Season 2 Episode 5: Driving sustainability and equity through public transit procurement

Shift to a digitally optimized procurement process

AC Transit, the largest public bus-only system in California, serves 1.5 million East Bay residents with a mission to deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable transit services.

“We strive to ensure that our procurement processes are timely, compliant, and aligned with the district’s goals,” says Chellate Young, Senior Management Analyst at AC Transit.

The episode highlights how AC Transit transitioned from paper-based requisitions to a digitally optimized process using Amazon Business. Chellate shares how this shift supports sustainability, equity, and compliance while empowering buyers to make informed decisions.

Chellate highlights three key strategies for success:

• Streamlining processes with digital tools to reduce delays and improve visibility
• Promoting sustainable and equitable purchasing with Guided Buying features
• Leveraging data analytics to track spending and compliance

As Chellate states, “These tools make doing the right thing the easiest choice. That balance helps achieve compliance without adding unnecessary steps.”

Transcript:

This has been lightly edited for clarity.

[00:00:07 - 00:00:48]
Kelly:
Hi there. And welcome to the Smart Business Buying podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Rogers. On today's inside scoop, I'm joined by Chellate Young, senior management analyst at AC transit, the Alameda Contra Costa Transit District, also known as AC Transit, is the largest public bus only system in California and the third largest bus only transit agency in the United States, and currently serves 1.5 million East Bay area residents. We'll look at how AC transit is using smart business buying tools to focus on their mission to deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable transit services while navigating the need to adhere to federal and state regulatory requirements.

Chellate, we're excited to have you here.

[00:00:48 - 00:00:51]
Chellate:
Thank you Kelly. Thank you, Amazon [Business], for inviting me.

[00:00:51 - 00:00:55]
Kelly:
To start, can you share a little bit about AC Transit and the mission of your agency?

[00:00:55 - 00:02:14]
Chellate:
AC Transit serves 1.5 million East Bay residents across Alameda and Contra Costa counties. For those who are not familiar. East Bay is, within the San Francisco Bay Area location network.

So we're right across the San Francisco city of San Francisco. We provide over 100 bus lines. Our mission is to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable transit service.
As a senior management analyst in procurement, I administer simplified acquisition programs, namely our Picard program, Amazon Business to other platforms. I'm also in charge of special projects supporting our accounts payable, contracts, administration, purchasing and materials department. Our team is responsible in, everything from daily operational supplies.

Like we need to keep the buses going if we have a bus down or in charge of replacing the parts, we have to make sure we have that on inventory and we have to make sure we obtain it through proper contracting. We have to also ensure that whatever we do, it's timely, compliant and support the district's goals.

[00:02:14 - 00:02:24]
Kelly:
It sounds like you buy quite a bit different supplies from Amazon Business. AC Transit is considered a special district. Can you explain a little bit more about this designation and what it means?

[00:02:24 - 00:03:03]
Chellate:
Sure, Kelly. So for this purpose, I had to get the official definition from the federal page. It says a special district is created by voters, a city or a county government, usually through an election or enabling legislation to meet a specific local service need. So that would be Alameda County and Contra Costa County. For us to serve their transit needs to the community. This gives us autonomy to self-govern and to levy taxes, but also places us under strict accountability to our board of directors and the public.

[00:03:03 - 00:03:09]
Kelly:
Interesting. So how does your board impact your procurement processes and what you buy and how you buy?

[00:03:09 - 00:03:27]
Chellate:
Board members set procurement policies in accordance with federal and state regulations. They approve contracts within a certain threshold there on our web page. They ensure a procurement actions align with district priorities, including fiscal responsibility, sustainability and equity.

[00:03:27 - 00:03:38]
Kelly:
Interesting. And can you walk us through that? Some of the federal and state regulations that your procurement team has to adhere to? I imagine that sort of an extra hurdle that maybe some other procurement teams haven't had to deal with.

[00:03:38 - 00:04:18]
Chellate:
Absolutely. I warn you, it will take us all day to go through the details. But on top of mind, we follow federal code of regulations. If you've seen it on web page, they call it FA. That's Federal Acquisition Regulation for federal procurements. We're governed by California Public Contract Code, along with Federal Transit Administration and Department of Transportation. To be honest, there are tons of policies and we have to be mindful. We do not miss anything when we design our contracts and our programs are we do not miss new policies.

[00:04:18 - 00:04:28]
Kelly:
And before we get into all of the technology you're using and all the different buying tools, can you walk us through a little bit what your previous process looked like before you started using Amazon Business?

