Local bus companies sound the alarm again over RFP from Tri-board transportation

Jeff Green | Nov 18, 2020

School bus operators serving residents in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington and Hastings Counties for Tri-Board Student Transportation Services, who have been hailed as essential business operators for the role their companies have taken, are facing an existential threat.

With their contract up at the end of the 2020-2021 school year, Tri-Board management has informed them that a request for proposal (RFP) process will be used to determine the new contract for 2021-2022.

The companies, some of which operate only one route, say the process will open the market up to predatory competition from large and multinational bus companies such as First Student and Stock Transportation (a division of National Express Group PLC of the United Kingdom).

In a letter to Frontenac County, seeking support, the executive of the Tri-Board Bus Operators Association, said “Tri-Board does not have to use an RFP process. There are many other approaches that can both meet the requirements of a competitive procurement process and avoid the bias in favour of large outside operators inherent in an RFP.”

The concern of the bus operators association, and they point to examples throughout Ontario and across North America, is that the RFP process set out routes in bundles and the large corporations have the capacity to fashion competitive bids, and if they win, the local companies go out of business. When the contract is re-negotiated 5 years later, the only bidders that are left are the multinationals, and the cost savings of the first RFP are lost.

The letter to Frontenac County says the Tri-Board could use an alternate competitive process called benchmarking, “where a third party uses actual cost data to determine the most efficient price for service, as a good option for school boards and consortia.”

This process has been used as recently as last year, in Chatham-Kent Lambton and by the Student Transportation Services of Central Ontario in Peterborough County, to determine multi-year contracts in those jurisdictions.

Steve and Jenn Dunham, who operate Dunham bus lines based in North Frontenac, with routes in North and Central Frontenac, also sent a letter to Council, through County Warden Frances Smith.

They point out that this is not the first time that Tri-Board transportation has considered using an RFP process.

“You may remember several years ago, we went through a similar situation where we were forced to fight an RFP in the court system in order to keep our family owned businesses. We were very fortunate that we were able to continue to operate our school bus businesses for the past 6 years. Unfortunately, our contract is coming to an end at the end of this school year and rather than choose to negotiate a new contract or extend our current one, Tri-Board feels it is necessary to issue a new RFP,” the letter said.

Jack Moreland, who operates a single bus in the Sunbury area, said that if the RFP proceeds as indicated, he will be out of business after 53 years.

“If they do it like this, I will be gone, and I can't see how that will be an improvement for the families that I serve every day.”

In his own letter to Frontenac County, Moreland said that if Tri-Board at least allows local companies to band together and bid on a bundle of routes, it might be possible to put a bid together, but said the operators need to know soon, if this will be allowed in the process, “so we have time to put together a group bid.”

The RFP is slated to commence later this month, and the bus operators association is seeking a meeting with Gord Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer of the Tri-Board Transportation, and his board, to discuss alternatives to the RFP process. Tri-Board is an arms length organisation, owned by the Limestone District School Board, the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board, and the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board.

In a motion that will be considered at Frontenac County Council this week, proposes that the council supports the “Tri-Board School Bus Operators’ Association, and our local school bus operators, and requests that the Tri-Board Transportation not to proceed with an RFP for school bus services given the present environment we are under with the COVID-19 Pandemic, but work together on a solution to retain our local operators.”

At least one member of Frontenac County Council will be very familiar with the issue when it is brought forward this week. South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal drives a school bus every day for Hogan Transportation, which operates routes in South Frontenac.At least one member of Frontenac County Council will be very familiar with the issue when it is brought forward this week. South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal drives a school bus every day for Hogan Transportation, which operates routes in South Frontenac.