The selection criterion for the maintenance service provider is also an important part of the public tendering process. Now that the "Alliance Model" has been included in the mix of maintenance models, there is a 100% Quality element (other criteria than price) to the selection criteria.
The results of the project shows that selection criteria vary from 100% price to 100% quality and are usually different for each type of model used and with the country practices. Table 12 also shows the typical variations in "Contractor Selection Criteria" from each country.
Of the countries utilizing the "Cold Climate Model" there is a split between the lowest prices to about 75% price. FDOT and British Columbia Canada are exceptions as FDOT uses 40% price and British Columbia Canada uses 60% price for the selection of the maintenance service provider. Of the other "Cold Climate Model" countries Estonia and Finland use the 75% price as the others (Alberta Canada, Norway, Ontario Canada, and Sweden) are using essentially the lowest price.
In countries utilizing the "Anglo-Saxon Model" there is more consistency in the selection criteria, as they are using what is sometimes referred to as "Best Value", which uses about 50% price or less for the selection of the maintenance service provider. This may be due to the fact that resurfacing and other highly skilled activities included in these types of contracts require some evaluation of the service provider's competence and ability to perform integrated maintenance activities over a long duration. The "Alliance model" (E-MAC model) is used in England and has the 100% quality criteria for the contract award. Even some countries have utilized or included "risk elements" into the contract. This can be quite beneficial as the risks are already determined during the procurement process. This is one of the lessons learned from PPP projects, and it has the potential to be added to the innovative maintenance contracts.
The selection process seems to bring debate as to what should be the range of price versus other factors. Some concerns have been voiced such as tendering costs, what attributes should be measured, using "Low Bid" systems, and complaints about the fact that tendering system does not seem to be transparent. Most do not realize that the innovative contracting forms usually need to incorporate the measurement of competence, project management skills, expertise in Pavement Management Systems (PMS), and other required skills. These are usually issues of people's competence, skills, and know-how, which cannot be measured on a low price basis. Also, because the area maintenance contracts are spread across the areas of the country, the people skills typically tend to vary. Another concern is that some contractors would like to use the reputation of the company as one the determining criteria for competence, but that is flawed because the technical staffing or expertise, varies from location to location and the know-how is different because the people are different.
Methodology is another issue that should be included because the service provider is now responsible for managing and planning the maintenance strategy, practices, forward planning, and coordinating the supply chain. How is it possible to measure the various skills and competences (subjective details) on a lowest price basis? Maybe in the future there might be further development and make the procedure more objective. It is however possible to measure the subjective values in an objective manner as long as the details are prescribed before the tendering process and the weighting factors are provided in advance. In addition, when using quality based criteria it is quite transparent to determine which service provider has offered the higher quality levels when all tenders are measured and compared against each other. It is easy to verify what choices, solutions, and project management skills are being offered when a "head to head" comparison is made and it becomes quite clear as to who has offered the best quality practices.
Also, it is very difficult (or impossible in many cases) to measure the Quality Control (QC) plans, determine the best skills and know-how, and what innovations are proposed when using the low bid (lowest price) method. One objective of this study was to determine what attributes should be measured and what practices are used in the actual contracts. Some of the attributes used in the maintenance contracts are listed below.
• Quality plans & QC measures
• Methodology
• Project Management skills (extremely important)
• Environmental considerations
• Technical skills
• Traffic management
• Relevant experience
• Past experience
• Supply chain management
• Types of equipment used (resources)
• New - introducing risk matrices are part of tender