Deciding factors when buying new vehicles

[Wireless Advanced Comm]

This one is specifically for any fleet managers or anyone in charge of purchasing new vehicles to be up-fitted for agencies, but I would appreciate feedback from anyone.

When it is time for an agency to get new vehicles a lot of factors go into how decisions are made. Larger departments often up-fit their vehicles in house, and that works good for them. For most other departments they have someone else build their vehicles for them. I know that most departments are not given a very large budget, and it is important to keep the cost on a new vehicle low. What I often see is that a department will then get bids from a few up-fitting companies, and then the job goes to the lowest bidder no matter the quality of service being received.  I think it is important for the officer to get a vehicle that is built to keep them safe and allow them to do their job well, which doesn't always seem to be the case.

With that being said, I am curious what people think are the most important factors in deciding where/how to get a vehicle up-fitted. Quality? Price? Amount of time it takes? etc.

 

[fleetcomm]

I do our upfitting in house so we can control quality and the time it take to get the vehicles on the road ready for use. We also know where all the wiring is and any connections.

 

[Wireless Advanced Comm]

Thank you for your response fleetcomm. How many vehicles do you do a year?

Just so everyone knows... This post was not directed toward any specific company. I did not intend to offend anyone, I just wanted to see what kind of feedback I could get. I know that there are a ton of up-fitting companies out there who offer high quality work with high quality products.

 

[Station 3]

I have seen how the buying process of a new vehicle goes down in commissioners court for our county and they "the county commissioners and judge" don't really know anything about the vehicle the specs or what it does or what its going to do..... The boss aka Constable just goes up before the court and says we need a new patrol car we want a Tahoe for our deputys for patrol and it costs $28k, and he explains what it does all the specs about the vehicle and all the little good things and such.... The commissioners then say what do they drive now and what did we get the other guys?? Oh we got them chargers ok chargers it is boom they get a charger.... Next item on the agenda....

in a matter of less then 3 min they decided that we are going to get a charger and not a Tahoe and that was that no if and or buts about it...

That's the way things go down here in Cameron County Texas.

And as far as light outfitters they usually go to the only guy in town who messes up all the cars and charges crazy amounts for a crappy job and makes all the lights flash in split fail seizure patterns that only a 12 year old boy would like.

And as far as where they get the lights from well.... The LT usually just opens up a GT distributers magazine and orders the entire generic whelen set up they offer for the patrol cars of that type and spends and over pays WAY WAY to much on out dated stuff from 4 or 5 years ago that nobody likes but again a 12 year old boy.

That's how it works here.

 

[Wireless Advanced Comm]

Thank you for your feedback. I think stuff like that happens quite often across the entire country. It sucks when the people who are going to be using the vehicles, have no say in what they are getting.

 

[JohnMarcson]

Ohio has yearly state bid. That means some vehicles or packages have a price governments can buy at without having to bid. That list is a main factor for smaller depts.