Construction tendering guides for seven markets

Volve’s free construction tendering guides cover seven markets: international FIDIC-based work, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Each follows the same structure, covering how work reaches the market, how the standard contract allocates risk, where clients change it, and what to check before you price.

A contractor bidding in a new market already knows how to read a tender. What changes are the defaults: which standard governs, where the client keeps its amendments, how strict the notice rules are, and how quality is scored against price. None of it is hidden, but little of it matches what you are used to, and the differences end up in the price.

That is the obvious reader. The less obvious one is the contractor at home.

Most firms know their home market through a handful of people who have priced enough jobs to know where the standard usually bends. That knowledge is valuable and rarely checked against the documents, because familiarity is where assumptions go unexamined. When those people move on, the knowledge goes with them. A guide puts the home market in writing, so the team prices against what the standard says rather than what everyone assumes it says.

What each guide covers

• International. FIDIC-based and development-bank funded work, from the Particular Conditions to the banks’ procurement rules and claim deadlines. Tendering in international construction

• United Kingdom. NEC4 and JCT, the amendments schedule that often matters more than the form, and the Procurement Act regime. Tendering in UK construction

• Netherlands. TenderNed, quality-weighted award, and the quality submission that carries heavy weight in Dutch tenders. Tendering in Dutch construction

• Denmark. AB 18 and ABT 18, and the deviation list where Danish clients set out their departures from the standard. Tendering in Danish construction

• Sweden. AB 04 and ABT 06, and the summary of changes that carries the client’s amendments. Tendering in Swedish construction

• Finland. YSE 1998, the negotiation minutes, and the written-agreement rule for variations. Tendering in Finnish construction

• Norway. NS 8405 and NS 8407, and the notice rules that determine whether a claim can be pursued. Tendering in Norwegian construction

Want to see how Volve reads a tender in your market? Book a demo.