RFP 23-026 Survey Services Addendum 1 Questions and answers Pre-Proposal Agenda and Attendance.pdf

RFP 23-012 Addendum #1

SALEM AREA MASS TRANSIT DISTRICT

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

RFP 23-026

SURVEY SERVICES

ADDENDUM #1

Salem Area Mass Transit District is providing information and making changes / additions / modifications / revisions as an Addendum to RFP 23-026.

1. Question: Our firm does not have audited financial statements. What financial documents should be provided to meet the requirements of determining the proposer’s financial capability?

Answer: If you are a public company, SAMTD is looking for the same documents required for your corporate reports. If you are a private company, SAMTD is looking for information that would allow us to make a financial determination on ability to perform throughout the life of the contract. Letters of credit, bank references, etc. are acceptable documents. Internal profit and loss statements are also acceptable. Information marked confidential will not be shared to the extent law permits. SAMTD is looking for proposer’s ability to perform without adverse effect during the contract.

2. Question: Is there an Exhibit #12? The forms skip from Exhibit #11 to Exhibit #13.

Answer: No. Exhibit 12 does not apply to this solicitation.

3. Question: If a proposer has a pending (but not yet approved) registration with the

State of Oregon at the time of the proposal due date, will that proposer be eligible?

Answer: Yes, A Proposer must have complete registration before an award can be made.

4. Question: Has a budget been established for each of the five surveys, or an overall annual or contract budget?

RFP 23-026 Addendum #1

Answer: In order to maintain a competitive solicitation process, SAMTD does not share or publish internal budgets during an open solicitation.

5. Question: If this is a continuation of a previous contract, how much was spent during the last contract period?

Answer: This is not a continuation.

6. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: To clarify, is it acceptable to only submit our proposals electronically via email to procurement@cherriots.org (i.e. no hard copy or thumb drive required)?

Answer: That is correct.

7. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: If we are allowed to submit only electronically via email, should we attach the price proposal as a separate attachment?

Answer: Yes. Please Attach Exhibit 13 – Price Proposal Form with the Exhibits 1 - 14.

8. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: Can you clarify if we should submit the cover letter separately or with the proposal documents?

Answer: You may submit with the proposal documents.

9. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: Is there a page count?

Answer: No.

10. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: Can we include a cover page and table of contents?

Answer: Yes

11. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: If we are required to submit hard copies, does the price proposal need to be bound?

Answer: No

12. Question: Section 3.1A: Proposal Submission Requirements: If we are required to submit hard copies, can we use staples to bind the proposals that need to be bound?

mailto:procurement@cherriots.org

Answer: Yes.

13. Question: Part 4 Evaluation of Proposals, Evaluation Criteria, Section A and B: Can you clarify how you want the proposal organized? Should the exhibits be shown first and then the items in section B. Contents of proposal?

Answer: Please put technical proposal with exhibits following at the end.

14. Question: General RFP: Why was the previous RFP cancelled? Did SAMTD receive proposals?

Answer: The scope of work is revised and modified to reflect current needs.

15. Question: General RFP: Has anything in the scope or goals of this project changed since the previous RFP?

Answer: Yes, Please refer to Section 2: Scope of Services

16. Question: In the alternate years when the Rider Survey is conducted, can the

Customer Satisfaction Survey be conducted concurrently? Or should these be two completely separate efforts?

Answer: These surveys should be done separately. They serve different purposes.

17. Question: Does SAMTD have an existing subscription to Alchemer or would the successful bidder need to provide its own access? Would alternatives to this platform be acceptable?

Answer: SAMTD does not have a subscription to Alchemer. It was introduced by the previous vendor with some success. We would be open to the use of other platforms.

18. Question: Will SAMTD provide an example of its TransDash dashboard?

Answer: TransDASH is currently in the development phase for a redesign. The new dashboard will be made available beginning July 17.

19. Question: For the Community Values Survey, will alternative methodologies be considered, either in lieu of or in addition to the telephone survey?

