262841KR_Project_Documents.pdf

INVITATION FOR QUOTES (“IFQ”) – PART I

IFQ Part I Revised 10/6/25 Page 1 of 5

IFQ #: 262841KR

IFQ TITLE: FIXED ROUTE SCHEDULING SERVICES

1.0 PURPOSE

Sarasota County (“County”), a political subdivision of the State of Florida, will receive quotes on the date indicated in OpenGov Procurement (OpenGov), the County’s electronic procurement portal, for the purpose of selecting a supplier to provide fixed route scheduling services as needed by the County’s Breeze Transit (Breeze). Offerors are required to comply with Part II, Scope of Services/Work Specifications.

OpenGov is located at https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/scgov

Do not submit a quote of more than $150,000.00 per project or per contract year. In the event no responsive and responsible quotes are received under the quote threshold, the County may elect to cancel this IFQ and re-solicit using another procurement method.

2.0 BACKGROUND

2.1 Sarasota County encompasses 555 square miles with 35 miles of coastline and a population of 487,640 people. During the months of October to April the population increases to more than 500,000, peaking in late March or early April. Sarasota County has three cities and one town within the County limits.

2.2 Breeze operates transit services, including fixed route bus service throughout Sarasota County. In season, there are 33 buses scheduled to pull out each day during the week, providing service between 5:00 am and 11:00 pm. Breeze operates a seasonal service schedule, beginning in November and running through April, and an off-season service schedule, beginning in late April or early May, and running through October of each year.

3.0 OFFEROR

3.1 For the purpose of this IFQ, the term “Offeror” is defined as the legal entity submitting the offer and/or identified on the electronic bid submittal.

3.2 Offerors intending to submit a bid as a joint venture with another company must provide documentation attesting to the formation of that joint venture with their bid submittal. For purposes of this solicitation, all vendors who make up the joint venture will be considered together as the Offeror.

4.0 QUALIFICATIONS

4.1 Required Experience

4.1.1. Offeror must provide two (2) verifiable commercial, industrial, institutional, or governmental references demonstrating their https://procurement.opengov.com/portal/scgov

IFQ Part I Revised 10/6/25 Page 2 of 5 experience providing fixed route scheduling services within the last seven (7) years preceding the submission deadline in OpenGov. At least one reference must be for a public transit system.

4.1.2. Only references submitted at the time of submittal in the format specified by the County will be used to verify qualifications have been met.

5.0 ALTERNATES

5.1 Unless otherwise specifically provided in Part II of this IFQ, reference to any equipment, material, article or patented process, by trade name, brand name, make or catalog number, shall be regarded as establishing a minimum standard of quality and shall not be construed as limiting competition.

5.2 If an offeror wishes to make a substitution in the specifications, the offeror shall furnish to the County the name of the manufacturer, the model number, and other identifying data and information necessary to aid the County in evaluating the substitution. Any such substitution shall be subject to County approval. Substitutions shall be approved only if determined by the County to be equivalent to the prescribed specifications.

5.3 To be considered, substitutions must be submitted to the Contact listed in OpenGov no later than the Question Submission deadline listed in OpenGov. Substitutions must be identified by brand name, number, manufacturer and model, and shall include full descriptive information, brochures, and appropriate attachments. The County shall respond via addendum in OpenGov indicating whether the substitution has been approved or denied.

5.4 A quote containing a substitution that has not been approved by the County shall be disqualified.

6.0 PRE-BID MEETINGS

In the event a meeting and/or site visit is scheduled it will take place at the time, date, and location specified in the Solicitation Timeline in OpenGov.

7.0 SUBMITTAL INSTRUCTIONS

Refer to Submittal Instructions section in OpenGov for instructions on how to submit an offer. Offerors are advised to review the General Terms and Conditions of Solicitations which are available in OpenGov.

