First Experiences with Tendering at the Tactical Level (Service Design) in Dutch Public Transport

Are we doing it wrong or do we expect too much? Forces that push authorities to become public transport designers

“…These differences in approach that were described in earlier papers (van de Velde and Pruijmboom, 2005;van de Velde et al, 2008;Veeneman et al, 2007) continue to evolve. Even after 9 years of tendering we can continue to see shifts in different directions: some authorities who used to give freedom to operators were disappointed and now want to control more aspects on the tactical level, while others that did not do so now give more freedom.…”

“…A lack of trust of the authority in the operator stimulated the authority to a formal stance, with legal aspects dominating the process as well as ignoring signals from operators before and during the tender. Van de Velde et al (2008) conclude that much of this illustrates the lack of attention paid to the 'relationship factor' (is the nature of the contact between the parties such that adequate business can be realised? )…”

“…They were considered to be best suited to design the product in such a way that it meets the needs of the passengers. However, there are major differences between authorities in the amount of freedom on the tactical level given to the operators (van de Velde et al, 2008). Some authorities tend to give operators as much freedom as possible within the established transport policy context (Stadsregio Amsterdam, Zuid-Holland, Limburg).…”

“…After these attempts, the tender succeeded eventually and a research committee was appointed by the Provincial Council "analyse the facts with the 2005 and the 2006 CT and to prevent similar mistakes from happening again" (van de Velde et al, 2008). One of the observations was that "the authority provided too detailed a programme of requirements for the services to produce and attempted, in legal and procedural terms, to work too much exactly according to legal requirements.…”

Performance Based Contracts

“…Van de Velde and Pruijmboom (2003) illustrate how giving tenderers tactical responsibilities will lead to service uplifts. 7 Although PBCs in developed economies tend to be integrated into a system of subsidy support, this need not be the case in all situations.…”