Bus Transportation Services

The City of Detroit Office of Contracting and Procurement, on behalf of the General Services Department – Recreation Division, is issuing Request for Quote (RFQ) #545204 to procure bus transportation services for summer field trips and year-round services to various locations within a fifty-mile radius or one-hour drive time from Detroit. The procurement seeks qualified vendors to provide charter or school buses (with school buses preferred) with a minimum capacity of forty-eight passengers for summer camp season operations from June 22, 2026 through August 14, 2026, operating between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., with additional as-needed trips throughout the year to twelve designated recreation centers (Adams Butzel, Butzel Family, Clemente, Crowell, Farwell, Heilmann, Helen Moore, Kemeny, Lasky, Northwest Activities Center, Patton, and Williams). Vendors must demonstrate a minimum of two years' experience providing transportation services and submit all-inclusive per-bus-unit pricing that covers gas, tolls, drivers, and other associated expenses. The evaluation will award multiple contracts on a low-bid basis, with bidders assessed on pricing, organizational capacity, relevant experience through project references, staffing qualifications, and compliance with insurance and bonding requirements, including Worker's Compensation at Michigan statutory minimums, Commercial General Liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence minimum, and Automobile Liability at $1,000,000 combined single limits. Critical procedural dates include: questions due Monday, April 13, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. EST; answers distributed Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.; and proposals due Monday, April 20, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. EST via the Bonfire procurement portal with no pre-bid conference scheduled.

The City of Detroit offers equalization credits for Detroit-based businesses, including those certified as Detroit-Based, Detroit Resident Business, Detroit Headquartered, Detroit-Based Small Business, or Detroit-Based Micro Business, with eligible businesses receiving pricing credits of one to five percent depending on certification type, with awards made to the lowest equalized bidder provided the equalized bid does not exceed the lowest responsible bid by more than twelve percent or $100,000, whichever is less. Vendors must submit notarized City of Detroit Consolidated Affidavits including hiring policy compliance certification, equal opportunity covenants, political contribution statements, Certificates of Insurance, three years of financial statements, evidence of Treasury Clearance submission, and System of Awards Management (SAM.gov) registration for federally funded projects, with Treasury Clearance requiring a minimum of ten days and SAM registration requiring ten to fifteen days for processing. The procurement structure establishes a one-year contract with options to renew for three additional one-year terms, and payment terms are NET 30 days from invoice receipt upon proper submission of required supporting documentation. No incumbent contractor is identified in the solicitation materials, and no specific budget range or maximum contract value is disclosed; however, vendors must provide comprehensive pricing proposals in response to the bid sheet identifying per-hour rates, minimum hour requirements, differential rates for trips between six and eight hours, and availability of flat rates for eight-hour trips across the designated pickup locations requiring varying seating capacities from forty to fifty-five seats per bus.