How to Write an AVL RFP for Snow Plows, With a Requirement Template

An AVL RFP for snow plows should require a GPS tracking device on every plow, salter and sidewalk machine, inputs that record when the blade is down and the spreader is on, a public plow map, a set data retention period, an open API, and named installation, support and training. Write each item as an outcome the vendor must demonstrate on one of your trucks, and score bids on those demonstrations as well as on price.

AVL stands for automatic vehicle location: the trucks report their own position, and the system turns those positions into routes, records and maps. This guide covers the winter tender itself. Our guide Plow Tracker Maps: How Cities Show Residents Where the Snow Plows Have Been explains how a public map is built, and Municipal Fleet Tracking: A Buyer's Guide for Cities, Counties and Public Works covers department permissions, union policy and cooperative purchasing for the rest of the municipal fleet.

Usually not as a fixed number. Some devices do not report on a timer at all. Geotab describes its GO devices as watching GPS every second and keeping only the points needed to redraw the trip within a set error limit, and Geotab says it cannot give a fixed rate such as a number of logs per hour, because the rate depends on how the vehicle is driven. A plow turning at every intersection produces far more points than one on a straight arterial.

Write the outcome you need instead. The trip replay shall follow the street the truck actually drove, including turns and passes on parallel streets. The live map shall update within the delay you set. Then ask each vendor to replay a test route driven through a dense residential grid, and compare the replay with the route sheet.

Also ask in writing what the device does when it loses cellular coverage and how the data reaches the server afterwards, so a gap in a rural sector does not show up as a street never plowed.

Specify the equipment state you need on record: blade down, wing out, spreader on, and the spreader controller's data where the controller can send it. Without inputs, the system knows only that a truck drove down a street. A Winter Maintenance Review presented to Toronto's Executive Committee in July 2025 found that the City's system "logs whether a plow or salter has driven a route, and this is used as a proxy for completion."

The hardware behind those inputs needs checking unit by unit. Geotab's IOX-AUXM module reads four on/off inputs, and two modules monitor up to 8, on GO7 and newer devices. Geotab's IOX-WRKS reads plow position and road and air temperature, works with over 20 different material spreaders and sends the data to the Public Works Add-In in MyGeotab; its page lists the GO9 and GO9+ as compatible devices. Ask every bidder to name the device model and confirm in writing that each input module and spreader integration works with it, for each controller on your list.

Require a public page that reads a filtered, read-only copy of the AVL data, never staff logins. The tender should let the municipality choose which vehicles appear, what delay applies, which time bands colour the streets, and when the map switches off between storms. Our plow tracker guide compares how Canadian and US cities make those choices.

Open data is a separate requirement. Montreal, for example, publishes its snow loading planning as an API on its open data portal. If your municipality publishes data, require a documented API and say what the feed must contain. Ask each vendor for the address of its public API documentation; Geotab publishes the MyGeotab API documentation openly on its developer site.

Your records rules set the period, not the vendor's default. In Quebec, section 7 of the Archives Act requires every public body to establish and keep up to date a retention schedule (calendrier de conservation), and BAnQ publishes a collection of retention rules for the municipal sector that municipalities use to build theirs. Put the retention period from your schedule in the RFP, and require deletion at the end of it.

Ownership belongs in the contract: the municipality owns all AVL data and may export it in full, in a documented format, at any time and when the contract ends. Ask for a live export during the evaluation. Outside Quebec, take the period from your province's or state's municipal records rules and your own by-law.

In Quebec, the Charter of the French Language applies to the tender, the contract and the software. Section 21 says contracts entered into by the civil administration, including related subcontracts, are drawn up exclusively in the official language, and the OQLF states that tender documents, bids, plans and specifications are written in French. Quebec's government lists municipal bodies as part of the civil administration.

Section 52.1 adds that software must be available in French unless no French version exists. For an AVL system, require a French interface for the dispatcher and supervisor screens and the driver app, French documentation and training, and support in French during storms.

Publication follows the municipal contract rules. When a municipal body awards a contract through an open procedure, it publishes the call for tenders on SEAO, the government's electronic tendering system, and in a newspaper. The current threshold that requires an open procedure is $139,000, and the minimum period to receive bids is 15 or 30 days depending on the contract. Check the current rules on Quebec.ca before you publish, because the thresholds are adjusted every 2 years.

Ask how each unit will be installed and by whom. A device such as the GO10 connects at the OBD-II or 9-pin diagnostic port through a T-harness with no wires cut, and a 3-wire kit covers units without a port; the plow and spreader inputs need wiring by a professional installer. Require an installation schedule that finishes before the first storm, with a fall test of every input.

For support, ask for the hours and the languages of the help desk during a storm, including nights and weekends, and how a failed unit is replaced mid-season. For training, require sessions for dispatchers, supervisors, operators and the 311 team, with French and English materials the municipality may reuse.

Score in two stages. First, a pass or fail check on the mandatory requirements: a bid that cannot record blade-down state, export the data or meet the language rules stops there. Then score the remaining bids against weights you publish with the RFP: how the demonstration went on your truck, functional fit, implementation plan, support and training, references from other municipalities, and price.

In Quebec, the procedure you choose decides how price and quality combine. Quebec.ca lists six open procedures, including award to the lowest price and award under a global evaluation of criteria, with or without discussions and negotiations. Pick the procedure before you write the grid, and use MAMH's guides on open procedures and selection committees.

Keep the demonstration concrete. Give every finalist the same test route, the same truck and the same checklist, and score the blade and spreader records, the public map and the export as they appear on screen.

Copy the rows that apply, add your own units and controllers, and fill in the values in brackets from your own policies.

High Point GPS is a Montreal fleet telematics company and Geotab partner, founded in 2013 and serving over 500 fleets in Canada and the United States, in English and French. We work with municipalities and public works departments on winter operations: professional installers fit the GPS tracking devices and wire the plow and spreader inputs, and our Public Tracking Portal publishes a read-only map of the vehicles and streets the city chooses. To get a response ready for your tender, use the free quote form on this page: select Get a free quote and send us your unit list.