For bid­ders & con­trac­tors: 5 legal tips for award­ing school trans­porta­tion ser­vices — the too-low mileage allowance*

You want to par­tic­i­pate in school trans­porta­tion in your dis­trict. And then this: The ten­der doc­u­ments stip­u­late a fixed pay­ment per kilo­me­ter. But this price is far too low. Not only do you not earn any­thing, you also pay more.

What to do?

First of all: Don’t just accept it. Act imme­di­ate­ly (prefer­ably with legal sup­port). If you have a prob­lem with the spec­i­fi­ca­tions of a pub­lic con­tract­ing author­i­ty in a pub­lic pro­cure­ment pro­ce­dure, then rep­ri­mand. Do not point out, crit­i­cize, com­plain, or issue “clar­i­fy­ing notices” or “bind­ing con­cretiza­tions.” Do not express your lack of under­stand­ing, do not sug­gest “opti­miza­tions”. But rather: Rep­ri­mand. And, please, by the dead­line!

And in terms of con­tent?

Fixed price spec­i­fi­ca­tions are by no means per­mis­si­ble with­out fur­ther ado. The award­ing author­i­ty must take a num­ber of things into account here. Exam­ple: Sec­tion 58 (2) sen­tence 3 VgV. Even par­tial fixed price spec­i­fi­ca­tions do not take place in a legal vac­u­um. They can, for exam­ple, mean a dis­pro­por­tion­ate imped­i­ment to the cal­cu­la­tion and pro­vi­sion of ser­vices. They also impair the sense and pur­pose of the award pro­ce­dure, name­ly to find the best price on the mar­ket first and fore­most. This is only one of many argu­ments which should be jus­ti­fied in detail in the com­plaint in order to dis­suade the con­tract­ing author­i­ty from tak­ing the wrong path.

Any ques­tions?

Feel free to call any­time at 0341 910 28405. “Abante Recht­san­wälte” is active in pub­lic pro­cure­ment and con­tract law nation­wide. We will give you a first overview of your options by tele­phone, free of charge and with­out oblig­a­tion.

*This legal tip is no sub­sti­tute for legal advice in indi­vid­ual cas­es. By its very nature, it is incom­plete, it does not relate to your case, and it also rep­re­sents a snap­shot, as the legal basis and case law change over time. It can­not and does not cov­er all con­ceiv­able con­stel­la­tions, serves main­te­nance and ini­tial ori­en­ta­tion pur­pos­es and is intend­ed to moti­vate you to clar­i­fy legal issues at an ear­ly stage, but not to dis­cour­age you from doing so.