Background and purpose

Passenger transport is an industry where sustainable success and high customer satisfaction are to a very large extent based on close cooperation or partnership between the actors who together provide the service to the passenger. In light of increasingly rapid changes in the world around us, combined with the growth of organizations and employee turnover, the need for more systematic cooperation is also increasing. Despite this realization, industry representatives believe that there is great potential in developing a closer partnership that could lead to an improved service and, in turn, more sustainable results.

Effective partnerships have proved to be a challenge to establish in an environment characterized by public procurement regulations where the client side primarily takes the role of the demand side versus the supply side. But there are also good examples where the partnership works well. With a guide for developing partnerships, the ambition is to take advantage of the experience gained and thus make it easier to achieve common goals.

SIQ Passenger transport network

The SIQ passenger transport network, which consists of representatives from both the client side and the provider side, has the drive, competence and interest to develop quality and customer satisfaction through better partnerships during the contract period. The ambition is to produce general but at the same time concrete and practically useful recommendations that support the development of the partnership. The guide is primarily intended to be used as common guidance and does not presuppose any specific procurement model.

However, the development of a partnership is greatly facilitated to the extent that the procurement and contract itself does not constitute an obstacle to closer cooperation between the parties. In order to succeed, a dynamic approach is needed regarding what provides the best conditions, but also a systematic approach.

SIQ Guide to developing quality in partnerships

The guide is based partly on guiding principles for what should characterize a good partnership, and partly on generic success factors that characterize leading organizations described in SIQ Management model. In spring 2021, we conducted a workshop with SIQ passenger transport network in two stages:

In step one, factors that are important in the context of quality and partnership in public procurement were defined. In step two, these factors were placed in the process from public procurement, partnership development to the end of the contract period.

In spring 2022, we identified challenges and ways of working in partnership to focus on the passenger's perspective. During the autumn, we continued to prioritize focus areas and working methods to establish a well-functioning partnership. In 2023, the development work focused on process development, common goals and results in the partnership.