8.0 SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS

8.1 Vendor Questionnaire

All offerors must complete the required forms and information included in the Vendor Questionnaire section of OpenGov. Completed forms and other requested documents must be uploaded with offeror’s response in OpenGov. Offerors who fail to complete and upload required forms and

IFQ Part I Revised 10/6/25 Page 3 of 5 documents or fail to provide responses to questions in the Vendor Questionnaire section of OpenGov may be found non-responsive.

8.2 Pricing

All offerors must complete the Pricing Table in OpenGov. Offerors who fail to fully complete the pricing table may be found non-responsive.

9.0 AWARD

It is the intent of the County to award a contract to the responsive and responsible offeror submitting the lowest total bid price. Unless otherwise noted, offerors must submit a price for every line item to be considered for award.

9.1 In the event of a tie, the IFQ tie-breaking procedures identified in the Sarasota County Procurement Manual will apply.

9.1.1. To be considered, tied offerors will be required to provide documentation certifying they have implemented a drug-free workplace program meeting the requirements stipulated in Section 287.087, Florida Statutes. Documentation must be provided within the time specified by the County at the time of request.

9.2 Preferences

Offerors wishing to be considered for Local Business Preference or American Business Preference must complete and submit a Local & American Business Certification Form with their submittal. The Local and American Business Certification Form can be found in the Vendor Questionnaire section of OpenGov.

In awarding this IFQ, preference shall be given to local businesses and American businesses in accordance with Section 2-215 of the Sarasota County Procurement Code.

Local and American business preferences do not apply in the award of this IFQ, due to Grant funding requirements.

9.3 In the event that no responsive and responsible quotes are received within the quote threshold, the County may elect to cancel the solicitation and re-solicit using the competitive sealed bid process.

9.4 Contract

A draft of the contract that the successful Offeror(s) will be expected to sign (a Term Contract) is posted on the Procurement website, shown below. The County may, in its sole discretion, select a different contract type or make revisions to the one referenced above following the recommended award of this solicitation.

https://www.scgov.net/government/procurement/contract-templates https://www.scgov.net/government/procurement/contract-templates

IFQ Part I Revised 10/6/25 Page 4 of 5

10.0 PRICING

10.1 As applicable, all trip charges, mileage, vehicle charges, travel time and labor are to be included in the hourly rate. Only time on the job site may be charged.

10.2 As applicable, estimated usage for each item is listed on the bid form.

This is an estimated figure only and no guarantee is made or implied as to the actual quantities that will be acquired under resulting contracts.

Quantities listed herein are subject to increase or decrease during the term of the contract. In either occurrence, the Offeror will perform the work at the unit price as quoted. The County, at its discretion, may authorize an initial contract for a greater not-to-exceed amount than that submitted by the offeror.

11.0 COUNTY WORKPLACE REQUIREMENTS

11.1 Smoking – Smoking is not permitted inside any County facility. Smoking is restricted to designated smoking areas outside a facility.

11.2 Parking – The offeror’s representatives shall abide by all parking restrictions. The offeror’s vehicles are subject to the same restrictions, limitations, fines and tickets as posted for any other vehicle. Where time limit restrictions exceed the required time to provide services, arrangements shall be made in advance.

11.3 Alcohol/Drugs – Service personnel under the influence of alcohol and/or non-prescription drugs are not permitted to work in County facilities.

Any person known or thought to be under these influences will be escorted off County property.

11.4 Security - The offeror must adhere to all Sarasota County security procedures. The offeror’s work force shall be made up of persons legally authorized to perform work in the United States. The offeror shall, at the County’s request, submit the following information for each of their employees: name, date of birth, social security number and green card (if applicable).

11.5 Identification - The offeror shall require all employees to visibly wear identification while on County property. Said identification shall contain a color photograph of the employee, the name of the employee and the name of the company. The offeror shall require all employees to wear a company uniform, which shall include the name of the employee and the company. Persons not conforming to this requirement may be denied access to the building. Denial of access does not alleviate the offeror’s responsibilities herein.

12.0 CONTINGENCY

Only applicable if this box is checked.

