Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 94-131
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94 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Project purpose: Most of the literature on contracting focuses on cost benefit analyses. The purposes of this synthesis are to examine the process of procurement and oversight to ensure quality fixed-route bus transit services and to provide summary information and case examples that can be used by transit systems in their decision making process.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 95 2. How many buses does your agency operate in maximum service?
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96 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Take on financial responsibility and indemnifies the City. While we provide the contractor vehicles, our Service Provider insures them.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 97 has gone downhill while the contracting market over the last 10 years has been getting more and more aggressive for pricing. It is less of a partnership in the industry now more like a financial relationship.
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98 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service ensuring the agency manages the data consistently, whether the service was directly operated and contracted. The contract management work group works hard to forge and maintain relationships with the system owners and to have a seat at the table on work groups that handle the various technology systems within our agency.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 99 Monitoring the collection of good data to report to the National Transit Database (i.e., deadhead miles, vehicle revenue hours, vehicle revenue miles, and missed service)
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100 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Encouraging bidders to bid RFP. In order to overcome this I went to the annual State transit association meeting and encouraged vendors and networked with transit providers.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 101 Contracting has been very cost effective for the agency, but even more importantly contractors are more agile and flexible than direct public agency employees. Wide range of area specific expertise, from across the world, applied to local needs to improve or maintain operations and a certain level of service.
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102 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service We have removed the day-to-day operational issues from the consideration of our executive leadership and board of directors. This includes establishing a clear line with regards to issues of collective bargaining.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 103 We have had the same primary operator since the 1970s. It is not clear that our arrangement maximizes cost effectiveness.
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104 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Building the RFP and having maintenance included in the per mile cost. This reduced the parts inventory and streamlined accounting.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 105 We recently did a joint contract with a State agency for transportation services, where we share the contractor split the costs. The state agency was going from a Management Contract model to an Operations and Maintenance Contracting model.
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106 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Have agency own operating locations rather than having the contractors provide them. Spending more time in the pre-bid, pre-qualifications process.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 107 Agencies must supply the necessary facilities and buses and ensure, even if through 3rd party periodic audits, that they are maintained. Otherwise, a jurisdiction may fall into a trap (which we are in)
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108 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service as close to a pure "labor contract" as possible. Anything the contractor brings to the table will include profit and OH.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 109 large, international transportation vendor with significant experience. The recommended vendor is the American subsidiary of another large, international transportation vendor with significant local experience with long-standing operations contracts (decades-long)
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110 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service 15. What elements does your agency include in a contracting RFP?
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Transit Agency Survey Results 111 17. How are proposals evaluated?
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112 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Price is evaluated separately from the technical proposal. There was also the optional interview (optional to the one running the procurement)
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Transit Agency Survey Results 113 IGE, or ICE? For our ICE we polled the State PTA Listserv, and called various agencies on each proposer's list to see what their cost ranges were.
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114 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service other proposers at the time) and this later impacted the quality and number of staff on the contract as the vendor never fully staffed the contract as it proposed.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 115 24. Are the services provided under your most recent fixed-route bus service contract .
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116 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Rate per revenue hour with replacement costs, fuel, and some maintenance supplies paid directly by the agency. Training hours Two components -- revenue hours for variable costs and then a monthly fixed fee to cover fixed costs.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 117 31. Does the current contract include contractor performance provisions (incentives, penalties, or liquidated damages)
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118 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Damages has increased greatly with the new contract, I have been slowly adding in new damages to be applied and I give the contractor a date in which the next damage we are going to focus on will be applied. There were a lot of performance issues when I got here, but applying damages in a progressive manner it meant the contractor could bring performance back into line in a reasonable manner.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 119 more than 15 minutes late Damages = $100 per missed trip. In addition, payment for vehicle hours corresponding to all missed trips will be deducted from the monthly invoice.
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120 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service any less than satisfactory rating. CHP Revenue Vehicle Safety Inspection Achieve a satisfactory rating in all categories in the CHP Safety Compliance Report.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 121 35. Has your agency ever assessed liquidated damages under the current contract?
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122 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service 41. Please describe the most serious transition problem and how it was resolved.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 123 primarily branded as our services, many customers did not understand and either went to wait for the bus anyway (which never showed up) or thought the strike was our fault.
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124 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Depreciation of operating facilities 13 36.1% Accounts payable and payroll 5 13.9% Cash counting and farebox maintenance 26 72.2% Human resources and recruiting costs 1 2.8% Contract administration 27 75.0% Third party vehicle inspection 15 41.7% Internal audit 13 36.1% Driver training 19 52.8% Verification of NTD and other data 28 77.8% Street supervision 17 47.2% Dispatch 18 50.0% Background checks 11 30.6% Drug and alcohol testing 31 86.1% Operations department management 23 63.9% Operator training and safety 22 61.1% Other (please specify) 4 11.1% Other includes: DBE Accessibility -- announcements, customer service to persons with disabilities, functioning lifts/ramps.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 125 1 Less than 1 FTE 0.3 1 4 4 41 FTEs 3 1 3 FTE 3 2 All 2.25 of us! We have introduced AVL/CAD and Paratransit Scheduling Software that greatly enhances the ability of our micro-staff to monitor contractor performance, but it's still an issue.
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126 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service Poor 1 2.8% Very poor 0 0.0% Multiple contractors; depends on the contractor 1 2.8% 52. Who has responsibility for collecting operating data, including NTD data?
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Transit Agency Survey Results 127 Whatever is published to NTD. Ridership, on-time performance, services hours, passenger miles NTD reports Monthly reports are given to our Board of Directors showing passengers, revenue hours and miles.
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128 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service 58. How does your agency resolve disputes with its contractor?
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Transit Agency Survey Results 129 Safety, which is addressed through direct communication with the contractor. Customer service.
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130 Contracting Fixed-Route Bus Transit Service seamlessly as possible. This is accomplished through oversight of the contractor, communication and review of the contractors OTP.
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Transit Agency Survey Results 131 There are pros and cons to both models. I think an agency has to think about its goals and challenges and which model can best suit it.
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