothing else that would have driven price increases for off-Schedule selling, no one has mandated new regulations for such towers and if there were any it would apply to all the manufacturers, including imports. 

In any case, applying the 3% discount sets the 1- to 25 unit price to the Federal Government AND any government contractor approved to use the GSA Schedule buying instrument at $42,564.68 with  IFF applied, currently .75%. But it appears US Tower offers a 1% discount to offset this. The last two prices are for a qty of 26-99 units and 100+units.

           * IFF is a fee GSA charges agencies for using the GSA schedule contracts in order to pay for GSA's contract management costs. Currently, this fee is equal to 0.75% unless otherwise noted.

For FY16 probably through the 3rd Q, US Tower sales through this Schedule contract was $499,290. Who knows what the sales to the amateur radio market was for the same period!!!

Don T W7WLL
CFCM, NCMA Fellow

From: mailto:CrankupTiltoverTowers at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2017 6:57 AM
To: CrankupTiltoverTowers at yahoogroups.com 
Cc: Al Galaxy S6 
Subject: Re: [CrankupTiltoverTowers] Re: New US Tower prices--?

Thank you Mickey.

i hope other tower manufactures don't follow US Tower's foot steps and leave the Amateur Radio community behind.

Glad trees are cheap.

Vin, 73
K1VC

-------- Original message --------From: "Mickey Baker fishflorida at gmail.com [CrankupTiltoverTowers]" <CrankupTiltoverTowers at yahoogroups.com> Date: 1/6/17 9:03 AM (GMT-05:00) To: CrankupTiltoverTowers at yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [CrankupTiltoverTowers] Re: New US Tower prices--? 

I spoke with folks at US Tower as well as HRO.  I had engineering done and was planning on ordering an HDX-589MDPL. The list price for the tower went from $13k to $31k!
HRO is disappointed in the increase, worked with me to get a better price, but there wasn't enough movement to make it even remotely attractive, given product offerings from competitors and availability of towers on the used market. US Tower expects that this price increase will decimate their US Tower sales. I suspect that they're looking for a replacement product in their catalog.
I was told that this was a unilateral decision on behalf of US Towers. 
The reason that US Tower gives is that their manufacturing costs have skyrocketed because of the demand for compliance to federal government manufacturing standards has reduced their profit margin across the board.
I suspect that it is a bit more complex than this. The federal government requires that they get the best pricing on any given product.  If you sell that product to others for less than you're selling to the government, then you're in violation of Federal procurement laws. The US government has been serious about enforcing these rules since they were first established 150 years ago when the Army was buying mules.
There are ways around this - but a relatively small (Hoover's says $20M) company like US Tower likely cant afford to diverge their products into federal and non-federal product lines with differentiation that would keep them out of trouble. 
So, thanks to Amateur Radio, US Tower had the right product for the government at the right time. Now they've got themselves into a situation where they're too expensive for amateurs.
If you have federal government procurement and manufacturing strategy experience, or have helpful comments, I'd suggest that you call or write Bruce Kopitar, US Tower CEO at their offices in California.
73,
Mickey N4MB

Mickey Baker, N4MB
Palm Beach Gardens
“Tell me, and I will listen. Show me, and I will understand. Involve me, and I will learn.” Teton Lakota, American Indian Saying.

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