If during the performance of construction or repair work, an unforeseen circumstance occurs that triggers an additional expense, a contingency of up to 10% may be allowed provided the original quote plus contingency does not

IFQ Part I Revised 10/6/25 Page 5 of 5 exceed $150,000. Any use of contingency funds is subject to the written approval of the County project manager, and any unused contingency shall not be paid out as a part of any final payment.

PART II

SCOPE OF SERVICES/WORK SPECIFICATIONS

Revised 10/07/20 Part II - Page 1 of 3 Prepared by Transit Department

1. SCOPE REQUIREMENTS

The Contractor will provide fixed route scheduling services for the Sarasota County Breeze Transit (Breeze) fixed route bus service. All services provided by the Contractor must meet the specifications pertaining to each service plan provided by Breeze. In addition, the County will provide the Contractor with access to the current fixed route schedule.

2. FIXED ROUTE SCHEDULING SERVICES

Contractor is responsible for the following fixed route scheduling services utilizing Trapeze package software, or other software designated by Breeze, which include, but are not limited to:

A. Route Structuring

i. Perform directed changes to bus stop/node placement in routes, location, and designations; routes, patterns, and associated tracing;

stop patterns; deadhead patterns; and all associated route parameters.

ii. Identify fleet requirements.

B. Trip Building

i. Create and adjust trips for selected/specific lines (Sunday, Saturday, weekday, etc.) and services.

ii. Perform creation of service exceptions.

iii. Adjust run times, time bands, and layover

iv. Create stop trips

C. Blocking

i. Update or create blocking in the new schedule based on timing and route changes.

ii. Block trips based on changed service levels, vehicle and driver availability, and other parameters as required.

iii. Add and adjust deadhead turn directions, garage and division assignments, and other parameters as needed.

D. Runcutting

i. Perform cutting of all blocks with consideration to Sarasota County Collective Bargaining Agreement, staff input, and in accordance with all Sarasota County transit management guidelines and current state of the art run cutting practices for the public transit industry.

ii. Optimize the schedule/run cutting service to reduce non-revenue and layover time.

iii. Optimize operator utilization.

Revised 10/07/20 Part II - Page 2 of 3

iv. Runcut blocks to meet workforce availability.

v. Runcutting shall include parameter tuning (including shuttle assignments, travels, time parameters, etc.) as needed.

vi. Assure accuracy of costing data throughout the process and in the finished product.

vii. Assure that shuttle assignments are complete, accurate and do not exceed the limitations given.

E. Rostering

i. Build rosters and troubleshoot any issues that occur throughout the process.

ii. Establish operator relief shuttle assignment.

iii. Perform rostering of all cut runs with consideration to Sarasota County Collective Bargaining Agreement, staff input, and in accordance with all Sarasota County transit management guidelines and current state of the art scheduling practices for the public transit industry.

iv. Prepare rosters for posting and bidding.

v. Create or update Extra Board pieces of work per Breeze direction for bidding.

F. Data Export and Document Generation

i. Provide draft and final crew schedules as generated by Breeze designated software for Breeze’s approval.

ii. Support import of signup to Breeze designated software platform and provide related changes as needed.

iii. Export data necessary for General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) and Trapeze Software Data Exchange (TSDE) and verify accuracy of data in the export and make any adjustment required to correct the data.

iv. Prepare GTFS and TSDE, or other format, files/data.

v. Prepare all bid documents required for use by Breeze, including but not limited to driver paddles, driver route turnsheets, rosters, shuttle schedules, bus route passenger timetables, and list of route and schedule changes.

vi. Prepare preliminary reporting data to include GTFS, TSDE, Roster, Paddles, costing, and any other designated submission that is requested for evaluation and approval.

vii. Upon approval, provide final reporting data.

viii. Assure that the custom paddle product is complete and accurate, and formatted for use by Breeze.

Revised 10/07/20 Part II - Page 3 of 3

ix. Confirm accuracy and integrity of all schedule data and correct data as needed.

