How to read award notices and bid results
What public bid results and award notices tell you, where to find them in BC and federally, and how to turn competitors' prices into better bids.
In short
Many public buyers publish who bid, at what price, and who won. Those results show the going rate for your work, who your real competitors are, which contracts get few bids, and when each contract will come back. Collect results for your trade and area, track them in a simple sheet, and use them to price, plan and pick bids.
Every public tender ends with a decision, and many buyers publish it. For construction tenders that are opened in public, you can often see every bidder and every price. For scored RFPs, you usually see only the winner and sometimes the contract value. Either way, it is free market research that most small firms ignore.
What do results usually show?
It varies by buyer and type of competition:
- Bid tabulations for tenders: each bidder's name and total price, sometimes with unit prices. Common for municipal construction and service tenders.
- Award notices: the winning firm, the contract value and the term.
- Council and board reports: many municipal awards above a set amount go to council, and the report explains the competition, the bidders, the evaluation and the budget.
- Federal contract disclosure: the federal government publishes data on contracts it awards, which shows suppliers, values and dates.
- Nothing at all: some buyers do not publish results. You can still ask the contact person, and many will tell you.
Note that in BC government competitions, the province cautions that an announcement of a preferred proponent is not official until the contract is signed. Treat early notices as a strong signal, not the final word.
What can I learn from them?
The going rate. If five janitorial firms bid between $210,000 and $260,000 a year on a building, you know where the market sits. If your price was $320,000, either your costs are high or you misread the scope. Either way, you need to know.
Your real competitors. The same three or four names tend to show up in a trade and area. Learn who they are, how they price, and what they are good at.
How close you came. Losing by 2 percent is different from losing by 30. One is a sharpen-the-pencil problem. The other is a business model problem.
Thin markets. Contracts with one or two bids are openings. Read when only one firm bids.
When it comes back. The award date plus the term and extensions tells you when to expect the next tender. CrewBid's renewals page is built on this idea. See why the best contracts come back.
What the buyer values. Council reports often say why the winner won: price, experience, or a strong plan. That tells you what to stress next time.
How to collect them
- Bid on things. You see results most easily for the competitions you entered.
- Check the buyer's bid page after closing. Many municipalities list results beside the original posting.
- Search council and board agendas for "award of contract" in your trade.
- Ask. A short email: "Could you share the bid results for this tender?" Many buyers answer.
- Request a debrief if you bid and lost. See how to get a bid debrief.
Keep a simple results sheet
A spreadsheet with these columns is enough: buyer, contract, trade, area, closing date, term, bidders, prices, winner, your price, and notes. After a year, it is one of your most valuable tools. It feeds your bid or no-bid decisions and your pricing.
Using results fairly
Bid results are public information, and using them is normal. Do not try to coordinate prices with competitors. Bid rigging is a crime under the Competition Act, even informally. Use results to understand the market and sharpen your own costs, then bid your own number.
Prices are also not the full story. A firm that bid very low may have misread the scope, may be buying the work, or may be about to lose money. Do not chase a price you cannot deliver at. Read does the lowest price always win?.
Sources
Rules and forms change. Check the official page before you rely on a detail here.