Transport and Moving Tenders in Québec: Why So Many Draw a Single Bid

Patrick runs a 35-employee transport and moving company in Chaudière-Appalaches. He watches public notices go by and rarely bids, because he takes for granted that several firms will always be ahead of him. The sector's figures say otherwise.

We looked at 6,611 transport, travel and moving contracts awarded in Québec between 2021 and 2025: transit by bus and taxi, school and adapted transport, towing and truck rental with an operator, moving and furniture storage, courier and delivery, transport of health network users, as well as a minority of contracts classified in this sector without being transport. The main buyers of the public notices are the ministry of Transport, Hydro-Québec, health network institutions, transit authorities, Sépaq and many cities.

Often, no one else shows up

Among the sector's public calls for tenders, 27.1% received a single bid. Of the eight sectors we measured, transport and moving shows the highest share of public notices that received a single bid. In civil engineering, that share falls to 9.0%.

In other words, more than one public notice in four was decided without anyone else filing. The firm that answered was alone.

For a company hesitating to invest several days in a response, that is the most useful figure on this page. The calculation is not the same when a competitor is likely and when one is not.

The figure changes when invitations are counted

Across all the sector's contracts put out to competition, invitations included, 50.9% received a single bid.

The gap between the two figures comes from how buyers solicit. 42.6% of the sector's contracts put out to competition are tendered by invitation, and a call for tenders by invitation is addressed only to the firms that were solicited. In practice, it is far more often uncontested than a public notice.

We publish both figures, because they answer different questions. The first describes what you can see and respond to. The second describes all of the sector's contracts put out to competition, invitations included.

Not all contracts in the sector are alike

Among public notices, the share without competition is not the same from one trade to another. It is higher for transit by bus and taxi, and lower for furniture moving and storage.

That fits what these contracts require. A bus route assumes a fleet, available drivers and a local presence in a given territory. An office move is contested more widely.

A good part of the sector does not go through a call for tenders

Across all the sector's contracts, 37% go through a call for tenders, and 63.5% are awarded by mutual agreement.

Among the direct awards that declare a reason on SEAO, 59.6% cite an amount below the public tendering threshold. That share is read on the 52.4% of direct awards that actually declare a reason; the rest publish none.

What the price gaps say

The median gap between the two lowest bids is 16.0%. In civil engineering, it is 7.8%.

Among tenders with at least two opening prices published, 23.3% are decided by less than a 5% gap. In the others, the distance between the two best prices is 5% or wider.

That figure is read only on tenders with at least two prices published.

What this changes for your next bid

The contract you write off may not be lost at all. More than one public notice in four in this sector receives a single bid. The question is not whether you are the biggest, it is how many firms can actually serve that buyer in that territory.

Not every notice is open to you. A significant share of contracts put out to competition is tendered by invitation, and the rest of the sector is awarded by mutual agreement. Those contracts appear on SEAO when they are awarded. Being known to the buyer counts as much as watching notices.

The trade matters more than the sector. Among public notices, transit contracts and moving contracts are not contested the same way. Look at your niche, not the average.

Method

These figures are measured from the open data of Québec's electronic tendering system (SEAO), covering contracts awarded between 2021 and 2025. A contract is counted once, whatever the number of lots or amendments.

The class "transport, travel and moving services" is the one the public body declares itself on SEAO when publishing its notice. We do not recode it. It includes a minority of contracts that are not transport, such as security guarding, catering services or court interpreting.

The share put out to competition covers public calls for tenders, calls for tenders by invitation, which are addressed only to the firms that were solicited, and purchases made through a mandated body or a group of organisations. When we speak of public notices, we exclude the last two. The rate on public notices is measured on 1,293 notices, and the rate including invitations on 2,413 contracts put out to competition.

The breakdown by trade, transit on one side, moving on the other, is read among public notices, from the wording of those notices, which follows no imposed nomenclature. It describes a tendency, not an exact measure.

The price gap is measured on tenders that received at least two published total amounts. They represent 89.3% of the sector's tenders that received at least two bids. Unit prices, which are not comparable with one another, are excluded. SEAO does not publish the evaluation method used: our measure therefore describes how dense price competition is, without distinguishing an award to the lowest price from a quality-price grid.

Sources

Further reading

This analysis is part of our sector series, published from our corpus of Québec public contracts. The full set is gathered in our data and analysis.