Free issued equipment
Free issued equipment, also called Principal supplied or client supplied equipment, is plant or material that the client buys and provides for you to install. You don't price the supply, but you price everything around it, and the tender question is exactly where that boundary falls. Six things decide it: the delivery point, who unloads and stores it, who inspects it on receipt, who carries damage and when risk passes, whose warranty covers a defect found during commissioning, and what happens to your programme when it arrives late.
Why is free issue a risk rather than a saving?
Because only the supply cost comes out of your price. A transformer you did not buy still has to be received, stored, moved, installed and commissioned by you, on a programme that assumes it arrived when the client said it would.
The exposure is asymmetric. You cannot chase the supplier, you did not choose the equipment, and you often cannot inspect it before it is delivered, yet the installation obligation and the completion date remain yours.
What should the tender tell you?
The delivery point and date for each item, who is responsible for unloading and set down, where it is stored and who insures it there, when risk in the goods passes to you, and what inspection you are expected to carry out on receipt.
Then the two that decide your exposure: what remedy you have when free issue arrives late, and who carries a defect discovered at commissioning in equipment you did not buy.
How do you qualify it?
Ask before you qualify. Most of these questions are legitimate clarifications during the question period, and a client who has thought about free issue will have answers. A client who has not is better finding out before award than after.
Where the pack stays silent, state your assumption in the terms you can live with: delivery date assumed, inspection limited to visible damage on receipt, storage and double handling excluded or priced as a stated allowance, and an extension of time for late free issue. Whether the conditions of tender permit those qualifications is the first thing to check.
The six boundary questions
| Question | Why it matters | If the pack is silent |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery point and date | Sets your programme and your site logistics | State the assumed date, and ask for it to be confirmed |
| Unloading and handling | Cranes, transport and labour are real cost you may not have priced | Price it as a stated allowance or exclude it explicitly |
| Storage and insurance | Long lead plant arriving early has to live somewhere, insured | Exclude storage, or price it against a stated duration |
| Inspection on receipt | Decides whether a hidden defect becomes your problem | Limit inspection to visible damage on delivery |
| Risk and title | Determines who pays if it is damaged in your yard | Ask; do not assume risk passed with possession |
| Defects and warranty | A failure at commissioning can stop your completion | Exclude liability for the equipment itself, and seek time relief |
Common questions
What is free issue equipment?
Free issued equipment is plant or material purchased by the Principal and provided to the contractor to install. The supply cost sits outside your price, while receipt, storage, handling, installation and commissioning usually sit inside your scope, which is where the boundary questions arise.
Who is liable if free issue equipment is damaged on site?
Whoever the contract says carries risk at that moment, which is why the point at which risk passes matters more than who owns the item. Where the pack does not say, treat it as an open question to clarify before tender rather than an assumption to price around.
What happens if free issue arrives late?
It depends entirely on whether the contract gives you time relief and cost recovery for it. Many packs are silent, which leaves you holding a completion date that depends on a delivery you do not control. Ask during the question period, and record the answer in your handover record.
Can Elora Grid map the free issue boundary?
Yes. Hand it the scope, the conditions and the equipment schedules, and it returns every free issue item with what the pack says about delivery, storage, risk, inspection and defects, and where it says nothing at all, each cited to source. The qualifications you lodge stay yours.