In a request for proposals (RFP) released Friday, the city of Oakland is looking for responses from companies capable of helping it stand up a “multi-proposer mobile parking payment system” that will let visitors pay remotely for parking using their cellphones. Among the takeaways:
- The Parking and Mobility Division of Oakland’s Department of Transportation seeks companies to put in place a “complete Mobile Parking Payment System for all current and future city-controlled paid parking areas, on-street and off-street.” The city will consider providers that allow payment via “phone, website, mobile software applications ... and/or SMS/Text Messaging,” per the RFP. The system sought must, at a minimum, let customers pay remotely for parking “via proposer’s free-of-charge app or at proposer’s website at the city’s approximately 11,000 metered spaces.” This number includes roughly 500 “multi-space pay-and-display meters” and 5,000 single-space meters plus off-street parking facilities. There’s also an “optional task,” according to the RFP, for additional products or services to support “the holistic and active management of the city’s on- and off-street parking facilities.” Mobile phone parking payments accounted for roughly 13 percent of total parking meter payments in 2019; city staff “envision an increase” through mobile and touchless payment. The city may award to more than one “agreement/proposer” to meet its goals.
- The city’s objectives include finding a respondent with expertise in pay-by-phone mobile parking; augmenting its existing parking payment options; and employing a system where meters can be added and removed, and rates and schedules reprogrammed flexibly without downtime. Oakland also needs regular reporting on “trends, productivity, and performance,” enhanced data and user protections that comply with its Surveillance Technology Ordinance; and Oakland-branded materials like signs for multi-space parking kiosks and meter stickers provided by respondent. The city needs an “innovative” system that will support its parking and mobility goals, including its Parking Principles laid out in Resolution No. 84664 and parking reforms like Oakland+.
- Relevant experience for respondents includes “parking experience in Oakland or similar Bay Area cities” in the last five years “that will demonstrate the competence of the team” to do the work. Qualification statements must emphasize work in Oakland “supporting parking and multimodal transportation systems, and equitable and innovative parking payment systems.” Respondents will receive points for “technical ability and verifiable ... experience in providing an effective mobile parking payment system” in the last five years; an “innovative, flexible, and progressive approach to supporting the city’s parking system and payments,” and experience managing “product or service accounts for cities with a parking and transportation system” similar to Oakland.
- The contract term will be five years with the option of two consecutive one-year extensions, for a total potential term of seven years. Contract value is not to exceed $900,000. As compensation for delivering the system, the contractor will be “authorized to charge a convenience/user fee(s),” subject to city approval — and which the city may “subsidize ... at any time during this agreement’s duration.” The city seeks an “initial one-time combined payment of $190,000 from all selected consultants to contribute to the costs of establishing the new mobile parking payment system,” divided equally among the contractor or contractors selected, unless the consultant is a certified local business enterprise, in which case they must contribute 75 percent of their portion. A pre-proposal meeting is set for 10 a.m. March 17; questions on the RFP are due by 2 p.m. March 24. Proposals are due by 2 p.m. April 5. The award date is unclear.
