The California Department of General Services (DGS) has issued a Request for Proposals seeking vendors to update and modernize its fuel payment system, which supports payments by state employees for fuel, oil, fluids, parts, repairs and maintenance for thousands of fleet vehicles statewide. Among the takeaways:
• The state’s current vendor agreement with U.S. Bank will expire in December. The financial institution currently outfits state employees with its Voyager fleet card for purchasing and provides online access to data about those purchases. But generally, the contract and card only cover fuel, emergency repairs such as flat tire fixes and emergency roadside repairs. For non-emergency repairs, providers must invoice the state to seek payment. DGS seeks a new system that would update purchases and tracking now covered by the U.S. Bank contract — and digitize repairs that are still paper-based or not part of the existing pact.
• The state’s goal, it said in the RFP, is “to procure a Fleet Payment System (FPS) solution to provide accountability, transparency and reconciliation of expenditures.” The RFP went out March 6. A proposers’ conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. March 19 at DGS; written questions for clarification are due March 23; and proposals are due by 2 p.m. April 6. Demonstrations are scheduled for April 20-24, and negotiations are expected to begin April 27.
According to the RFP: “The four proposers with the highest technical narrative scores will be required to complete a live technical demonstration.”
• There’s no contract award date or contract value specified — but DGS has set a go-live date of Jan. 1. The contract will have a five-year term with the option of one two-year extension, and it will be mandatory for state agencies. The state has around 32,000 light-duty vehicles. Historical spend via the state’s Fleet Card Program topped $70 million in 2016; $79 million in 2017; and $98 million in 2018 — though in each case around a third of that spend came from “optional users,” or local and county governments that also use the contract.
• DGS seeks a contractor to provide an online, Web-based system for account management, transaction data review, collection and management and account administration, and to report output and data transfer. The system will need “permission controls based on hierarchy set up by the DGS Office of Fleet and Asset Management and access to real-time data.” Data management and reporting systems should be available 24 hours a day, and “all participating entities” should get access to that system and have the ability to manage their own accounts.
The contractor will also be responsible for issuing online statements at the end of each billing cycle; providing an online data management and reporting system and “spend data for reconciliation”; and “drill down capabilities for transaction data.” A collection process for delinquent accounts is also expected.
