8-RFP-02-Scope of Services.docx

CITY OF FORT WORTH - PURCHASING DIVISION AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE AND CONTACT DETAILS

RFP Title:_________________________________________________________

CITY OF FORT WORTH - PURCHASING DIVISION SCOPE OF SERVICES

RFP Title: Large Vehicle Subrogation

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

The City of Fort Worth (“City”) seeks a qualified firm to provide claims recovery and subrogation services for not-at-fault incidents involving City-owned real property infrastructure, and heavy, medium-duty, commercial, specialty fleet vehicles. Comment by Medrano, Denise: Can you provide a general list of the types of vehicles that would fall under this contract? For example, fire apparatus, ambulances, sanitation trucks, heavy equipment, etc. I don't think we need individual vehicle information, but providing general vehicle categories may help give proposers a better understanding of the fleet covered under the contract.

The objective of this Request for Proposals (“RFP”) is to partner with a Vendor to provide end-to-end recovery services and substantially increase recovery outcomes from fleet-related incidents.

The successful respondent(s), hereafter referred to as the "Proposer" or "Vendor," shall perform the requested services in accordance with the requirements and specifications of this solicitation.

2.0 VENDOR QUALIFICATIONS

The Vendor should demonstrate a track record in fleet claims recovery and subrogation, including:

2.1 Minimum five years of claims recovery/subrogation experience

2.2 Experience in not-at-fault recovery and complex damage categories

2.3 Demonstrated success in commercial fleet, heavy equipment, and transit subrogation and recovery

2.4 Capability to extract, read, and leverage telematics, specialized camera footage, and other applicable information

2.5 Qualified dedicated adjusters or collections recovery experts with relevant industry experience supported by legal team personnel

3.0 SCOPE OF SERVICES

The Vendor shall provide end-to-end claims recovery and subrogation services, including claim intake, investigation, valuation, negotiation, settlement, and recovery. Services shall include the review and processing of new, open, and historical claims involving covered City fleet vehicles, real property, infrastructure, and other City-owned property damaged as a result of an at-fault third party.

The Vendor shall identify, document, value, and pursue all applicable and legally recoverable damages, which may include physical damage, loss of use, towing, administrative expenses, lost revenue, diminished value, and other recoverable costs beyond traditional property damage.

Services shall support timely claims handling and reimbursement, consistent and legally supported assessments of recoverable damages, streamlined claims intake, and the identification of recovery opportunities that may otherwise be missed through standard claims processing. The Vendor shall have the capability and resources to manage complex and high-exposure claims involving large and specialty City vehicles and property.

The Vendor shall review current claims and historical claims dating back up to ten (10) years. The City estimates the historical inventory may include approximately 10,000 files. Historical and previously closed files shall be reviewed to identify remaining legally viable recovery opportunities, including recoverable damages that may not have been previously pursued, such as loss of use and diminished value.

3.1 Initial File Review

3.1.1 The Vendor shall assess police reports, driver statements, and initial damage estimates within twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours following referral.

3.2 Investigation and Evidence Gathering

3.2.1 The Vendor shall perform investigation and evidence gathering necessary to support claims recovery efforts.

3.3 Liability and Demand Management

3.3.1 The Vendor shall issue formal letters of representation and demand packages to opposing insurance carriers or liable third parties.

3.3.2 The Vendor shall verify insurance and directly negotiate recoveries with at-fault third parties or other responsible entities including their insurance carriers, third-party administrators (TPAs), or other responsible entities.

3.4 Recoverable Damages

The Vendor shall have expertise in handling not-at-fault recovery and complex damage categories and shall identify alternative rights of recovery for costs beyond physical damage.

The Vendor shall document, value, identify, and pursue all recoverable damages including:

3.4.1 Physical damage

3.4.2 Diminished value

3.4.3 Loss of use

3.4.4 Towing

3.4.5 Administrative expenses

3.4.6 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) specific calculations

3.5 Negotiation and Litigation

3.5.1 The Vendor shall pursue recovery and partner with legal counsel when formal litigation is required.

3.6 Collection and Disbursement

3.6.1 The Vendor shall process incoming settlement funds and remit net recoveries to the City on a monthly schedule.

3.7 Supplemental Services

3.7.1 The Vendor shall have the option to provide supplemental services such as desk appraisals or traditional property damage subrogation services when appropriate.