Answer: Other methodologies may be combined with the telephone-based surveys.

20. Question: Are Routes 1X and 45 included in the survey efforts?

Answer: Yes these would be included in the survey efforts.

21. Question: Are there any proposed service changes that are expected to occur during the life of the contract? If yes, what are they and when are they estimated to take place?

Answer: Service Changes take place three times a year (January, May and

September). Most of these service changes are minor and do not increase or decrease the Revenue hours. There is a larger change that is proposed for January of 2024 which would add a new route to the Cherriots local system adding revenue hours (weekday 32 revenue hours, Saturday 15 revenue hours, Sunday 13 revenue hours).

22. Question: Do we have to mail hard copies as well as electronic copies?

Answer: Your proposal can be sent electronically; it doesn’t have to be both forms.

23. Question: What is a typical response rate for the employee survey?

Answer: Response rate is 40-45%.

24. Question: How many employees?

Answer: 260

25. Question: Are there going to be Title 6 or Origin & Destination (O & D) surveys or will they all be Consumer Experience oriented?

Answer: The Rider Survey is Title 6 based.

26. Question: Do you anticipate an O & D survey in the course of this contract?

Answer: No. Although, SAMTD does have the 100% Ride Check Survey, which does count every passenger boarding and lightings at every stop in the system, but not an O & D specifically.

27. Question: Is telephone and in-person surveys mandatory?

Answer: In-person surveys are mandatory for: Customer Satisfaction Survey; Rider

Survey (on the buses speaking to the riders); and 100% Ride Check Survey (on the bus physically counting every trip, not rider engaging though).

28. Question: As an alternative approach for reaching out to employees with no access to work email, can a survey link be texted to them?

Answer: Yes. Over the past two cycles some of the methods we’ve used have been links via email, QR codes, and laptops and physical survey boxes in our breakrooms.

In terms of text messages, you could, however, there would be many instances where that isn’t trusted from the perspective of anonymity.

29. Question: Is there a set budget for this project?

Answer: The budget is not posted in order to maintain a competitive process, as well as keeping our focus on the proposal that is the best for the district.

30. Question: We looked at this RFP in March and decided to pass. Why are you doing it again?

Answer: SAMTD revised the scope of work; originally, the scope included various cycles for multiple surveys, and it was narrowed it down to single cycle surveys.

31. Question: In what languages should these surveys be offered?

Answer: English, and Spanish are the most common, however, having the ability to translate to Russian may be needed as well.

32. Question: Will translation for languages used other than English be provided or is the selected vendor responsible for translating survey instruments?

Answer: The selected vendor would be responsible for translating the survey instruments.

33. Question: As an alternative to in-person interviews, is there an option for real-time rider survey through QR code put up at the bus? To elaborate, place QR codes on different buses, on different routes, and the feedback can be collected in real-time.

The riders will have to scan the code and you will save on manual intervention for a dialogue. QR codes are put up at the interest of the people traveling and if somebody wants to give a feedback today they can scan the code, if not then whenever he or she is traveling again in that same bus they can prefer to give it the next time around. That is the idea of QR codes in real time to the bus.

Answer: There's a large number of our ridership that do not have access to smartphones. So a QR code would not work for a large number of our customers, and that interaction is important. Knowing the demographics of and the people that ride our bus, I think we would really struggle to get a true sample of our riders and customers with just a QR code.

34. Question: Will translation for languages used other than English be provided or is the selected vendor responsible for translating survey instruments?

Answer: The selected vendor would be responsible for translating the survey instruments.

35. Question: As an alternative to in-person interviews, is there an option for real-time rider survey through QR code put up at the bus? To elaborate, place QR codes on different buses, on different routes, and the feedback can be collected in real-time.

