Compare track records — Veolia an easy choice

What does Las Vegas want for the future of its world-class transit system? And is the price First Transit advertises really cheaper? If it is, why and how is it cheaper? Why just three years ago when the current contract was put out for competitive procurement did the RTC reject a similarly low price from First Transit, calling it "non-responsive"?

The answers start with understanding that the Regional Transportation Commission's competitive procurement is not a "low price auction" but "best-value" procurement. The difference lies in the importance to be placed on the quality of service that residents and visitors expect from their fixed-route system, on the system's future, and on the well-being of the more than 1,000 men and women who run it.

The RTC bus system is among the best in the country, thanks in part to Veolia partnering with the RTC, and it should not now be sacrificed in a race to the bottom in price. The goal of this procurement was to balance, along with price, technical ability, commitment to quality, innovative ideas for cost savings and efficiencies, and revenue enhancement, and this goal should not be forgotten. A price that sacrifices those considerations is not the answer.

Veolia Transportation's technical proposal scored highest. As for price, let's look at the bids.

Nearly all of the supposed "savings" in First Transit's bid -- confirmed by the RTC's own analyst, Jeremy Aguero -- come from significantly less investment in vehicle maintenance, 11.9 percent less in driver wages and 28.2 percent less in total benefits for the same size work force. That's $24 million over the next three years out of system quality and the pockets of drivers who, after a year, earn $13 an hour.

The RTC's analyst concluded that First Transit's proposal relies on "ambitious efficiency assumptions, including without limitation, those that may reduce total [employee] compensation. ... From an analysis standpoint we believe there is a material degree of uncertainty as to whether these savings can be achieved." Unmistakably, the savings, if achieved, will come out of the wages and benefits of the men and women who make the system run and out of a bus fleet that has, until now, been one of Las Vegas' great successes. While the theory is First Transit can absorb the losses, the question is can the employees absorb the loss of benefits and total earnings? Can the world-class bus system absorb the loss of investment and inevitable service deterioration?

The track records of the two companies in Las Vegas -- Veolia, who helped build the bus system into a Top 10 system nationally, and First Transit, the current operator of the often criticized paratransit service for people with disabilities -- can easily be compared. Veolia has absorbed service and revenue reductions directed by the RTC totaling $10.5 million (16 percent) over the past three years, without sacrificing service quality or laying off employees (except by normal attrition). At the same time, paratransit service costs have spiraled out of control, increasing 21 percent over the same period and depriving the RTC of funds needed for the bus service that the majority in Las Vegas use. Where are the innovative, cost-saving ideas First Transit promises for the bus system in its operation of the paratransit service?

The more than 1,000 men and women Veolia employs in the bus system look at the paratransit service operated by First -- at the quality of equipment and wages and benefits First pays -- and the differences are not lost on them. That is why 90 percent of them signed their own petition calling upon the RTC commissioners to reject First Transit, and why they showed up in large numbers at the commission hearing in May and again last week.

It is the RTC commissioners' job to set policy for the future of its transit system. Will the RTC choose Draconian cuts taken out of the employees and service as the way to deal with reduced revenues and out-of-control paratransit costs, as First Transit's proposal assumes, or will it choose the opposite direction proposed by the operator who knows the system and for years has kept all stakeholders' interests in mind?

Veolia's proposal includes more than $6 million in its own capital investment in technologies that guarantee $7.5 million in ridership and revenue growth for the RTC (without increased fares) and $1.7 million in fuel savings over the next three years alone. Those are "hard facts" and guarantees in a proposal that John Inglish, head of the Utah Transit Authority, a Top 5 system in the country, called the "most innovative proposal he has seen in his 30 years" that "sets the standard for the transit industry."

The RTC's fixed-route system, including the profitable service on The Strip that supports other RTC services, does not need cuts. It needs investment in ways that make the entire fixed-route system, including The Strip service, better, more profitable and more efficient.

Instead of endorsing what would be a First Transit monopoly over all of the RTC's transit services, we should applaud those commissioners opposed to an award to First for their wisdom, ability to separate fact from fiction, and long-term view toward maintaining and improving Las Vegas' world-class transit system.

Mark L. Joseph is vice chairman and chief executive officer of Veolia Transportation Inc.