<p>Abstract</p><p>This report was undertaken at the request of the Management and maintenance</p><p>department of Swedish National Road Authority (Vägverket Region Sydöst) in</p><p>Jönköping.</p><p>In 1992, the management and maintenance of Swedish roads were laid out on</p><p>external contractors. When putting out a tender for the work, the foundation is</p><p>from a national set of rules which are in constant change. This report is limited to</p><p>winter road upkeep.</p><p>The trend in the invitation for tenders is that it is moving from the more</p><p>conventional executional demands towards the less controlling demands. The</p><p>downside of functional, less controlling demands is that it is difficult to articulate</p><p>how to measure them. The order authority therefore has to find ways to make</p><p>sure to get what has been paid for.</p><p>In connection to the invitation for tender of winter road upkeep for 2005, the new</p><p>set of rules, ATB Vinter 2003 was deployed.</p><p>The main purpose of this thesis is to see which the big changes in the set of rules</p><p>are and how these changes affect the organisation and activities of the contractor.</p><p>It is also studied how the changes in execution is perceived by road users and how</p><p>it affects the possibilities of the contractor to come as a newcomer to a new area</p><p>of administration.</p><p>Interviews and examination of sets of rules has led to a list of a number of</p><p>changes that the contractors feel affect their work in any sense.</p><p>Views from road users that have come in to the order authority have been</p><p>scrutinized to see how they have experienced the change. When selecting which</p><p>areas of administration to examine, care was taken to ensure that one was where</p><p>the same contractor secured a renewed contract for the area over the gap of</p><p>changing rules and the other one was area where the contractor was a newcomer.</p><p>The result shows a number of changes and how these affect both the contractors</p><p>and the road users.</p><p>The report describes how winter road upkeep is maintained in the south of</p><p>Sweden and the cooperation between buyer and contractor.</p>