The riders will have to scan the code and you will save on manual intervention for a dialogue. QR codes are put up at the interest of the people traveling and if somebody wants to give a feedback today they can scan the code, if not then whenever he or she is traveling again in that same bus they can prefer to give it the next time around. That is the idea of QR codes in real time to the bus.

Answer: There's a large number of our ridership that do not have access to smartphones. So a QR code would not work for a large number of our customers, and that interaction is important. Knowing the demographics of and the people that ride our bus, I think we would really struggle to get a true sample of our riders and customers with just a QR code.

36. Question: Are you looking for one vendor to coordinate all surveys?

Answer: Yes.

37. Question: Have you previously incentivized participation? If so, what incentives have you offered? If not, is there a reason?

Answer: We offer Day Passes to those would participate in the surveys. We've also done other surveys that the vendors have included incentives to get people to participate in the surveys. Those were more specifically project-based, but incentivized. If you feel that would be a valuable part, we would want to include that as part of your proposal for incentives. We are not opposed to bribing individuals to complete surveys and we have done that in the past and look forward to potentially reading about other avenues for incentivizing survey takers.

38. Question: Will you be looking at each platform from all companies before making a final decision? Or better yet, can we show you our platform before a final decision is made?

Answer: All Proposals that are responsive/responsible will be forwarded to the SEC committee. See Part 1; Section 3, subsection 8(A) for Responsiveness of Proposal.

Answer: On other solicitations we’ve absolutely had proposal composers include screenshots of their platform, and indicate ‘private not to be shared - this is exclusive for Cherriots’. In your proposal, use screenshots and let us know how you would use it, how you think we might use it, and how it would be beneficial. You may also specify in your proposal that a demonstration could be provided, so we would look forward to potentially seeing the platform in that avenue. Then, we can move forward if we decide to do interviews and/or demonstrations with a couple of vendors.

39. Question: What techniques have you used to gain participation from hard to reach populations in your Community Values Survey?

Answer: I don't know if it was necessarily techniques but our last vendor our survey partner was able to reach the goal of 400 community members, which was a telephone based survey; otherwise no unusual or unique techniques.

40. Question: It sounds like you don't have enough ad hoc quarter survey work to justify the investment in an ongoing online community. Is that a good read?

(Recruit a panel from the customer survey, run an exercise every month or two;

qualitative or quantitative; special topics (it’s not cheap).

Answer: We don’t have really have much of a need, but we also hadn’t considered

it. We have our Rider survey, and internal and external surveys that we want to do;

we hadn’t really considered ongoing every month or two before. That’s a fair estimation.

41. Question: Is there a page requirement (max/ min)?

Answer: No, there is not.

42. Question: Is 2021 the last time these surveys were conducted?

Answer: We just conducted surveys in 2023 – Employee, Customer, and Community.

100% Ride Check survey was completed in 2017; and the last Rider survey was completed in 2021.

43. Question: Are reports available for those recent surveys?

Answer: Some are available; two need to be presented to our Board, which will be

June 22, 2023.

44. Question: How do you assess the option of tablet(s) put up in each bus for rider survey? Tablet like kiosk can collect feedback offline and upload the feedback data when connected online.

Answer: Tablets could be used by surveyors on the bus; however, there isn’t a safe location to put kiosks onboard. It would be if the surveyor wanted to use tablets to pass out and then collect before people got off the bus, which could work in, we wouldn't be opposed to it.

45. Question: Will a list of questions and answers be distributed?

Answer: Yes. All these questions and answers will be entered into an addendum and post it on Oregon Buys website.

46. Reference: Page 14 – Employee Engagement Survey: Contractor will develop a survey instrument that will provide actionable insights and seek to effectively measure perception of employee satisfaction and engagement. A sampling plan will be developed that assures a statistically valid and representative sample of employees is collected. A draft of the survey instrument (in word format) will be provided for Cherriots review. Once content has been signed off on the survey will be placed in Alchemer (online survey tool that will be used to collect employee responses) and a draft link will be provided for final Cherriots review.

