An effective request for proposals (RFP) process for parking management services is about more than collecting bids and picking the lowest-cost vendor. Instead, the RFP process should help you clearly define your goals, assess your needs, and gather useful, detailed responses from partners who actually offer the right parking solutions and approach.
Parking asset owners often outsource the RFP process (i.e., writing, vetting, and providing a recommendation) to parking advisors or third-party consultants. But most consultants write RFPs around outdated assumptions and use stock templates that cause owners to miss out on the latest parking technology and strategies - from better agreement structures to modern payment systems and pricing capabilities.
This article will help you better understand how to structure an effective parking RFP that solicits the right solutions, whether you’re doing it yourself (with our template) or managing a third party consultant.
RFPs are typically used when a property owner or municipality wants to explore new vendors or parking solutions, and they need a structured way to compare options. In the parking industry, this might happen for reasons like the following:
The RFP process allows you to receive bids in a predictable, consistent format on your terms, which helps you match the best parking management capabilities and technology to your needs. Altogether, this makes the review and selection simpler and less biased than dozens of individual sales propositions tailored to the management provider’s preferences.
A good RFP communicates your challenges and goals, but it doesn’t necessarily dictate exact solutions. Rather than prescribing a narrow set of choices for parking technology, enforcement, or payment systems, your RFP format should accept the full range of potential solutions. When reviewing RFPs, here are 3 common examples we see that limit the options management providers can (or will) propose:
These types of assumptions and proposal structures can disqualify better solutions that reduce operating costs, improve revenue performance, and increase customer satisfaction.
Instead of specifying a small range of solutions, first clarify what you’re trying to solve. What is the reason for issuing your RFP, and what are the required outcomes from the process? For most owners and stakeholders, goals are framed around financial performance, customer experience, and operational efficiency. Examples of common goals include:
With a clear goal and outcomes established, you can follow a simple process for structuring your RFP and managing the responses.
In most cases, the process for creating your RFP and reviewing the responses doesn’t need to be overcomplicated. Your RFP should contain enough details to help interested management providers understand your property, the current challenges, and your evaluation process. Be upfront about the most important aspects, whether it’s revenue share, customer experience, enforcement approach, technology solutions, etc.
In the section below we review key information to consider including, plus additional details to research and add as needed.
Some RFPs will also outline key dates in the selection process to help set vendor expectations regarding timing and communication.
Once proposals are received, your selection process shifts to evaluation. First, decide who from your team will be involved in the scoring process and any other review activities that could help with the selection, like interviews or site visits.
Then determine how to weigh (score) aspects of each proposal, and why. In some cases, baseline services are fairly apples-to-apples while advanced revenue growth capabilities can offer more significant and longer-term ROI. Below are examples of criteria that should guide the review process to ensure your partner has the right capabilities, track record, and approach:
Planning your evaluation process ahead of time will help ensure a fair process that balances qualitative and quantitative criteria.
Most parking RFPs focus on operational checklists and standard approaches like staffing plans, equipment specs, and enforcement tactics - but these are only part of the picture. Rather than following the same box-checking process, owners should optimize for RFP structures that focus on revenue growth, smoother customer experiences, and modern systems that scale. By improving your RFP, you’ll filter for the right type of long-term partnership and optimize for the right outcome, not a checklist.