4.0 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

4.1 The Vendor shall meet the following performance standards:

4.1.1 Acknowledge new subrogation referrals within two (2) business days

4.1.2 Complete the initial liability assessment within ten (10) business days of document receipt.

4.1.3 Maintain a net recovery success rate target relative to viable files. The City’s ideal target range is 40-60% of costs. Comment by Medrano, Denise: What is the ideal target range?

4.2 The Vendor shall provide monthly and quarterly performance metrics detailing total files referred, recovery rates, average cycle times, and net dollars returned.

5.0 ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

5.1 The Vendor shall provide a dedicated account management team with defined response times and escalation pathways.

5.2 The Vendor shall assign a single point of contact or dedicated account manager for escalations.

6.0 CLAIMS MANAGEMENT PORTAL/SYSTEM

6.1 The Vendor shall provide a secure claims management portal or system integration with audit trails, role-based access, and real-time visibility into claim status and recovery milestones. The portal shall provide real-time claim status, comprehensive claim notes, a document repository, reporting capabilities including custom ad-hoc reporting, and service level agreement (SLA) tracking.

6.2 Access Control and Authentication

6.2.1 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): The Vendor must enforce MFA for all personnel accessing the claims management portal, internal claim systems, or any environment hosting City data.

6.2.2 Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Access to City data must be strictly restricted based on the principle of least privilege. Only personnel directly assigned to the City’s account may access the files.

6.2.3 Identity Federation: The Vendor’s system should ideally support Single Sign-On (SSO) integration using industry standards (e.g., SAML 2.0 or OIDC) to align with the City’s identity management.

7.0 DATA SECURITY AND REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

7.1 Information Security Framework and Certification

7.1.1 The Vendor must maintain an active SOC 2 Type II certification covering Security, Confidentiality, and Availability. The Vendor must provide its most recent SOC 2 report upon request and annually throughout the contract term.

7.1.2 All City data must be encrypted in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.3 or higher) and at rest using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).

7.2 Regulatory and Privacy Compliance

7.2.1 The Vendor must comply strictly with the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) (18 U.S.C. § 2721 et seq.) and any equivalent state-level statutes governing the use and disclosure of personal information from state motor vehicle records.

7.2.2 The Vendor must safeguard Personally Identifiable Information (PII) collected during accident investigations. PII includes driver social security numbers, commercial driver's license details, home addresses, etc.

7.2.3 In cases where vehicle collisions involve personal injury claims, medical payments, or bodily injury subrogation, the Vendor must comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations and execute a formal Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

7.3 Vulnerability Management and Incident Response

7.3.1 The Vendor must conduct independent third-party penetration testing at least annually. A summary of findings and remediation efforts must be made available to the City.

7.3.2 In the event of a suspected or confirmed data breach or unauthorized access to City data, the Vendor must notify the City’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in writing within twenty-four (24) hours of discovery.

7.3.3 The Vendor will fully indemnify and hold harmless the City for all costs, regulatory fines, and legal fees resulting from data breaches caused by Vendor negligence or security failures.

7.4 Data Retention, Sovereignty, and Destruction

7.4.1 All City data, backups, and disaster recovery infrastructure must reside exclusively within the United States.

7.4.2 Upon termination of the contract, the Vendor must return all City files, notes, and telematics data in a mutually agreeable, structured format (e.g., CSV or secure API transfer) within thirty (30) days. Following verification of receipt, the Vendor must securely purge all City data from its active systems and backups using NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1 compliant erasure methods, providing a formal Certificate of Destruction. Comment by Ha, Christopher A: Define please before using acronym.

7.5 Insurance Requirements

7.5.1 The Contractor must have all required insurance coverage in place at the time of entering into a contract and prior to the commencement of any services. The following policies are mandatory:

7.5.2 Technology Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance

Contractor shall maintain Technology Errors and Omissions insurance with limits sufficient to cover liabilities arising from professional services, technology‑related work, system failures, data breaches, or other performance‑related errors connected to the services under this agreement.

7.5.3 Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance

Contractor shall maintain Commercial General Liability insurance covering bodily injury, property damage, and personal or advertising injury arising out of operations or services performed under this agreement. Coverage must include, at minimum, products/completed operations and contractual liability.

