The Finnish Road Administration is a government authority, responsible for the development and maintenance of public roads (not streets or private roads). The Finnish Road Administration has not had production capacity ofits own since 2001. Instead, it buys all production work from external contractors. The Finnish Road Administration has adopted increasingly extensive and long-term procurement practices that are both innovative and affordable. In terms of quality requirements, the main focus is now on functionality and condition. In order to ensure an efficient service for road users, the service providers must have a thorough knowledge of the activities and needs of their customers and be keen to work for the benefit of those customers. Given the service-based nature of the area contracts, it is important that the contractors are motivated towards better service for road users as well as towards developing their own activities in terms of quality and external influences. One crucial strategic objective is to encourage the producers to see the area contracts as maintenance service contractsand the road users as customers of both the Finnish Road Administration and the producers themselves. One measure implemented by Finnish Road Administration to encourage contractors to improve their service is the development of a customer satisfaction bonus for the contractors. In 2004, the Finnish Road Administration conducted a separate survey with the aim of developing the customer satisfaction bonus, while also testing the bonus in connection with five area contracts that were launched in 2004. The central objective is to improve the service provided for road users by developing a bonus scheme suitable for area maintenance contracts that would encourage contractors to give active consideration to road users and to provide top-level service. A further objective is to establish what factors need to be taken into account in the bonus scheme and how these should be implemented in order for the bonus scheme to be a reliable measure of road user satisfaction and the actual quality of service provided by the contractor. According to the survey, the present system is the only one in the world that awards bonuses to the contractor on the basis of the feedback received from road users. For the covering abstract see ITRD E143097.
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