Florida DOT develops vehicle procurement program
In many of the smaller agencies in Florida that provide public transportation services, the person responsible for vehicle procurement cannot always devote a considerable amount of time to the process because of other duties and responsibilities. To assist those agencies, the Florida Department of Transportation, through an agreement with CUTR, has developed the Florida Vehicle Procurement Program (FVPP). This program provides agencies with technical assistance and guidelines for vehicle procurement and an opportunity to procure certain transit vehicles at prices that are less than they would otherwise have to pay.
Oversight of this program is through the FVPP Advisory Committee, which is composed of FDOT District representatives, public transit agencies, and a representative of the Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged. This allows for program input from a wide array of transit professionals and purchasers.
Program Highlights
In preparing technical specifications, the FVPP reviews different types and ages of various agencies’ vehicles to observe how they are holding up and talks with the agencies about what kind of maintenance problems they are experiencing. Bus manufacturers are contacted about those areas that seem to have common premature wear or failures to determine how to resolve those problems in the technical specifications.
Paul Johnson, FVPP Program Manager at FDOT, said, "Agency participation in the first year’s statewide group bid was much greater than we anticipated. As a result, agencies were able to purchase better built, well-equipped buses at considerably lower prices than they otherwise would have gotten had they bid and purchased individually."
Most agencies are enthusiastic about the program because it does not end after the contract is awarded. The FVPP is involved in overseeing the manufacturing process and vehicle delivery. Random in-plant inspections are conducted to ensure the build process fully complies with the technical specifications and monitors overall quality of construction. Any discrepancies noted are brought to the manu-facturer’s attention and are corrected prior to the vehicle leaving the plant.
Prior to delivery, additional inspections are conducted in conjunction with those required by Federal Transit Administration regulations. Again, any noted dis-crepancies are corrected prior to the vehicle reaching the purchasing agencies.
After delivery, periodic checks and customer satisfaction surveys are conducted to determine how the vehicle is performing. Special attention is given in the areas of brakes, transmissions, front suspension, tire wear, and warranty issues. Any warranty issues or other performance problems are brought to the manufacturer’s attention for immediate corrective action and maintained in a database for comparative analyses over the next several years. All agencies, including those agencies that do not participate in the group procurement, are encouraged to share performance and maintenance data for inclusion in the database.
The 1996 group procurement resulted in the purchase of 172 vehicles. The successful bidder was Getaway Marketing of Bradenton (Florida), who supplied a total of 115 cut-away type vehicles to 32 agencies at an average cost of $45,000 each and 56 modified vans to 34 agencies at an average cost of $32,000 each.
The bid process for the 1997 Statewide Contracts has already begun, with a bid award being made sometime in late February. Changes from last year’s group procurement include the option to extend the contract for up to two years and the inclusion of single-rear- wheel, cut-away type vehicles.
According to Bob Westbrook of FDOT, "The program will continue to conduct random line inspections, vendor performance surveys, and surveys on the performance of the vehicles."
Other Assistance
Agencies also may take advantage of other types of assistance the FVPP offers. If an agency wants to do its own procurement, the FVPP Resource Center maintains a database on recent procurement that can help an agency know what similarly-equipped vehicles have been selling for. The FVPP can also assist with putting together bid packages, technical specifications, and information on required pre-award and post-delivery audits. The Resource Center will also include materials from state and federal sources related to vehicle procurement and vehicle construction, including Altoona bus testing reports covered by this program.For more information, contact FVPP Project Manager Mike Crittenden at (813) 974-1271 or by email at crittend@cutr.usf.edu.
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