Request For Proposal (RFP) - Towing and Recovery Services

Orange County Transportation Authority is requesting proposals for towing and recovery services under RFP 260469, with proposals due September 8, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. and a pre-proposal conference on August 27 at 2:00 p.m. A Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) goal applies to this procurement.

The scope covers 24/7/365 on-call towing and recovery services for OCTA's revenue vehicles (40-foot and 60-foot alternative-fueled transit buses), non-revenue support fleet vehicles, abandoned and impound vehicles, equipment transport, and heavy recovery with 25-ton or greater wreckers. Services include Landoll/low-angle trailer deployment and impound processing with lien handling. The contractor must respond to emergency requests within one hour and thirty minutes, maintain valid California Class A Commercial Driver's License and Motor Carrier Permit for all operators, comply with all FTA and DOT regulations including drug and alcohol programs (49 CFR Parts 40 and 655), and achieve 95% quarterly compliance with response times. Storage facilities must be secure and monitored. The contractor assumes full liability for vehicle damage from improper towing, loading, or securement, and is responsible for cleanup costs and regulatory fines. Late-arrival fees of $100 may be assessed.

The contract budget is $435,000 over a three-year term, October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2029, with time-and-expense compensation at fixed hourly rates covering labor, equipment, fuel, overhead, and profit. Pricing must remain firm for all three years with no increases permitted; price decreases automatically extend to OCTA. Contractors must guarantee prices are equal to or less than those offered to any other local, state, or federal government entity for equal or lesser scope. Contractors must quote all line items for all three years, submit both standard and emergency hourly rates, and acknowledge all RFP addenda; failure to comply results in non-responsive proposals.

Evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: Qualifications of Firm (30%), Work Plan (25%), Staffing and Project Organization (20%), and Cost (25%). Interviews are scheduled for September 15, 2026. The contractor must maintain Commercial General Liability ($2,000,000 per occurrence), Automobile Liability ($2,000,000 combined single limit), Workers' Compensation, Pollution Legal Liability ($2,000,000 per loss), and Garagekeepers Liability ($2,000,000 per occurrence). Prevailing wage requirements apply. Written questions are due August 28, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. This is a re-solicitation; the original RFP 250257 released April 23, 2026 received no proposals.