| Peer-Reviewed

Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden

Received: 27 August 2013     Published: 20 October 2013
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Public procurement of road maintenance services, particularly in cold regions is not an easy task in order to satisfy road-users during winter. Road-users’ dissatisfaction, complaint and pressure can usually be considered as major factors for having more accessible and safe roads during winter. These pressures have contributed and led to an increasing critical approach focusing on public procurement of these services after some harsh winters in the recent years in Sweden with traffic disruption and delay as consequence i.e. an increasing focus on the way in which the Swedish state authorities and local governments procure winter road maintenance services. The present study which is part of a larger research project investigating efficient winter road maintenance through procurement, tendering and contract aimed at extending this knowledge base with regard to procurement and socioeconomic factors with focus on the winter maintenance of the Swedish road network. The study reveals that even the Swedish winter road maintenance services are procured and outsourced in accordance with EU directive and public procurement rules transposed into the Swedish act on public procurement, the act has been interpreted in a manner that all the process has led to great dissatisfaction of end-users during winter due to improper bundling of winter related services. The lack of economic motivation in current contracts concerning winter road maintenance in the form of incentives has led to an inefficient performance of winter road measures. The study suggests a number of proposals in order to make forthcoming contracts more effective through proper bundling of winter services and create incentives for contractors to improve the performance of winter road maintenance services.

Published in Journal of Investment and Management (Volume 2, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11
Page(s) 70-86
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2013. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Public Procurement, Procurement Legislation, Tender, Contract, Incentives, Bundling Services