7.5.4 Proof of all required insurance must be provided upon contract award and maintained for the duration of the contract. No work may begin until all insurance requirements have been verified and approved by the City.

8.0 PRICING STRUCTURE

8.1 The Vendor shall provide services on a contingency basis. Compensation shall be based solely on successful recovery, with no upfront or monthly fees to the City.

8.2 Standard Pre-Litigation Recovery: Fixed percentage of the gross amount recovered before formal lawsuits or arbitration filings.

8.3 Litigation and Arbitration Recovery: Separate, tiered percentage applied only if a file requires formal arbitration or lawsuit.

8.4 Out-of-Pocket Expenses: The Vendor shall specify whether advanced costs, including police reports, asset checks, expert witnesses, and other applicable expenses, are absorbed by the Vendor or deducted from recoveries.

8.5 No Recovery, No Fee: No fees shall be owed to the Vendor if no financial recovery is secured.

9.0 METHOD OF AWARD - Proposals will be evaluated based on “best value” to the City. Proposals that receive less than 50% of the total available points, excluding price points, will not be considered for award.

10.0 EVALUATION FACTORS

To be considered, the Proposer must submit a complete Proposal by the stated deadline and in accordance with all Proposal requirements. All required documentation must be included for evaluation.

Proposals that meet these requirements will be evaluated based on the criteria listed below.

10.1 Methodology & Approach – up to 16 points available.

Evaluation will consider the proposed approach to reviewing and recovering claims, including identifying additional recovery opportunities from new, open, historical, and dormant claims.

10.2 Technology & Reporting – up to 15 points available.

Evaluation will consider quality, security, and usability of the proposed claims management system and reporting capabilities.

10.3 Capacity & Support – up to 15 points available.

Evaluation will consider the ability to provide dedicated staff, account support, timely communication, and responsive service.

10.4 Financial Model & Value – up to 18 points available.

Evaluation will consider the proposed fee structure and overall financial value to the City based on expected recovery outcomes.

10.5 Experience & Qualifications – up to 16 points available.

Evaluation will consider experience with large vehicles, commercial fleet, heavy equipment, and similar subrogation services. As well as qualifications and experience of the proposed team.

10.6 Small Business Participation – up to 20 points available.

0% SB Participation = 0 points 1% to 7% SB Participation = 7 points 8% to 15% SB Participation = 10 points 16% to 29% SB Participation = 15 points 30% or more (goal met) = 20 points

11.0 CONTRACT AWARD PROCESS

11.1 The Purchasing Division will facilitate and manage the evaluation process.

11.2 An Evaluation Panel consisting of representatives from various City departments and City consultants may be appointed to review and evaluate RFP responses in accordance with this RFP. City reserves the right at its sole discretion to include additional representatives at any point during the evaluation.

11.3 The Evaluation Committee will evaluate responses and may select Proposer for onsite interviews, presentations or demonstrations.

11.4 At its sole discretion, the City may request Best and Final Offers (BAFO) from proposers whose proposals are deemed most advantageous. Contract negotiations will be based on the BAFO submissions.

11.5 The City reserves the right to negotiate all elements that comprise the successful Proposer’s response to ensure that the best possible consideration be afforded to all concerned.

11.6 The City reserves the right to shortlist firms based upon scores/ratings received during the evaluation process.

11.7 The City will notify all proposers in writing of the outcome once an award determination has been made.

12.0 PROPOSAL FORMAT AND ATTACHMENTS

To facilitate and expedite the evaluation process, Proposals should adequately address all evaluation factors and include the following list of required items that will be used as part of the evaluation. A Proposal may be deemed to be non-responsive and may be disqualified, at the City’s discretion, if the Proposal fails to comply with the following instructions.

12.1 Proposal Format Requirements

12.1.1 Proposal format shall be in font no smaller than 12 point, 8.5-inch by 11-inch paper size, with one inch margins and single-spaced for the entire submitted proposal.

12.1.2 All proposal sections shall be divided by submission titles. All pages within these sections shall be uniquely numbered for purposes of easy reference.

