Seventeen City Vehicles in the light truck class are scheduled for replacement in the City’s Equipment Replacement Program and were approved by City Council during the FY 17-18 budget process. Staff advertised for sealed bids for city vehicles on September 29 and October 6, 2017, with a bid opening on October 10, 2017.
 
The bids are for the following types of vehicles:

• Two ¾ ton 4x4 crew cab pickups (Fire)
• Two ½ ton 4x4 extended cab pickups (Building & Engineering)
• Two compact 2-door 4x4 Jeeps with snow plows (Parks)
• Two ¾ ton 2 wheel drive regular cab pickups with utility bodies (Parks)
• One ½ ton 2 wheel drive regular cab long box pickup (Parks)
• One ¾ ton 4x4 regular cab pickup with utility body (PW Belknap)
• One 1-ton 4x4 regular cab pickup with utility body (PW Belknap)
• Two ¾ ton 4x4 extended cab pickups with utility bodies (PW Belknap)
• One ¾ ton 4x4 regular cab pickup (Solid Waste)
• Two 1- ton 2 wheel drive regular cab dump trucks (Street)
• One high-roof cargo van (Police)

City Council may:

• Approve the purchases of vehicles from the low bidders or;
• Disapprove the purchases and reject all bids.

The City received four bids on the vehicles.  The total low bid amount for the vehicles is $534,990.92 as outlined on the attached “Vehicle Bid Results.”
 

Staff recommends retaining five of the nine vehicles offered for trade and selling them at auction because the dealer trade allowance for these five vehicles was only $8,500 while the trade-in book value is $17,200 for the five vehicles. Staff recommends trading four of the trade vehicles because the dealer trade allowance was $18,100 while the trade-in book value was $15,370 for the four vehicles. No bids were received for bid schedule 11, so staff will evaluate the specifications and rebid that schedule.

Staff recommends awarding all Bid Schedules to the lowest bidder, as follows. Bid schedules 1 and 5 without trades and schedules 3 and 10 with trades to Billion Auto Group, in Bozeman, MT for the bid amount of $235,030.00; Bid Schedules 2 and 9 without trades to Fremont Motors in Powell, WY for the bid amount of $82,105.00; and Bid Schedules 4, 6, 7 and 8 to Bison Motors in Great Falls, MT without trades for the bid amount of $217,855.92.