DSD’s tendering procedures:
Awarding contracts to small and mid-tier companies encourages more competition
Lasting enlargement of the bidder structure and short transportation distances
Cologne, 25 August 2009. In this year’s tendering procedures for collecting and sorting lightweight packaging, the disposal company involved has changed in more than 150 areas. In particular, disposal companies belonging to large conglomerates had to cede contractual territories to small and mid-tier disposal firms not dependent on any large corporation. “This shift in emphasis encourages competition and lastingly enlarges our pool of bidders. The determinant factors in assessing the sorting bids were territorial decoupling and separate costings for the freight”, is the verdict of Stefan Schreiter, CEO of Duales System Deutschland GmbH, on the meanwhile completed tendering procedure.
In the latest tendering procedure for sorting services in the years 2010 to 2012, the bidders were for the first time requested to submit a quotation for sorting quotas. Hitherto, the tender for sorting had always been referenced to contractual territories. But in this latest tendering procedure, the companies could submit bids in steps of 1,000 or 2,000 tons up to the total capacity of their sorting plant. Freight costs were no longer a constituent part of the bids, but they could be calculated as supplementary quotations. Only companies operating their own sorting facilities in line with their capacities qualified as bidders: commissioning subcontractors was no longer a permissible option. “With the new tendering modalities, we are increasing the certainty levels of costing, particularly for the smaller firms, and removing their risk of insufficient plant capacity utilisation. This ensures that market conditions remain stable and that the quantities actually allocated are sorted at the price previously costed”, adds Stefan Schreiter.
In terms of the environmental impact, too, explicit incorporation of the transport costs produces significant gains in efficiency: smaller plants with short transportation distances have won out against their larger competitors, some of whom can quote the sorting work more affordably, but have long transportation distances to cover. “From an ecological viewpoint, logistics play a crucial role nowadays. Our new tendering procedure takes full account of this aspect as well, since once again we can help to ensure that the emissions of environmentally harmful CO2 gases are substantially reduced”, emphasises Schreiter.
The tendering procedure has also shown that there is still sufficient free sorting capacity available at smaller and medium-sized plants. This regionally structured network of efficient sorting facilities will be playing a crucial role in the upcoming spot tender as well. “We are extremely gratified to note that the mid-tier companies have returned to an active role when it comes to sorting lightweight packaging. The spot tender will show whether the trend towards smaller facilities will continue. We did, of course, verify the performance capabilities of the plants concerned beforehand, so that in future, together with our partners from the disposal sector, we can assure top-quality recycling for our customers”, comments Stefan Schreiter.
Contact person:
Klaus Hillebrand
Telephone: +49(0) 22 03/9 37-257
About DSD:
The Green Dot – Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD), employing around 300 people at four facilities in Germany, is a leading provider of take-back systems. These include not only close-to-home collection and recovery of sales packages, but also eco-friendly, cost-efficient recycling of used electrical and electronic equipment and transport packages, facility disposal services and deposit clearing.