3. HOURS OF WORK

To secure information or direction from Breeze, The Contractor shall be available during Breeze’s normal Business Hours defined as Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, except County observed Holidays.

4. INVOICING

Contractor shall invoice upon completion of each fixed route scheduling service at the fixed fee listed in the Fee Schedule.

PART III – INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS

Insurance Template 1 Revised 05/13/16 Page 1 of 2

CONTRACTOR’S INSURANCE

Contractor shall, on a primary basis and at its sole expense, maintain in full force and effect, at all times during the life of this Contract, insurance coverage (including endorsements) and limits as described herein. These requirements, as well as the County’s review or acceptance of insurance maintained by Contractor, are not intended to and shall not in any manner limit or qualify the liabilities or obligations assumed by Contractor under this Contract.

Insurance requirements itemized in this Contract and required of the Contractor shall extend to all subcontractors to cover their operations performed under this Contract.

The Contractor shall be responsible for any modifications, deviations, or omissions in these insurance requirements as they apply to subcontractors.

Insurance carriers providing coverage required herein must be licensed to conduct business in the State of Florida and must possess a current A.M. Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A- Class VII or better.

Each insurance policy required by this Contract shall apply separately to each insured against whom claim is made and suit is brought, except with respect to limits of the insurer’s liability.

The Contractor shall be solely responsible for payment of all premiums for insurance contributing to the satisfaction of this Contract and shall be solely responsible for the payment of all deductibles and retentions to which such policies are subject.

Contractor shall furnish Certificates of Insurance to the County Administrative Agent evidencing the types and amounts of coverage, including endorsements, required by this Contract prior to commencement of work and prior to expiration of the insurance contract, when applicable. Such Certificate(s) of Insurance shall, to the extent allowable by the insurer, include a minimum thirty (30) day notice of cancellation (10 days for non-payment of premium) or non-renewal of coverage. Notwithstanding these notification requirements, the Contractor will be required to provide County with 5-day prior written notice of any policy cancellation or non-renewal.

The County reserves the right to review, modify, reject, or accept any required policies of insurance, including limits, coverage, or endorsements, herein from time to time throughout the term of this Contract. County reserves the right, but not the obligation, to review and reject any insurer providing coverage due to its poor financial condition or failure to operate legally.

A. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION: Contractor agrees to maintain Workers’ Compensation insurance in accordance with Florida Statutes, Chapter 440.

Employers Liability to be included with a minimum limit of $500,000.00 per accident/per disease/per employee. If work is to be performed over or adjacent to navigable water and involves maritime exposure, applicable LHWCA, Jones Act, or other maritime law coverage shall be included.

PART III – INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS

Insurance Template 1 Revised 05/13/16 Page 2 of 2

In the event the Contractor has “leased” employees, the Contractor or the employee leasing company must provide evidence of a Workers’ Compensation policy for all personnel on the worksite.

Contractors who are exempt from Florida’s Workers’ Compensation law must provide proof of such exemption issued by the Florida Department of Financial Services, Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

B. COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY: Contractor agrees to maintain Commercial General Liability per ISO form CG0001 or its equivalent, including but not limited to coverage for premises and operations, personal injury, products & completed operations, liability assumed under an insured contract, and independent contractors with limits of not less than $1,000,000.00 each occurrence, $2,000,000.00 aggregate covering all work performed under this Contract.

Contractor agrees to endorse Sarasota County Government as an additional insured on the Commercial General Liability coverage.

C. BUSINESS AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY: Contractor agrees to maintain Business Automobile Liability with limits not less than $1,000,000.00 combined single limit for each accident covering all Owned, Non-Owned & Hired automobiles used in the performance of this Contract. In the event Contractor does not own automobiles, Contractor agrees to maintain coverage for Hired & Non-Owned Auto Liability, which may be satisfied by way of endorsement to the Commercial General Liability policy or separate Business Auto Liability policy.

If the Contractor is shipping a product via common carrier, the contractor shall be responsible for any loss or damage sustained in delivery/transit.