Magnetic Bus Passes

The City of Madison, Wisconsin, through its Metro Transit and Finance Department Purchasing Services, is seeking bids for a comprehensive magnetic bus pass procurement contract (RFB #8933-0-2020-BG). The solicitation covers six distinct product categories including magnetic stripe bus passes (140,000 units across up to 20 types), magnetic stripe UW passes (25,000 units), magnetic stripe youth passes (25,000 units), direct thermal plastic bus passes (400,000 units across up to 10 types), transfers (1,200,000 units), and MiFare smartcards (10,000 units). Bidders must demonstrate a minimum of two years' experience producing magnetically encoded tickets and submit detailed pricing proposals on Form D, with all-inclusive, not-to-exceed fixed fees covering labor, materials, transportation, and insurance. The procurement timeline required question submissions by February 28, 2020, with answers posted March 2, 2020, and final bids due March 11, 2020, at 2:00 PM CST. Vendors must propose delivery timelines, with all passes to be delivered within 30 calendar days of final artwork approval and encoding, and must provide pricing projections for years 2021-2024. Evaluation criteria include vendor experience, pricing, delivery capabilities, and ability to meet strict encoding and quality control standards, including a maximum 0.4% reject rate for encoded materials.

The solicitation does not explicitly outline specific set-aside designations for disadvantaged enterprises, though it does require contractors with 15 or more employees and $50,000 or more in annual city business to file an Affirmative Action Plan. Electronic Data Magnetics Inc. appears to be the incumbent or winning vendor, with a total contract value of $76,075.00 across the six product line items. The contract requires vendors to obtain written confirmation from Metro Transit regarding production quantities prior to manufacturing and reserves the right for the city to modify quantities based on actual pass sales. The pricing structure includes unit prices ranging from $5,450.00 for UW passes to $26,000.00 for direct thermal plastic bus passes, with MiFare smartcards priced at $8,500.00. Metro Transit maintains significant flexibility in the contract, including the ability to reject any or all bids, make partial awards, and waive informalities at its discretion. Vendors must also sign non-disclosure agreements regarding proprietary encoding data and comply with specified security and quality control standards.