Most ETS RFPs are scored on capability matrices that every serious vendor can tick. The result is a shortlist decided on price, and a programme that runs into the differences in month three.
The questions below are written to produce answers that differ. Ask for a demonstration rather than a written response wherever the question says "show".
Routing and planning
- Show what happens to a pickup chain that would breach the maximum ride time. Is it split, or accepted with a flag?
- Are travel-time assumptions configurable by city and by hour, or is there one model?
- Is vehicle class part of route generation, or applied at dispatch?
- How are employees clustered before routing — by geography, by density, or by roster order?
- Can routes be regenerated for a single disrupted day without touching the underlying roster?
Safety and compliance
- Show what the system does at the moment it allocates a non-compliant night-shift trip. Block, warn, or log?
- How is escort availability confirmed before dispatch rather than after?
- Who receives an SOS, and what is the documented response time?
- What is the audit trail for an escort decision — and can it be exported for a statutory report?
- How are driver background verifications tracked, and what happens when one expires?
Vendor management
- Can we keep our existing operators? What changes for them commercially?
- How long does it take to onboard an operator onto the platform?
- Is there any supply lock-in — contractual or practical?
- How does allocation handle operators with different coverage by zone?
- What prevents the same driver or vehicle being double-assigned across two trips?
Billing and finance
- Show a three-way match between a trip, the rate card and a vendor invoice.
- How are disputes evidenced — and who decides?
- Can transport cost per employee, per team and per site be reported without an export?
- How does the system handle mid-contract rate card changes?
- What integrates with our ERP, and at what level — invoice, journal, or trip?
Data and security
- Where is employee data stored, and under whose control?
- What employee data does a vendor or driver see, and for how long?
- What is the retention period for trip and location data?
- Which certifications do you hold, and can we see the current certificate rather than a logo?
- What happens to our data at the end of the contract?
Scope — the question most RFPs miss
- Does the platform cover corporate travel — flights and hotels — on the same policy engine?
- If not, how do the two approval chains reconcile?
- Can we report total mobility cost per employee across travel and ground without joining two systems?
Implementation and proof
- Model one of our sites against our current spend, using our roster and our rates.
- What is the timeline from first site to steady state?
- Who runs the implementation — the vendor, a partner, or us?
- What does the vendor need from us, and by when?
- Name two reference customers running a programme of our shape.