References
[1] R. Robinson, U. Danielson, and M. Snaith, Road Maintenance Management – Concepts and Systems, MACMILLAN PRESS LTD, London, 2007.
[2] A. Abdi, Technical and Contractual Aspects in Winter Highway and Railway Operation and Maintenance – a survey of current technical system and contract forms in Sweden, Licentiate thesis, Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, 2011.
[3] R. Österberg, Contracting Out Public Service, PhD thesis, TRITA-INFRA 03-046. Division of Urban Studies, Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, 2003.
[4] A. Abdi, H. Lind, and B. Birgisson, "Designing appropriate contract for achieving efficient winter road and railway maintenance with high performance quality – a survey of the state of practice in Sweden," International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences."In press".
[5] P. Cousins, R. Lamming, B. Lawson, and B. Squire, Strategic supply management – principals, theories and practice, Prentice Hall, London, 2008.
[6] A. Zeng, "A synthetic study of sourcing strategies," International Management & Data System, Vol. 100,Iss:5, pp. 219-226, 2000.
[7] I. Titheesawad, and T. Kijboonchoo, The effects of bundle composition, price, framing and familiarity on consumers’ purchase intention, MSc thesis, Assumption University, Bangkok, 2003.
[8] S. Stremersch, and G. J. Tellis, "Strategic Bundling of Products and Prices: A New Synthesis for Marketing," Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66, pp. 55-72, January 2002.
[9] J. P. Guiltinan, "The price bundling of services: a normative framework," Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51, pp. 74-85, April 1987.
[10] H. Lind, and L. Borg, "Service-led Construction: is it really the future?" Construction Management and Economics, Vol. 28, No. 11, pp. 1145-1153, 2010.
[11] L. LeClair, "Improper contract bundling hampers growth and viability of small construction firms," Modern Contractor Solutions Journal, Vol. 3, pp. 38-39, April 2009.
[12] L. H. Baldwin, F. Camm, and N. Y. Moore, Federal Contract Bundling: a framework for making and justifying decisions for purchased services, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California, 2001.
[13] P. Milgrom, and J. Roberts, Economics, Organisation and Management, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1992.
[14] J. M. Lantran, and C. Morse, "Development of private sector: framework and competition," Proceedings of the Highway Policy Seminar for Countries of the Former Soviet Union, Moscow, 15-19 May 1995, Washington DC: The World Bank, 169-178, 1995a.
[15] S. Tadelis, "Public procurement design: Lessons from the private sector," International Journal of Industrial Organization, vol. 30, pp. 297-302, 2012.
[16] J. Nyström, Partnering: definition, theory and evaluation. PhD thesis, Division of Building and Real Estate Economics, Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, 2007.
[17] A. Abdi, H. Lind, and B. Birgisson, "Effective winter highway maintenance through application of partnering concept," International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering, Vol. 3,No. 3, pp. 112-125, 2013.
[18] Swedish Transport Administration – STA, Swedish Transport Administration's Procurement Operations, Borlänge, 2013.
[19] Achilles Information AB, Trans Q – Qualification System for Suppliers to Transport Utilities in Scandinavia, Information Booklet, Stockholm, 2011.
[20] Swedish Act on Public Procurement, SFS 1992:1528 (Svensk författningssamling, Lag om Offentlig Upphandling SFS1992:1528), Stockholm, 1992.
[21] T. Stenbeck, Incentives to innovations in road and rail maintenance and operation, Licentiate thesis, Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, 2004.
[22] Expowera, Public Procurement, viewed 21 March 2013,www.expowera.se
[23] Swedish Competition Authority – SCA, The Swedish Public Procurement Act – an Introduction, ISBN – No. 978-91-88566-01-0 (print), E-print AB, Stockholm, 2012.
[24] Official Journal of the European Union, Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts, European Parliament, Strasburg, 2004.
[25] Commission of Inquiry, A better deal for public building, report, London, 2012.
[26] Government Offices of Sweden, Good Business: A Strategy for Sustainable Public Procurement, Official Reports of the Swedish Government – SOU 2013:12, final report, Stockholm, 2013.
[27] A. Abdi, Winter Road Maintenance on Contractual Basis – An International Benchmarking, Research Rep., Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Stockholm, 2012a.
[28] H. Å. Mattsson, and H. Lind, "Experiences from procurement of integrated bridge maintenance in Sweden," European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 143-163, 2009.
[29] Swedish Transport Administration, Contract documents for Väsby maintenance area within Stockholm region, 2012.
[30] A. Kouzim, E. Löffler, H. Klages, and K. K. Nada, "Benchmarking and performance measurement in public sector: towards learning for agency effectiveness," International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 121-144, 1999.
[31] A. G. A. Ilhaamie, A. A. Zainal, and Z. Yuserrie, "Competency-based pay and service quality: an empirical study of Malaysian Public Organisations," Asian Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 21-36, 2009.
[32] A. Abdi, H. Lind, and B. Birgisson, "Use of Road Weather Information System (RWIS) as Assistive Tool for Effective Winter Road Maintenance – Technical and Contractual Interactions," International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 12, pp. 2002-2012, 2012.
[33] K. Ochota, "Benefits of bundling, South Carolina, Captive Review," pp.14-15, 2008. Viewed 1 July 2013, www.captivereview.com
[34] J. D. Carlson, P. Carlson, and R. Viola, "Advantages of Unbundled vs. Bundled," Plan Design Consultants Inc., San Mateo, California, 2008.
[35] J. W. Darrington, and G. A. Howell, "Motivation and incentives in relational contracts," Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 42-51, 2001.
[36] P. Jacobson, Contract and Remuneration forms (Entreprenad- och ersättningsformer), BFAB, Stockholm, 2004.
[37] J. Watson, Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory, 2nd ed., W. W. Norton &Company, New York, 2007.
[38] S. Black, S. Briggs, and W. Keogh, "Service quality performance measurement in public/private sector," Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 16, No. 7, 400-405, 2001.
[39] J. L. Fuentes-Bargues, and C. Gonzáles-Gaya, "Determination of disproportionate tenders in public procurement," Journal of Investment and Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-9, 2013.
[40] T. Ventovuori, "Elements of Sourcing Strategies in FM Services – AMultiple Case Study," International Journal of Strategic Property Management, Vol. 10, pp. 249-267, 2006.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Adel Abdi, Hans Lind, Björn Birgisson. (2013). Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden. Journal of Investment and Management, 2(4), 70-86. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Adel Abdi; Hans Lind; Björn Birgisson. Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden. J. Invest. Manag. 2013, 2(4), 70-86. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Adel Abdi, Hans Lind, Björn Birgisson. Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden. J Invest Manag. 2013;2(4):70-86. doi: 10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11,
      author = {Adel Abdi and Hans Lind and Björn Birgisson},
      title = {Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden},
      journal = {Journal of Investment and Management},
      volume = {2},
      number = {4},
      pages = {70-86},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jim.20130204.11},
      abstract = {Public procurement of road maintenance services, particularly in cold regions is not an easy task in order to satisfy road-users during winter. Road-users’ dissatisfaction, complaint and pressure can usually be considered as major factors for having more accessible and safe roads during winter. These pressures have contributed and led to an increasing critical approach focusing on public procurement of these services after some harsh winters in the recent years in Sweden with traffic disruption and delay as consequence i.e. an increasing focus on the way in which the Swedish state authorities and local governments procure winter road maintenance services. The present study which is part of a larger research project investigating efficient winter road maintenance through procurement, tendering and contract aimed at extending this knowledge base with regard to procurement and socioeconomic factors with focus on the winter maintenance of the Swedish road network. The study reveals that even the Swedish winter road maintenance services are procured and outsourced in accordance with EU directive and public procurement rules transposed into the Swedish act on public procurement, the act has been interpreted in a manner that all the process has led to great dissatisfaction of end-users during winter due to improper bundling of winter related services. The lack of economic motivation in current contracts concerning winter road maintenance in the form of incentives has led to an inefficient performance of winter road measures. The study suggests a number of proposals in order to make forthcoming contracts more effective through proper bundling of winter services and create incentives for contractors to improve the performance of winter road maintenance services.},
     year = {2013}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Public Procurement of Winter Road Maintenance Services Based on EU Procurement Directive – Lessons from Sweden
    AU  - Adel Abdi
    AU  - Hans Lind
    AU  - Björn Birgisson
    Y1  - 2013/10/20
    PY  - 2013
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11
    T2  - Journal of Investment and Management
    JF  - Journal of Investment and Management
    JO  - Journal of Investment and Management
    SP  - 70
    EP  - 86
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7721
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20130204.11
    AB  - Public procurement of road maintenance services, particularly in cold regions is not an easy task in order to satisfy road-users during winter. Road-users’ dissatisfaction, complaint and pressure can usually be considered as major factors for having more accessible and safe roads during winter. These pressures have contributed and led to an increasing critical approach focusing on public procurement of these services after some harsh winters in the recent years in Sweden with traffic disruption and delay as consequence i.e. an increasing focus on the way in which the Swedish state authorities and local governments procure winter road maintenance services. The present study which is part of a larger research project investigating efficient winter road maintenance through procurement, tendering and contract aimed at extending this knowledge base with regard to procurement and socioeconomic factors with focus on the winter maintenance of the Swedish road network. The study reveals that even the Swedish winter road maintenance services are procured and outsourced in accordance with EU directive and public procurement rules transposed into the Swedish act on public procurement, the act has been interpreted in a manner that all the process has led to great dissatisfaction of end-users during winter due to improper bundling of winter related services. The lack of economic motivation in current contracts concerning winter road maintenance in the form of incentives has led to an inefficient performance of winter road measures. The study suggests a number of proposals in order to make forthcoming contracts more effective through proper bundling of winter services and create incentives for contractors to improve the performance of winter road maintenance services.
    VL  - 2
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Department of Transport Science, Division of Highway and Railway Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Division of Building and Real Estate Economics, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Sections