NOTICE OF INTENT TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT FOR A PROPRIETARY PRODUCT_Rail....docx

NOTICE OF INTENT TO EXTEND A CONTRACT FOR A PROPRIETARY PRODUCT

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (“MassDOT”), by and through its Rail and Transit Division, hereby gives public notice of its Intent to Extend a Contract for a Proprietary Product with Saucon Technologies.

The following procurement history documentation is provided to meet requirements of FTA Circular 4220.1F, III, 3. d.

Procurement Method

The procurement was conducted in 2014 as a sole source method according to FTA Circular 4220.1F and procurement guidelines of MassDOT and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The use of a sole source procurement method is justified for the following reasons as identified in FTA Circular 4220.1F, VI.3.(i).(b).1. Sub-section 1 states that the vendor must have a “Unique Capability or Availability: The property or services are available from one source if one of the conditions (out of five) sic described below is present.” RTD has identified two conditions which are present and justify sole source procurement:

B Patents or Restricted Data Rights. Patent or data rights restrictions preclude competition.

MassDOT competitively procured 31 over-the-road coaches, which was awarded to Motor Coach Industries. In this procurement, MassDOT specified that the buses shall include a GPS and wi-fi unit to be installed on all coaches. The manufacturer (MCI) installed the Saucon GPS and wi-fi unit on all buses. Therefore, MassDOT is required to utilize the services of Saucon Technologies.

C Substantial Duplication Costs. In the case of a follow-on contract for the continued development or production of highly specialized equipment and major components thereof, when it is likely that award to another contractor would result in substantial duplication of costs that are not expected to be recovered through competition.

Due to the fact that the Saucon units were installed by the manufacturer, competitively bidding a new GPS and wi-fi unit from another manufacturer would create substantial and unnecessary duplication costs.

Contract Type

This is a fixed-price contract, for which equipment costs, and monthly wi-fi/GPS charges are standardized.

Contractor Selection – Bid Selection Rationale

The sole source process was conducted due to the fact that the manufacturer had installed the Saucon equipment on the buses procured by MassDOT. Full and open competition would have resulted in substantial duplication of costs and the need to purchase redundant equipment. Therefore, we asked Saucon for a cost schedule for this sole source procurement.

Cost or Price

The price provided by Saucon is $21,671 for a two year contract. These prices are standard wireless charges and are considered reasonable.

Reasonable Documentation

Documentation was developed and procurement history documented based on requirements of FTA Circular 4220.1F.

MassDOT is posting this Notice rather than conducting a full procurement because we believe this opportunity represents best value to the Commonwealth, the products and related services are proprietary in nature and the FTA has approved of this approach in the expenditure of mostly federal funds. As such, MassDOT is utilizing this Due Diligence Posting to ensure that the process is transparent.

Responses, questions or comments regarding this posting must be submitted by via email to Kershny.Gedeon@dot.state.ma.us by 3:00pm (EST) on November 8, 2016.