Question: Why does the vendor need to pass the signed off survey to Alchemer?

The vendor has its own online survey tool which can be used to collect employee responses through email, SMS, QR code, kiosk, tablet, shareable link.

Answer: Other tools with similar functionality and ease of use are acceptable.

47. Reference Page 14 – Employee Engagement Survey: Optional – Contractor can supply tablets for surveys to be executed to bypass paper surveys.

Question: Will the vendor also need to provide resources/people to conduct employee engagement surveys through tablets?

Answer: No, with this past survey conducted in April 2023 the vendor provided

SAMTD with 10 iPads which all had GPS tracking and were deployed to our worksite breakrooms for independent use.

48. Reference Page 14 – Customer Satisfaction Survey - Contractor will collect a statistically valid sample for Cherriots fixed route customers, onboard buses and at transit stops/stations while in the process of using the service to gain their impressions of your service. Contractor will collect a representative sample of

Cherry LIFT customers, and will collect a representative sampling onboard the vehicles and at regional service boarding and alighting locations. A team of surveyors will be conducting surveys using tablets in a randomized fashion over a period of 5-8 days.

Question: Will the vendor need to provide a team of surveyors using tablets to conduct the customer satisfaction survey?

Answer: Yes

49. Reference Page 15 – Customer Satisfaction Survey – On-site field training with on-board survey team members.

Question: Is it mandatory to provide on-site field training to the onboard survey team members? The vendor proposes online periodic training.

Answer: Yes. When anyone is representing our brand, it is critical that have a first-hand experience with our culture, our voice, and our district's personality. During training, the surveyors have direct access to customer service, security and operations staff.

50. Reference Page 15 – Community Value Survey: Surveys will be administered using a methodology that maximizes the representativeness of the survey and increases response rates. This will include telephone surveys conducted using both cell phone and landline telephone numbers.

Question: Is it mandatory to conduct telephone based surveys?

Answer: Other channels may be used in addition to the phone-based surveys.

51. Reference Page 16 – Community Value Survey: Support the presentation of results for up to three community organizational events (up to 3)

Question: What is the timeline for delivery of report post survey completion?

Answer: As an example, the last community value survey was completed in April.

The results/report were presented in June.

52. Reference Page 26 – Rider Survey: Questionnaires that do not appear to be reasonably complete and reliable, as agreed upon with Cherriots Planning staff to be “valid,” must be rejected by the field supervisor and additional data collection assigned as necessary to ensure that stated targets for valid responses are met. If a pattern of incomplete or unreliable samples is associated with a particular surveyor, the Consultant will be expected to take appropriate corrective action, potentially including dismissal of the surveyor.

Question: For the rider survey, will the field audit be needed if system ony allows if all questions are mandatory and feedback responses can't be recorded unless it is submitted?

Answer: This would work for Cherriots as long as the required fields were determined prior to the start of the survey.

53. Reference Page 26 – Rider Survey: Surveys that have been verified in the field will be forwarded for data auditing. The Consultant will audit and verify the returned surveys from every assignment prior to data entry. Auditors will review each survey by completed assignment. For each assignment, the auditor will first review the answer to each of the survey questions to verify that the required questions for a survey to be valid are answered.

Question: The consultant proposes a tablet to gather the feedback which will ensure responses are submitted when tablet is connected online. Can the consultant go with this alternative? Is data auditing mandatory?

Answer: Cherriots’ would be okay with this alternative and as long as the required fields were determined prior to the start of the survey auditing would not be required.

54. The Agenda for Pre-Proposal Conference that was held on 06/16/2023 is attached as Exhibit “A” to this Addendum.

55. The Attendance Sheet for the Pre-Proposal Conference that was held on 06/16/2023 is attached as Exhibit “B” to this Addendum.

All other specifications and terms and conditions remain unchanged.

