Lakeland Uses E-Reverse Auction for Residual Hauling
The City of Lakeland, Fla., recently leveraged new technology and strategy for the bid process on its one-year waste hauling contract.
The deliverable: hauling 19.25 million gallons of fertilizer and class AA residuals from two wastewater reclamation plants over a one-year period. The platform: BidBridge, an e-procurement services provider for the public and private sectors. The result: a 40 percent savings for Lakeland against the previous year's contract.
The procurement service creates a dynamic purchasing environment by offering a secure, real-time electronic sealed bid platform that allows suppliers to place multiple bids, giving suppliers the opportunity to actively compete in the marketplace. The ensuing bid process provides entities with an alternative to the public sector's traditional process of a one price per supplier response, while maintaining the integrity of the competitive, sealed bid process.
In the past, BidBridge and Lakeland had teamed for several successful events, including calcium carbonate transportation (one-year contract), tennis court resurfacing and floor resurfacing bids. For Mark Raiford, Lakeland's director of Purchasing, continuing the city's success with BidBridge was simply the best option.
"Our past experiences had led us to the conclusion that BidBridge was a professional, cutting-edge organization with the talent and tools to help get the job done," said Raiford. "This time around, BidBridge stayed true to its reputation and helped us achieve some of the best results we've seen so far."
Seven hauling service providers competed over the one hour and 41 minute event, logging a total of 250 bids and 86 clock extensions. First place changed hands a total of 57 times. In the end, the incumbent supplier was awarded the bid.
"Lakeland is a prime example of how public organizations can continually leverage a reverse auction platform in their procurement activities," said BidBridge CEO Jim Headlee. "It really doesn't matter what the item or service is; reverse auctions that leverage the right technology for buyer visibility apply to almost any purchasing activity."