[00:04:28 - 00:04:47]
Chellate:
Paper based requisitions, wet signatures, phone calls to vendors. It was extremely time consuming and we lacked visibility on spend patterns. A buyer may purchase something out of the list and we will only realize it after the fact. So that was the old process.

[00:04:47 - 00:05:03]
Kelly:
So we hear this from a lot of our customers that transition from a paper based process to a more digitally optimized process. You know, it really can make a world of difference. To start using the right technology.

How did your process before impact your administrator experience and your buyer experience? What were some of their common pain points?

[00:05:03 - 00:06:05]
Chellate:
Administrative spent too much time chasing approval and this would sometimes take days. We have six yards, that are not exactly in proximity of each other.

We have two in our office. Them and buyers have to wait longer for process for approvals, and we lose quote validity. Let me just give you a background. When we, when we procure goods, bidders would submit a quote that's only valid for 30 days. If you get your approvals past that 30 day validity, you're going to have to do it again.

So imagine how tedious it was. It was harder to enforce policies or analyze spend, and the lack of visibility created risks such as buyers. Again, have to mention this inadvertently or intentionally purchasing, personal items. Not that it happens all the time, but who knows, because it was paper.

[00:06:05 - 00:06:25]
Kelly:
You mentioned sustainability as part of your mission statement. So sustainable purchasing is really important to the core of your mission. And also is a requirement from the state of California. So AC Transit looks to both support local and women and veteran owned and minority owned businesses. What tools do you use to encourage buyers to purchase with sustainable in mind?

[00:06:25 - 00:07:22]
Chellate:
We use the guided buying feature, where we felt we filtered products of compliance to show up on top of search. As we train users, we emphasize these requirements sustainability DBS meet your, goals. And while product choices ultimately theirs, we raise awareness that agency compliance to these rules is a must to the extent that we can.
We use online business buying platforms with product labels to include socio economic indicators and sustainability descriptions. And with that, shopping on Amazon with their little green leaf icons and organization preferred tag made it really easy for easy transit.
We also include clear policies and spend analytics when we train them. So that's pretty helpful.

[00:07:22:08 - 00:07:34]
Kelly:
That's great. And really, you know, again, using that technology to take the guesswork out of buying is is very helpful to those buyers. How are you using approvals or approval workflows to really reinforce those policies?

[00:07:34 - 00:08:35]
Chellate:
Our approval workflows are set up to flag non-preferred purchases for review. And also our search will yield organization preferred labels.

And we really love that. Also, if a buyer selects a non-preferred item, they're label organization restricted. So that will immediately let them know that, hey you need to contact us. And when they do, it prompts for a justification because there are times that we do need to purchase something out of the restricted list. This keeps buyers mindful while maintaining flexibility, and it gives them a pause of perhaps I can buy an equivalent that is preferred.

AC Transit has a board policy for IT items that they need to go to it for approval, and in under two minutes, we were able to activate that approval feature for Amazon Business.

[00:08:35 - 00:08:56]
Kelly:
That's wonderful. It really sounds like you're able to be flexible, but at the same time stay compliant with all of the policies and procedures and the things that mean a lot to your organization.

You know, with these new controls in place, how is the process of driving compliance improved from the paper process you used before? Significantly, in leaps and bounds?

[00:08:56 - 00:09:39]
Chellate:
So I looked at our reports today before I went on this podcast. We stand at 46% dv sb utilization. That is great. We've never achieved that utilization in the past. And also we're at 12% sustainable products purchase. That's good because, sustainability was just recently enacted in California.

We are on an upward trend for the past five years, with these things. And we've seen measurable increases in DV as we spend, fewer off contract purchases and faster processing times while maintaining federal and state compliance.

[00:09:39 - 00:09:59]
Kelly:
That's incredible. For AC Transit, it sounds like you've really come a long way and really using some great tools.

And I love that you use some, great data points to really explain how you, you know, come along on your journey as you sort of improve these processes. What tools have you used to really leverage, and collect the data around these changes? How do you gain better visibility into what's really happening?

[00:09:59 - 00:10:46]
Chellate:
We leverage dashboards and reports from our buying platform, ERP or vendor payment data. Specifically, we customized our Amazon Analytics and that helped us a lot. We are now able to produce buying per zip code report. We didn't have that before. The hotspots sort of like where do we typically buy, what zip codes do they belong. Establishing that we have actively performed commerce with them within the local business of AC Transit. This lets us track key metrics like cycle times, diversity span and policy compliance. These are presented to our finance management and I want to let you know we've truly evolved in our reporting.

