Electronic Bid Documents Deposit

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Author Message Richard A. Rosen, CSI, CCS, AIA Senior Member Username: rarosen Post Number: 113 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 02:27 pm:    We are currently transitioning into issuing Cd's of the bid documents instead of hard copy bid packages. As we are a public agency we are required by law to collect deposits on all bid documents. What has been anyone's experience with a reasonable cost to the Bidders for the electronic bid documents? Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 684 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 02:53 pm:    My experience with the Province of Alberta Bid Documents are available in hard copy, at no charge, to the following bidders only: .1 Prime contract bidders. .2 Mechanical subcontract bidders. .3 Electrical subcontract bidders at the following location only: Name of your public agancy, address, phone #, etc Hard copy Bid Documents are also available, for viewing only, at local Construction Association Plan Rooms. Bid Documents are also made available in electronic form, from [fill in the blank] at www.name.com or .net. The Public Agency will assume no responsibility or liability for the completeness of any Bid Documents obtained from a source other than the address specified above. In the event of a discrepancy between hard copy Bid Documents obtained from the address specified in .1 and: .1 any electronic version of the Bid Documents, or .2 any hard copy version derived from any electronic version, the Bid Documents issued from the address specified in .1 shall be deemed to be correct. Promptly notify the public agency at the office identified under “Inquiries” upon discovery of any such discrepancies. RETURN OF BID DOCUMENTS .1 Successful Bidder may retain Bid Documents. All other Bidders shall return the Bid Documents to the address specified in [para #] prepaid, complete and in good order, not later than 14 days after contract award. .2 Prospective Bidders who do not intend to submit a bid are requested to return the Bid Documents promptly, before the bid closing time. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 760 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 03:00 pm:    Oh bother... I believe that bid deposits were always collected to ensure return of Bidding Documents which would be reissued to the Contractor for use during construction. The deposit was refunded for those who returned bidding documents "in good condition." After the returned documents were reviewed to make sure they were complete and didn't have too many marks, those administering the bidding process authorized the return of the deposit and set aside the "plans and specs" for the contractor's use. We always set the deposit at the approximate cost of reproduction for a bid set. This amount could easily run into the thousands of dollars for large projects with multiple volumes of Drawings and multiple volumes of Specifications. There were several problems with this model. One was that there were legitimate reasons for subbidders to request partial bid sets. In the old model, they were dependent on bidders to take apart sets for the use of subbidders (like electrical). I would assume that since the 1970s, the plan rooms were producing partial sets from the microfilm that they kept for viewing (these were purchased and not "loaned" on deposit). Much as design professionals would like to think that bids (and the component subbids are based on the whole set of bidding documents), this has not been true for a long, long time. When the sets were dismantled for subbidding, the people reviewing the returned sets had to be vigilant in making sure that everything was returned. This process also generated a list of those who had gotten Bidding Documents so that they could be identified of Addenda. Around 2000, when I was working on a large airport project, we started to give electronic files to the reproduction company (Drawings and Specifications). Anyone who wanted bidding documents (in whole or in part). The reproduction company took on the responsibility of recording those who had purchased documents and notifying them when Addenda were issued. I don't remember any significant problems, and the cost savings to our client (a public owner) was very significant. We still had to print sets for the Contractor's use once a construction contract was executed, but we did not have eighty or ninety sets of ragged drawings and specs that were cluttering up the office (the content of which had changed anyway). I would suggest that if a deposit is still required, it should be viewed as an administrative fee to log bidders and subbidders for future notification of Addenda. If the electronic files are maintained at a local reproduction company, you could restrict distribution to only those with a "ticket" indicating that they had paid the deposit. I would suggest that most are going to a more open distribution system where anyone who is willing to pay can obtain complete or partial sets of Bidding Documents in either hardcopy or electronic form. There is a significant degree of waste in this system if everyone is required to purchase hardcopy, but when you print Contract Documents, they will be more complete and up to date. Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 785 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 05:40 pm:    No kidding? Required by law? How about a peppercorn? Make the deposit "one dollar and other good and valuable consideration." George A. Everding, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: geverding Post Number: 762 Registered: 11-2004 Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 11:20 pm:    Deposit should properly be in bitcoin, not dollars, no? David J. Wyatt, CDT Senior Member Username: david_j_wyatt_cdt Post Number: 92 Registered: 03-2011 Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - 08:59 am:    Deposits for paper documents seem to be going away here in Ohio. Most owners don't want the hassle of numbering sets and managing deposits. A few political subdivisions I have worked with believe they are not allowed to do anything with the money if a bidder fails to return his or her set. So, most of the time we are told to have the bidders pay for the documents, which can be burdensome for some contractors. But it seems to assure that the bidders we do get are serious about going after the work. I don't see any point in charging for electronic copies, which some owners encourage us to require. Restricting who gets them - yes in certain circumstances. user (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 - 02:34 pm:    Cost of CD / DVD containing electronic bid documents. Cost to copy bid documents to CD / DVD. And, cost of postage to mail electronic media.