Procurement is when Transit Agencies or Motor Carriers are looking to add new vehicles to their fleets or are looking to start operations and need to acquire vehicles.

Stages: The individuals in charge of purchasing new buses for transit fleets are often called "Procurement Officers/Specialists". They often report to a board of directors who run the transit agency.

Stage 1: The board of directors will inform the Procurement Officer about the Budget the agency has to spend on new vehicles as well as the costs associated with operating and maintaining them. The procurement officers job is generally to find new vehicles that will fit within the budget.

Stage 2: Procurement Officers will Analyze the current status and future service projections. Procurement Officers will organize a meeting with senior bus operators and sometimes union officials to address any difficulties where bus operators have seen a need for important change. Some buses may have gotten to old and need to be replaced. Some buses have a turning radius which makes operation on some bus routes far more difficult than need be. They will then take a special bus with a senior bus operator out on to the routes to see what new features newer buses should have.

Step 3: Procurement Officers will contact various bus manufacturers to inform them of an upcoming procurement bid. The bus manufacturers will then look over the list made by the Procurement Officer and see if they currently build or can build buses that will meet or exceed this list of requirements. The Manufacturers will send representatives with Factory Demonstrators, or buses that are designed to show transit agencies what types of buses they can build and what technologies they use.

Step 4: The Procurement Officers will then set up a Bid. A process in which the bus manufacturers interested in competing for a contract agreement will send factory demonstrators and provide information related to how much the fleet they are being asked to build will cost and how long it will take to complete.

Step 5: The Board of Directors will have gone over each bid from the different manufacturers and will select one based on if a specific type of bus will meet the cities needs better or will select the manufacturer who provides the cheaper option. The winner of the bid, will then sign a contract and be awarded money to build the new fleet of vehicles and must provide them within the time period in the contract agreement.