By:

Charleen McCurdy, Procurement & Contracts Analyst

Salem Area Mass Transit District

555 Court Street NE, Suite 5230

Salem, Oregon 97301

June 23, 2023

EXHIBIT A

SURVEY SERVICES

PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING AGENDA

SAMTD RFP No. 23-026

Project Name: Survey Services Friday, June 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM (Mill Creek Conference Room)

SAMTD Administrative Offices, 555 Court Street NE, Suite 5230, Salem, OR 97301

A. WELCOME

1. Sign-in sheet

2. Introductions

a. Procurement Contact: Charleen McCurdy, Procurement & Contracts Analyst

b. Project Manager: Patricia Feeny, Chief Communications Officer

Chris French, Service Planning Manager Christina Conner, Chief Human Resources Officer

B. PROJECT DESCRIPTION, DELIVERY METHOD & SCHEDULE

Description: Salem Area Mass Transit District (dba Cherriots’) is soliciting Proposals to provide Professional Survey Services. Contractor shall develop and conduct a variety of annual, and periodic surveys. The purpose of the surveys is to obtain opinions about SAMTD as an employer, as well as customer and community opinions about the value and quality of SAMTD’s services.

A resultant contract will include the scope of services and specifications and all work as identified in PART 2 of this solicitation. No set amount of work is guaranteed.

The Term of a resultant contract will be comprised of an initial three (3) year base term with four (4) additional one year periods.

Successful proposer shall be licensed by the State of Oregon to do the work required under the resultant contract.

• All items or services to be furnished under the solicitation and resultant contract shall meet all applicable state and federal requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Standard.

• Successful proposer shall obtain and maintain in current status all applicable permits and licenses.

1. Delivery Method—Project will be performed under a single Prime Contract.

2. Project Schedule and Completion Time:

a. Notice to Proceed to successful contractor: September, 2023 (Estimate)

b. Substantial contract completion by – August 31, 2026 (estimate – base term of contract)

c. Final Completion (If All Options Executed) on or before December 31, 2030 (estimate)

PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING AGENDA

SAMTD RFP No.: 23-026 Project Name: Survey Services Friday, June 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM

C. PROPOSAL PROCESS AND PROPOSER INSTRUCTIONS

1. Request for Proposal, Plans, Specifications, Addenda, and other related documents for this project are available on the procurement page of the State of Oregon OregonBuys website.

www.oregonbuys.gov Notice #S-KS2410-00007152

2. Important Dates:

a. Submit Questions Deadline June 20, 2023 4:00 PM PST

b. Issue Addendum Response to Questions June 22, 2023 5:00 PM PST

c. Solicitation Closes July 11, 2023 4:00 PM PST

d. Issue Notice of Intent to Award September2023 (estimate)

e. Contract Award and Notice to Proceed September 2023 (estimate)

3. Required Proposal Submittals — See required items on Salem Area Mass Transit District

“Instructions For Proposers” and “Exhibits” included in the Request For Proposal.

D. SAFETY AND SECURITY

1. Safety Requirements—Job Site Conditions

• The successful proposer shall take all necessary precautions for the safety of all personnel on the job site, and shall comply with the Contract Documents and all applicable provisions of federal, state and municipal safety laws and building codes to prevent accidents or injury to persons on, about or adjacent to the premises where the Work is being performed. Contractor shall erect and properly maintain at all times, as required by the conditions and progress of the Work, all necessary safeguards for protection of workers and the public against any hazards created by the installation and provision of goods and services. Contractor shall designate a responsible employee or associate on the Work site, whose duty shall be the prevention of accidents. The Owner's Authorized Representative has no responsibility for Work site safety.

Work site safety is the responsibility of the successful proposer.

2. Site Visitation & Viewing

• Not available for this solicitation

E. INSURANCE

Requirements as identified in RFP 23-026 Exhibit B - Sample Contract, Special Contract Conditions, Section SP.7 “Insurance”.

