Tender Time


Many programs are coming out of a long term contract cycle and may not have had to draft an RFP or tender for years or even a decade. Staff and Council may have turned over and many municipal folks have never been involved in the waste management procurement process before.

If this sounds like you, take a look below at the timeline of an RFP, completed with the help of CIF staff, that was designed to help a City switch its depots from roll-off service to front end load bins. Here’s what you want to note: under ideal conditions, from concept to completion the project took 16 months with approximately:

  • 2.5 months from start up to publishing the RFP plus
  • 2 months for bidders to respond plus
  • 1.5 months to evaluate the RFP, sign a contract and issue a purchase order plus
  • 10 months to prepare the sites, acquire and set up equipment and develop/deliver P&E for the conversion.

Writing and Executing RFPs Take Time
The RFP timeframe outlined below was for a reasonably straightforward project. And… keep in mind that there was no delay completing any of the steps below. Will you be that lucky with your Council meeting schedule, staff vacations, legal and purchasing department input, equipment/trucks order/delivery and the myriad of steps from concept to completion? It’s smart to assume you won’t and best to plan for delays.

Representative RFP Timing
# Item Responsibility Completed
1
Contact CIF for procurement support
CITY May-3
2
Kickoff conference call
All May-15
3
Deliver draft RFP
CIF May-30
4
RFP  review, edits, questions, comments  & Council report
CITY Jun-07
5
Con call to review draft RFP
All Jun-12
6
Deliver RFP draft final & draft evaluation score sheets
CIF Jun-20
7
RFP  review, edits, questions, comments
CITY Jul-03
8
Deliver RFP final
CIF Jul-10
9
Publish RFP
CITY Jul-12
10
Evaluation team training session @ CITY
All Aug-29
11
Addenda & site visits if required
CITY Sep-05
12
RFP closing
CITY Sep-12
13
Revised rfp evaluation spreadsheets
CIF Sep-14
14
RFP evaluation
CITY Sep-16
15
RFP council report
CITY Sep-26
16
CITY Council Mtg. & award of contract
CITY Oct-15
17
Finalize Contract – issue P/O
CITY Oct-30
18
Order bins
Contractor Nov-07
19
Prepare depots for bin switch
CITY Oct-Jan
20
Prepare P&E for residents re: switch
CITY Nov-Jan
21
Delivery & comissioning bins, finalize service schedule
CITY Feb-Apr
22
Sequential start @ depots when ready
CITY Mar-May
23
Full P&E campaign re: changes & closures
CITY Mar-Sep


Plan Ahead and Start Early
Copy the table above into MS Word or Excel, then customize the tasks and timing to build out your own schedule that will take your RFP/tender from concept to contract. Once you’ve done that – if you find you don’t have enough time to complete all the steps, consider negotiating an extension for your current contract. But of course – you don’t want to leave this to the last minute either if you want to achieve the best results for your municipality…

Remember, when it comes to waste management procurement, the clock is always ticking!

Contact CIF Staff
CIF staff are always ready to help. We encourage you to contact any member of the team to discuss your issues and questions.