Tips to deliver your tender response on time
By Werner van Rooyen, Director of HowToTender (Pty) Ltd which specializes in tender consulting and tender training.
“Late submissions will not be accepted. A submission will be considered late if it arrived one second after 14:00 or any time thereafter. The bid (tender) box shall be locked at exactly 14:00 and bids arriving late will not be accepted under any circumstances. Bidders are therefore strongly advised to ensure that bids be dispatched allowing enough time for any unforeseen events that may delay the delivery of the bid”.
The paragraph above is typical in tender documents. This paragraph, that the responder must agree too, is indicative of how serious the Organ of State is about getting your response in on time.
Here are five tips or things to remember to ensure that you deliver your tender response on time.
- Ensure that you know exactly what the office address is where the tender response must be submitted. You do not want to get lost on your way to where you need to drop off your tender response.
- Budget for enough traveling time. Road and traffic conditions can force you to travel longer to your destination causing you to arrive late at the Organ of State’s offices.
- Take a colleague along for the journey. This can be helpful when you reach the offices where you need to drop off the tender and there is no parking in the nearby proximity of the tender office. You, or your colleague, can be dropped off to go and deliver the tender response documents whilst the other person is looking to park the vehicle.
- Enquire beforehand where the tender box is located at. If you are running on a tight time schedule there would not be time to search for the tender box. Dropping your tender response into the wrong box will be a fatal mistake.
- Stay for the official tender response opening that will take place directly after the closing of the tender response. By staying for the tender response opening you will ensure that your tender response is registered together with all the other tender responses.
If you follow these five simple steps when submitting your tender, you will ensure that your tender response is on time and delivered into the correct tender box.
To learn more about this and many other tender conditions attend our “Become a Tender Expert” 2-Day workshops presented in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. Book and pay online at https://howtotender.co.za/tender-expert-form/
Contact us at wernervr@howtotender.co.za should you require more information.
You can also purchase a Tender Manual (Handbook) on our website https://howtotender.co.za/ which is a step by step guide how to respond to a South African Tender. It includes examples of completed SBD forms.
