Transportation Bid Process Concerns Owner-Operators

By John Voket

The Newtown School District is advertising an opportunity for interested parties to tender sealed bids for student transportation services for the 2012 school year. (See legal notice in this week’s edition of The Bee.) The details in that invitation to bid are raising concerns among some owner-operators currently serving the school district

According to one of Newtown’s owner-operator bus drivers, Carrie Schierloh, she received an e-mail affirming the district’s move to invite commercial bus companies to bid on transportation services when she arrived home from her student bus runs Wednesday afternoon, several hours after the bid notice was placed.

The bid invitation comes at a time when student families are occupied preparing for the end of the school year, and contains timeline constraints that could make it difficult if not impossible for owner-operators to establish a consortium so they could collectively discuss and possibly tender a competitive bid.

A provision in the bid stipulating bidders provide a bond in the amount of ten percent of the first year’s contract price may be a difficult hurdle for some individual owner-operators to clear. Ms Schierloh said, however, that she is hopeful that the district will consider a competitive offer from the independent local drivers.

A majority of local bus runs are currently made by Newtown’s owner-operators, who in effect, operate as independent standalone small businesses. The “O-Os” as they are sometimes called, had negotiated a contractual agreement with the district that expires at the end of the 2011-12 school year.

The issue of whether the district could save money by contracting a single transportation service versus the independent operators has been questioned in the past.

The five-year contract with owner/operators that expires June 30, 2012, contains a number of stipulations, including the town carrying liability insurance, while drivers pay their own workers comp and collision coverage.

By contract, the town also pays for the fuel, drivers take care of all the maintenance.

According to the notice, the district “invites the submission of sealed bids from reputable and qualified bus transportation companies for furnishing student transportation services in Newtown public schools beginning July 1, 2012.”

Forms for bid, certification, conditions, and specifications will be available at the district offices on May 31. Bids will be received until 2 pm on June 23, at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened.

The notice states, “In considering bids and awarding the contracts, Newtown public schools reserves the right to consider cost, experience, service, and reputation in the student transportation field, as well as the financial responsibility and specific qualifications set out in the bid document. The school district reserves the right to waive technical defects in bids, to reject any or all bids, to discuss operating options with one or more bidders, or to enter into such other discussions or negotiations as the district deems to be in its best interests.”

The district is requesting bids for the provision of home-to-school transportation for a contract period of five years. Bidders are required to furnish, at their own expense, a bid bond or certified check in the amount of ten percent of the proposed total annual first year price of the total contract.

A bidder’s meeting has also been scheduled for June 7 at 2 pm at the Newtown Municipal Center.

Posts on a social networking site established by local owner-operators indicate that specifics about the bid invitation, including when the bid is due, had not been directly communicated to the local contractors. One post from owner-operator Philip Carroll refers to a consultant report or a comparative study on transportation costs compared to other districts.

That report was made available to The Bee following a Freedom of Information request. Review the full report (link here to pdf of full report)