A survey of the bidding practices of Canadian civil engineering construction contractors

This paper presents the findings of a survey of the bidding practices of Ca nadian civil engineering construction contractors. The results of the surve y provide insight into the most important factors that contractors consider in making four bid decisions: the decision to bid, the risk allowance, the opportunity allowance, and the markup-size decision. The survey methodolog y is described to illustrate its effectiveness. Common practices in assessi ng risks and opportunities, the competition, and markup are discussed. A ma jor conclusion of this paper is that the decision-making process used in bi dding is largely subjective and based on experienced judgement. The assessm ent of the competition is done on an informal basis in most cases, with lit tle use of historical competitor data. Risk and opportunity assessment is s ubjective and largely based on experience. Although the markup-size decisio n is critical to the success of a company in achieving its objectives and r ealizing a profit, markup setting is usually based on experience, with litt le or no formal methods of analysis.