F. BONDING

This requirement is “Reserved” for this procurement.

http://www.oregonbuys.gov/

PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING AGENDA

SAMTD RFP No.: 23-026 Project Name: Survey Services Friday, June 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM

G. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

1. Proposers shall Compliance with local requirements for the Jurisdictions where work is performed.

2. Proposers shall coordinate with SAMTD Security and Operations. SAMTD Project Manager will be liaison with these SAMTD organizations.

H. SAMTD SUPPLEMENTARY CONDITIONS & SUPPLEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONS

Please review all solicitation documents thoroughly to ensure complete understanding of all supplementary conditions and instructions.

1. Please review Part 1, Section 3, Subsection 2 (A-F) regarding preparation of proposals.

I. TOUR OF AREA WHERE WORK IS TO BE PERFORMED

There will be no tours associated with the Conference today.

J. QUESTION & ANSWER PERIOD (Solicitation Requirements)

K. SCOPE OVERVIEW BY SAMTD PROJECT MANAGERS - Patricia Feeny, Chris French, and Christina

Conner

L. QUESTION & ANSWER PERIOD (Scope Requirements)

EXHIBIT B

SIGN IN SHEET

FOR PRE-BID CONFERENCES, PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCES, BID OPENINGS

IFB OR RFP NUMBER: __RFP 23-026___________ GRANT NUMBER: _______________________________ PAGE _____ OF ________ DATE: _6/16/2023_______ PROJECT TITLE: Survey Services

X PRE-PROPOSAL _______ Interview _____ BID OPENING_____ WALK THROUGH

ATTENDANCE LIST

NAME

FIRM

REPRESENTED

ADDRESS

CITY/STATE/ZIP

TELEPHONE

EMAIL

Charleen McCurdy SAMTD 555 Court Street NE

Salem, OR 97305 503-361-7523 procurement@cherriots.org

Patricia Feeny SAMTD Same as above 503-361-7515 patricia.feeny@cherriots.org Chris French SAMTD Same as above 503-361-7540 chris.french@cherriots.org Christina Conner SAMTD Same as above 503-361-2551 christina.conner@cherriots.org Melissa Kidd SAMTD Same as above 503-361-7510 melissa.kidd@cherriots.org

Charles Tuttle Amazing Workplace 503-560-8371 Charlie@amazingworkplace.com Adam Navarro Amazing Workplace 503-438-6352 Adam.navarro@amazingworkplace.com David Golightly Aspirant 412-508-0658 David.golightly@aspirant.com Abhin Desai Bahwan CyberTek 571-286-7404 Abhin.desai@bahwancybertek.com Adam Probolsky Probolsky Research 415-870-8150 adam@probolskyresearch.com Sam Fleishman ReconMR (ComEngage) 206-349-2485 Sam.fleishman@reconmr.com George Uribe ReconMR (ComEngage) 512-720-9351 George.uribe@reconmr.com Nathan Wiggin ReconMR (ComEngage) 206-659-7220 Nathan.wiggin@reconmr.com Lauren Sloan TransPro Consulting 704-661-7570 Lauren.sloan@transproconsulting.com Kellie Melleady TransPro Consulting 484-995-0012 Kellie@transproconsulting.com Amanda Cantrell Vexing Media 509-379-7922 amanda@vexingmedia.com mailto:procurement@cherriots.org mailto:patricia.feeny@cherriots.org mailto:chris.french@cherriots.org mailto:christina.conner@cherriots.org mailto:melissa.kidd@cherriots.org mailto:Charlie@amazingworkplace.com mailto:Adam.navarro@amazingworkplace.com mailto:David.golightly@aspirant.com mailto:Abhin.desai@bahwancybertek.com mailto:adam@probolskyresearch.com mailto:Sam.fleishman@reconmr.com mailto:George.uribe@reconmr.com mailto:Nathan.wiggin@reconmr.com mailto:Lauren.sloan@transproconsulting.com mailto:Kellie@transproconsulting.com mailto:amanda@vexingmedia.com