I would echo John's statement about confidentiality of contracted prices. No one should post that sort of information on the list, and I would not encourage anyone to share that information since it is generally considered confidential and proprietary to the vendor (the exception might be on government contracts, but I wouldn't bet the farm there).

The reality, of course, is that all contracts are negotiable. And certain terms and considerations may impact the pricing that is ultimately provided (i.e. paying perm out charges, waiving perm out charges, minimum volumes, service times, delivery distance, etc.). So it is not always an apples to apples comparison. The best way is as what was suggested -- do a formal RFI with several other vendors (yes, this will make them your most frequent callers for a while) and your incumbent. You don't need the full on sales pitch and glossy brochures -- just their approach and from the hip pricing. You do need to give them enough information to do a good pricing model -- volumes, activity, destruction volumes, projected growth over time. You want to let them know what your service expectations are and whether or not you will expect any new customer considerations (such as free inbounding or payment of prior vendor's perm out charges). If you have any absolute
 issues (such as not paying perm out fees or demanding "standard" service rates for orders received by 5pm and delivered by 10am the next day), you need to let them know. What you want is something that is as close to apples to apples as you can get it, but you also want the vendors to not spend days of sweat to get you a pretty proposal. You just want ballpark numbers and indicate that if the project proceeds, you'll deliver a formal RFP to them. What this will do is give you the comparisons that you want, put your present vendor on notice that you'd like them to sharpen their pencils, and allow you to cull the field of competitors for when you do an all-out RFP.
 Patrick Cunningham, CRM, FAI
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