THE PURCHASING DIVISION AND THE TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT/TRANSIT DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the Board's vision of a sustainable system of world-class intermodal transportation, infrastructure, quality human services, public safety, affordable housing, recreation, arts and culture, complementing and balancing our natural resources and environment and its values cooperatively delivering an efficient and accessible regional intermodal transportation network, encouraging investments in renewable energy, sustainable practices and environmental protection, and consistently delivering responsive, efficient, quality services to the public and internal customers by purchasing vehicles that run on propane fuel, which will reduce the use of fossil fuels and contribute to the County’s Climate Change Action Plan initiatives.
The Office of Economic and Small Business Development did not assign goals for this procurement because it is based on the use of a pre-existing State of Florida contract.
The purpose of this contract is to purchase 20 cutaway-type vehicles via the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Contract No. TRIPS-17-CA-CBS at a unit cost of $109,152 for Transit Division.
In accordance with Section 21.36 of the Procurement Code, the Director of Purchasing may purchase directly from federal, state or local contracts, when the contract expressly permits or if the awarding jurisdiction and/or the vendor agree to allow the County to utilize the contract. By purchasing from this contract, the County will benefit from lower costs available through competitive pricing based on large volume discounts.
The State of Florida Solicitation No. TRIPS-17-CA-RFP, Standard Cutaway Chassis Type Transit Vehicles, was competitively solicited as a Request for Proposal (RFP) by Transit Research Inspection Procurement Services (TRIPS). The RFP posted on October 18, 2016 and publicly opened on December 16, 2016 with six responses received. TRIPS is a collaboration between FDOT’s Office of Freight, Logistics and Passenger Operations and the University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research. Broward County Transit obtained FDOT’s approval to purchase 20 vehicles from Creative Bus Sales, Inc. (Exhibit 1).
By utilizing FDOT’s contract, the County is taking advantage of lower costs available through competitive pricing based on large volume discounts. FDOT pre-negotiated the pricing, which represents an additional cost-savings benefit for Broward County. Additionally, the County is benefiting by realizing economies of scale, reducing administrative costs of project solicitation, having a direct relationship with the manufacturer for added quality control, and the ability to select and customize vehicles that meet the County’s requirements. The contract also allows the County to promote its ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability by purchasing vehicles modified to use propane fuel. Propane, rather than gasoline or diesel, is less expensive, domestically produced and produces lower emissions.
Creative Bus Sales, Inc. (CBS) is the only Vendor that meets the vehicle requirements needed to support the Community Bus Program that is specific to vehicle type, size, seating capacity, type of fuel and fueling capacity. A price analysis was performed by FDOT prior to award and the prices were determined to be fair, reasonable and aligned with market analysis for the industry (Exhibit 5).
The amounts referenced in this agenda were rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Vendor payments will be based on the actual bid amount.
The Transit Division has reviewed the contract and additional submittals by CBS, and concurs with the recommendation for award (Exhibit 2).
No vendor performance evaluations have been completed for CBS.
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