Transportation businesses might slash crimson tape and increase innovation by ditching conventional procurement for Outcomes-Primarily based Contracting (OBC) that pays distributors based mostly on outcomes, not merchandise, in response to a brand new white paper printed by ITS America and NEMA (Nationwide Electrical Producers Affiliation).
The paper entitled Procurement Options for Trendy Transportation Applied sciences tackles what the writes name outdated procurement fashions hampering the digital transformation of America’s transportation infrastructure.
OBC is introduced as a attainable option to modernize how businesses purchase every thing from site visitors sign techniques to crash response platforms. Fairly than buying particular services or products, businesses should buy outcomes resembling lowered site visitors fatalities, improved journey instances, or elevated transit entry, and maintain distributors to account to ship these.
“Public businesses are grappling with outdated procurement fashions in a digital-first transportation period,” says Bobby McCurdy, ITS America vice chairman of coverage and advocacy. “This paper offers a sensible roadmap to unlock innovation and enhance efficiency.”
The paper attracts on real-world case research from Alpharetta, Georgia; the Virginia Division of Transportation; and Southern Nevada to display OBC’s effectiveness. It additionally offers steerage for federal management in aligning insurance policies and funding mechanisms with trendy infrastructure wants, plus suggestions to assist state and native businesses tackle cybersecurity, software program licensing, and useful resource challenges.
“The evolution of clever transportation calls for procurement frameworks which might be simply as sensible,” says Steve Griffith, NEMA government director, for regulatory and trade affairs in mobility. “Outcomes-based fashions supply governments the pliability and incentives wanted to deploy cutting-edge applied sciences and preserve them over time.”
The white paper emphasizes the crucial position of the USDOT in selling outcomes-based procurement by means of initiatives like Each Day Counts and ARPA-I, and urges Congress to modernize procurement and funding insurance policies to make sure long-term adaptability.
Business representatives who contributed to the paper’s growth additionally spotlight its sensible advantages. “Outcomes Primarily based Contracting represents a sensible and efficient option to businesses to maintain up with know-how developments that assist safer, extra environment friendly, and extra resilient transportation techniques,” says Guerry Bruner, supervisor for ITS and unmanned infrastructure options, at ASSA ABLOY. “By specializing in outcomes distributors can present options to businesses issues that match inside their present infrastructure,”
“OBC is more and more necessary within the transportation trade as a result of it shifts the main target from what’s being purchased to what outcomes are being achieved,” says Alison Boan, nationwide seize supervisor at Rekor. “As a substitute of procuring particular services or products (e.g., cameras, software program, or engineering hours), businesses outline success by way of outcomes — like lowered site visitors fatalities, improved journey instances, or elevated entry to transit — and maintain distributors accountable to these outcomes.”
The paper was developed by a process power of members from each ITS America and NEMA as a part of their latest memorandum of understanding to share data, promote shared coverage goals, and scale clever transportation system deployment throughout america.