[00:10:46 – 00:10:55]
Kelly:
That's great. I'm sure you know your leaders really appreciate that additional focus on data and reporting and analytics. How do you communicate that success back to your stakeholders in your board?

[00:10:55 - 00:11:26]
Chellate:
We have a regular KPI meeting and Amazon is one of the products presented. It has a very strong position in the district at the moment. So this is, a key interest to our finance managers. We also provide, our board directors on demand. Example: spending stats is on high demand at the moment from our board, and I'm extremely delighted that it has become easier to produce this with Amazon Analytics.

[00:11:26:12 - 00:11:37]
Kelly:
So Chellate, talk to me more about training your buyers, what are their experiences on learning how to use Amazon Business. And then how do you, spotlight any concerns you may have with your Amazon Business account manager?

[00:11:37 – 00:12:39]
Chellate:
I train them like they're shopping for themselves, but this time you will see organization preferred, organization restricted. That's my first. The second will be federal and state laws that to kind of give them the background. Why are we buying this? Why cannot we buy this? And what's a good business justification for this? They want to buy a certain quantity.

That's not normal for the type of product we teach them how to do, bulk purchases on Amazon Business. Whenever I have ideas or new federal or state law that's been echoed to me by my manager, I immediately reach out to my Amazon business account manager sort of brainstorm, how can we translate this without affecting how the buyers buy, and this, ladies and gentlemen, is how we built our catalog. It's now Amazon Guided Buying.

[00:12:39 - 00:12:49]
Kelly:
So one of the things our customers really appreciate about Amazon Business are our delivery capabilities. So how important for AC Transit is that fast, reliable delivery?

[00:12:49 - 00:13:30]
Chellate:
Thank you Kelly. t's extremely important especially we are hybrid at the moment. And we don't want to like is it in the office. Is it at home. Most of the time, I would say 80%, it gives us an accurate delivery time. If it says 4 to 8 p.m., we do, in fact, receive them within that time window. Like you on a personal level, you don't like losing packages. There's a reason you order them. That's the same with AC Transit to fill our business needs.
So it's very important. And we appreciate the way Amazon designed their, tracking feature that we use it a lot.

[00:13:30 - 00:13:41]
Kelly:
That's great. It sounds like with a system that's really spread out among so many different areas, like you mentioned, six yards, there's probably a lot to keep track of in a lot of delivery locations.

[00:13:41 - 00:13:43]
Chellate:
Yes. That's correct.

[00:13:44 - 00:13:52]
Kelly:
So like, could you give me just a general idea of what are the types of products and supplies that AC Transit, buys on a regular basis?

[00:13:52 – 00:14:05]
Chellate:
Operational supplies. That would be your pen, your paper, bus parts, facilities and maintenance supplies. Uniform, those type of things.

[00:14:05 - 00:14:28]
Kelly:
Great. It sounds like you really have quite a range of categories that you're purchasing through our Amazon Business.

As we wrap up our conversation today, what's a piece of advice or a takeaway that you maybe share with other government agency administrators or people in other industries, you know, trying to reinvent their procurement operations? How can you look to balance some of those, you know, strict regulations while simplifying procurement for your administrators and your buyers?

[00:14:28 - 00:15:27]
Chellate:
Don't underestimate the value of education and transparency. Take the time to train buyers on the why behind policies. I usually show them the data and it's appreciated. It helps us a lot and use tools. Example Amazon Guided Buying it exist and it's very useful.
Use those tools that make doing the right thing the easiest choice. That balance helps achieve compliance without adding in necessary steps. I also like to say whenever you have an idea, reach out to your business counterpart immediately. Almost always, there's a fix. I've had this great experience with Amazon Business where we need sustainable products first. Do you think we have a percent requirement from the state of California? Is this doable? And the turnaround was quick. It was.

[00:15:27 - 00:15:50]
Kelly:
Thank you for joining me and for sharing your insights. It was really interesting to hear about how you are able to customize the buying experience for AC Transit, and to keep that focus on sustainable.

Thank you all for tuning in to the Smart Business Buying Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and you want to stay up to date, make sure you subscribe to wherever you tune into your podcast. And if you want to learn more about what you just heard, visit amazonbusiness.com/podcast.