Factors reflecting bids in procurement of bus transports

Abstract

Purpose

To facilitate the choice of the winning bid in the public procurement of bus transports in Sweden and to make sure that the winning bid has the qualities that are requested, the placed demands are very detailed. On the other hand, the detailed demands will lead to limitations and could force the operator to use less environmentally friendly alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors regarding the buses and their properties that are commonly used in the public procurement process and analyze their level of details.

Design/methodology/approach

The method is to collect and study foundations from the process of public procurement of bus transport for three years in Sweden.

Findings

The result shows the most common and relevant aspects regarding the buses and their properties that have been requested and taken into consideration when creating the final contracts. Most of the demands regarding the factors were also described in very great detail.

Research limitations/implications

The study is done with data from three years. The demands have only been classified on two levels: detailed and non‐detailed.

Practical implications

The results enlighten the amount of demands that are specified in the foundations for public procurement of bus transports. While these demands make the base for the contracts, they are important for the decision makers in public transports.

Originality/value

The paper shows a general overview of hard and soft demands regarding factors that have been expressed in the foundations for public procurement of bus transports for the previous three years.

Citation

Lidestam, H. (2013), "Factors reflecting bids in procurement of bus transports", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 526-537. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-06-2012-0041