- Author
- Weber, S. F.
- Title
- AutoBid 2.0: The Microcomputer System for Police Patrol Vehicle Selection.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC
- Report
- NISTIR 5787; Project NIJ95-008, February 1996, 10 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: Website: http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/nistirs/5787.html AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847; Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
- acquisition decisions | fleet administration | microcomputers | multi-attribute decisions | performance ranking | police patrol vehicles | police equipment | optimization | software | vehicles
- Abstract
- This report is the user manual for a microcomputer system designed to help police fleet administrators select the patrol vehicle that is best suited to their needs. The system is called AutoBid and uses vehicle performance test data for police patrol package models published annually by the Michigan State Police. The system offers two vehicle selection methods: performance-based and value-based. Performance selection is based on vehicle test scores alone. It ranks vehicles by their overall test performance independent of cost. Value selection is based on both vehicle cost and test scores. It identifies which vehicle is the "BestBuy" in terms of the lowest cost for equivalent test performance and ranks the vehicles by the bid price adjusted for performance. Either or both of these methods may be used for a given fleet acquisition decision. Help screens explaining both the underlying concepts as well as how to use the software are available throughout the program. AutoBid runs on an MS-DOS™ microcomputer with at least 512 kilobytes of RAM. It may be run from a floppy drive or it may be installed on a hard drive.