THE PURCHASING DIVISION AND THE TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT/TRANSIT DIVISION RECOMMEND APPROVAL OF THE ABOVE MOTION.
This item supports the Board's Goal to "provide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance Broward County’s economy and livability" and was approved by the Transportation Oversight Board at its April 25, 2019 meeting.
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 84 Ford Transit Collins T24 commercial standard cutaway vehicles utilizing Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Contract No. TRIPS-17-CA-FTS-C. The total cost per vehicle from Florida Transportation Systems, Inc. (FTS), which includes all necessary options required by the County, is $69,522. Forty-six vehicles will be for the replacement of aging cutaway van vehicles that are beyond their useful life and 38 vehicles will be to increase the fleet capacity of the Paratransit Program allowing for growing ridership and to provide a 15% spare vehicle capacity.
In accordance with Section 21.36 of the Procurement Code, the Director of Purchasing may purchase directly, without bid or quotations, from General Services Administration (GSA) contracts, or from offers whose price exactly equals GSA contracts from vendors awarded such GSA contracts, or 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 purchase therefrom. 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-FTS-C, Standard Cutaway Chassis Type Transit Vehicles, was competitively solicited as a Request for Proposal (RFP) by Transit Research Inspection Procurement Services (TRIPS). Six responses were received from the RFP posted on October 18, 2016 and publicly opened on December 16, 2016. 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 eighty-four vehicles from FTS (Exhibit 1).
FDOT pre-negotiated the pricing, which represents an additional cost savings benefit for the 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.
A price analysis was performed by FDOT prior to award and the prices submitted by FTS were determined to be fair, reasonable and aligned with market analysis for the industry (Exhibit 3).
The Transit Division has reviewed the contract and additional submittals by FTS, and concurs with the recommendation for award (Exhibit 4).
Upon receipt of the vehicles, they will be converted to run on Propane Autogas utilizing existing County contracts at a reduced cost. Propane, rather than gasoline or diesel, is less expensive, domestically produced and produces reduced air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions.
No vendor performance evaluations have been completed for FTS.
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