mail meter pricing/award structure

Supes said:

i'm trying to setup an order for a mail meter that's entirely FFP but I'm getting pushback from my team lead who is now saying that because mail rates are set by the post office there has to be a NTE line item (either cost or t&m) to directly reimburse the ktr. can't I just set up something that's FFP where we send them X amount at the beginning of each month that the ktr can use to refill the machine? i'd just deob any remaining money at the end of our contract.

My thought that may lay in between.   Commercial product/service, right?  So why not fashion your procurement based on market research of how the industry provides meters to cusotmers.  And, if they do it as you want to proceed, then use the market research to convince your team lead.

Supes, what are you buying with the order - use of the meter, postage or something else?

Retreadfed said:

Supes, what are you buying with the order - use of the meter, postage or something else?

my understanding is that the ktr will collect mail pieces, apply bar codes, sort the pieces, use the meter to generate the postage, then give that mail to the postman (or deliver it to the post office).

The NTE amount isn’t really necessary and not part of commercial practices.  When someone uses all the available funding, thr machine won’t generate postage.  So your approach providing funds periodically makes sense.  You could include language that the contractor should notify you when X% of the postage funding is reached.  That allows time to replenish the machine if workload increases beyond estimates.