12.2 Response Forms

12.2.1 Completed and signed RFP-04-CFW Required Forms.

12.2.2 Completed and signed RFP-06-Small Business Utilization Form and Small Business Certificate (Note: both the Utilization Form and qualifying Small Business Certificate must be submitted by the proposal deadline to be considered for Small Business Participation.)

12.2.3 Completed and signed RFP-07-Deviations.

12.2.4 Signed addenda (if applicable). If none are issued, please add a page stating, “No Addenda Issued.”

12.2.5 Completed RFP 26-0279 Bid Table.

12.3 Technical Response

The Technical Response should be organized to generally align with the evaluation criteria and demonstrate the Proposer’s qualifications, experience, proposed solution, and ability to meet the requirements of the Scope of Services.

The Technical Response should include the following information:

12.3.1 Experience and Technical Expertise: Describe your firm's demonstrated success in commercial fleet, heavy equipment, and transit subrogation. Include the firm's capability to extract, read, and leverage telematics, specialized camera footage, and other applicable information during the claims recovery process.

12.3.2 Account and Staff Qualifications: Identify the dedicated adjusters, legal team, account personnel, and other specialists proposed for the City's account. Provide relevant credentials and industry experience. Describe the dedicated support and escalation structure proposed for the City, including the assignment of a single point of contact or dedicated account manager for escalations.

12.3.3 Methodology and Approach: Describe your firm's proposed recovery strategy, including its approach to reviewing new, open, historical, and dormant files and identifying additional recoverable elements beyond standard subrogation. Provide a transition plan identifying the proposed timeline for onboarding and taking over historical inventory.

12.3.4 Technology and Reporting: Describe the proposed claims management platform, including security, usability, client portal functionality, reporting, analytics, and SLA tracking.

12.3.5 Operational Performance: Provide information demonstrating the firm's cycle times for file setup, initial liability assessment, and demand issuance. Provide audited recovery success metrics for similar large-vehicle portfolios.

12.4 Exceptions/Substitutions/Clarifications/Additions

12.4.1 Although the Scope of Work included Project Requirements of the solicitation represents the City’s anticipated needs, there may be instances in which it is in the City’s best interest to permit exceptions to requirements and accept proposed alternatives.

12.4.2 If no exceptions are taken, the Proposer shall indicate “No Exceptions Taken” on RFP-06-Deviations and submit the completed form.

12.4.3 It is extremely important for the Proposer to make clear where exceptions, clarifications substitutions and/or additions to the Scope of Services, Draft Vendor Service Agreement and General Terms and Conditions are taken and how substitutions shall be provided. The City does not recognize strikeouts, deletions, or changes to Solicitation documents. Therefore, exceptions, conditions, clarifications and/or substitutions to the provisions of the City’s requirements must be clearly identified along with the proposed addition or modification. If the Proposer does not make it clear that an addition, exception or clarification is taken, the City shall assume the Proposer is responding to and shall meet the City’s stated requirements.

12.4.4 Identify each exception, clarification, substitution and/or addition by specifically referring to the page number, section number, subsection number, item number or letter, and, if necessary, paragraph, or line number.

12.4.5 Identify each item clearly as an addition, exception, clarification or substitution. It is not necessary to include the entire text of a particular section or subsection. However, for ease of reference, Proposers may use portions of the solicitation’s text, if helpful in explanation.

12.4.6 For substitutions/clarifications, provide an explanation of the difference between what the solicitation requests and what is proposed. The City is open to other means of accomplishing the requested Work. Proposers must explain why they believe their method of accomplishing the Work is equal to or better than that specified by the City.

12.4.7 For any addition(s) proposed or exception(s) taken, provide a rationale in as much detail as possible.

12.4.8 Begin responses to the major sections of the solicitation on a new page.

12.4.9 The City shall consider the number and substance of alterations to the City’s stated requirements as a factor in determining the most advantageous response.

SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM – The City of Fort Worth has established a 30% Small Business (SB) participation goal for this solicitation. This goal reflects the City’s determination that certified Small Business Firms are available to provide the goods and/or services required under this bid. Accordingly, at least 30% of the total awarded contract value must be subcontracted or spent with a certified Small Business Firm. All provisions and requirements outlined in City Ordinance No. 27832-08-2025 apply to this solicitation. Bidders are required to submit the following documentation with their proposal:

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