Short answer: To compare warehouse door bids in Dubai fairly, give every bidder the same opening schedule, then score each bid on technical fit and on service. Technical fit covers duty, sealing, safety devices, controls and finish. Service covers spares, coverage, scheduled visits and reporting. Set your own weights before opening any bid, and reject a bid that skips a mandatory item instead of scoring it low.
In short
- Issue one opening schedule to all bidders so every bid prices the same doors.
- Score technical fit and service separately, and agree the weights before the bids arrive.
- Ask for evidence: data sheets, drawings, reference sites and a service scope, not only promises.
- Treat a missing safety device or a vague service scope as a gap to clarify, not a saving.
- Dust, heat and forklift traffic matter more in Dubai South and Jebel Ali than the brochure suggests.
What should a warehouse door tender cover?
A good tender covers every opening in the building, not just the dock doors: yard entrances, dock doors, internal zone doors, chilled room openings, personnel doors and shutters. Each opening has different traffic, so the best door differs between them.
The common families are high speed doors for busy internal and external openings, insulated and standard rolling shutters for security and large openings, sectional doors for yard entrances, and dock levelers at the truck bays. Our guidance on roller shutter or high speed door for a busy loading dock explains the usual split.
How do I build an opening schedule?
List each opening on one line. Bidders then price the same list. If you leave this to each bidder, you end up comparing a door count, not a door standard.
Opening schedule: what to record for each opening
| Opening type | What to record | Door families to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Dock door | Width, height, bay number, truck type, floor level against the truck bed | Sectional or insulated door with a dock leveler, or a high speed door |
| Yard or truck entrance | Width, height, wind exposure, security needs, hours of use | Sectional door, rolling shutter, or a high speed door |
| Internal zone door | Width, height, forklift crossings per shift, need to keep air or dust apart | High speed door |
| Chilled or cold room opening | Temperature on each side, traffic, condensation risk | Insulated high speed or insulated shutter |
| Security shutter | Width, height, night security needs, fire alarm interface | Rolling shutter |
| Personnel pass door | Who uses it, escape route role, access control | Pass door in a sectional door or separate door |
How do I score the technical response?
Use a grid with fixed criteria and agree the weights before bids arrive. The weights below use High, Medium and Low as a starting point. Change them to suit your building. This is a method, not a standard.
Technical scoring grid
| Criterion | What to look for | Evidence to ask for | Starting weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit to the opening schedule | Every opening priced, sizes match, no 'as per site' lines | Priced schedule and drawings | High |
| Duty and cycles | Door and motor rated for the traffic you listed | Operator data sheet and stated duty | High |
| Safety devices | Photocells, safety edge or light curtain, safe stop and release | Data sheets and the wiring layout | High |
| Dust, heat and sealing | Seals at sides, head and floor. Insulation where air is conditioned | Section drawings and material list | Medium |
| Controls and interfaces | Forklift remote, loop or radar, fire alarm and access links | Control diagram | Medium |
| Materials and finish | Slats, curtain and frames suit heat, sand and humidity | Material and finish description | Medium |
| Parts and brand support | Named brand, spares plan, parts that can be sourced | Brand list and a spares plan | High |
| Installation method and programme | Method statement, access plan, working hours | Method statement and programme | Medium |
| Documents at handover | Manuals, wiring, test record | Sample handover pack | Low |
Where an operator brand is named, check what you will be able to service later. For example, Ditec industrial door drives appear on many warehouse doors in this region. A named brand makes later service easier than an unnamed one. We are an independent service company, not the manufacturer or an authorised dealer, so we say so when we quote.
How do I score service?
A door that stops at 3pm on a loading day costs more than the repair. Service scoring is where cheap bids often fall short, because the commitment is easy to write and hard to check. Ask for a service scope and score it.
- Scope of scheduled visits. What is checked, how often and who signs the visit report. See our maintenance contract page for how scheduled visits can be set up.
- Spares plan. Which wear parts and control parts the supplier proposes to hold or source, and how it will be tracked.
- Coverage. Where the technicians are based relative to your site, and what the bidder means by response. Ask how response is measured.
- Escalation. A named contact, an out of hours route and what happens when a part is not available.
- Reporting. A written report after each visit, with photos and an asset list of doors by bay number.
- Subcontracting. Who does the work. If the bidder subcontracts installation or service, ask for the subcontractor's name and scope.
Weights between technical and service depend on how critical the doors are. For a facility where a door stoppage halts the line, service may weigh as much as the technical score. For a store with a few low use doors, technical fit may weigh more.
What do Dubai South and Jebel Ali add to the evaluation?
Both areas are logistics heavy, and both have climate conditions that wear doors early if they are poorly specified.
- Dubai South has large, open logistics sites with long yards. Wind, sand and dust reach the doors, and large openings face more wind load.
- Jebel Ali sits close to the coast, so humidity and salt in the air matter for slats, fixings and control boxes. Free zone and port areas also have access rules for contractors, so ask each bidder how they handle site access passes.
- Dubai Industrial City mixes production and warehouse use, where internal doors separate areas of different cleanliness and temperature.
Ask every bidder how the doors cope with fine dust, summer heat on control boxes and forklift knocks. A curtain that leaves its guides after a knock is a common failure, and the design of the guides and the recovery method are worth scoring. See our high speed door installation in Dubai Industrial City for a real example of a door between a loading area and a production hall.
What are the red flags in a bid?
- Lines such as "as per site" or "to be confirmed" in place of sizes or devices.
- No operator brand, or a brand that no one in the UAE can service.
- No safety edge, photocell or light curtain listed on a door that forklifts or people pass through.
- A service scope that is one sentence long.
- Provisional sums for items that can be specified now, such as controls and cabling.
- No handover documents listed.
A bid with a red flag is not automatically out. Ask a written clarification question, give all bidders the same chance to correct, and score the corrected answer.
How do dock levelers fit into the tender?
Dock levelers bridge the gap between truck bed and warehouse floor. They have a different test from doors: the range of truck heights, the load and the pit. Our answer on how to pick the correct dock leveler for a loading bay lists the questions. Give the leveler its own line in the schedule, and ask each bidder what the leveler's controls look like. See the dock levelers product page for the types.
What do I send to Mount Everest Automatic Doors?
What to send us
- Your opening schedule, or photos of each door with the width and height written on them.
- For dock doors, the truck types and the bay height.
- The brand and model of any existing doors or levelers.
- The traffic you expect, such as forklift crossings in a shift.
- Your service expectations, in one page.
Mount Everest Automatic Doors is based in Al Quoz, Dubai, and installs and services high speed doors, rolling shutters, sectional doors and dock levelers. A technician visits free before anything is fitted and we give a written quote after seeing the job. We can also answer technical clarification questions during a tender. Our high speed door installation page for Dubai describes the process.
Frequently asked questions
Should the lowest bid win a warehouse door tender?
Not automatically. The lowest bid may leave out safety devices, controls or service. Compare each bid against the same opening schedule first. Then score technical fit and service. If the cheapest bid has gaps, ask for a written clarification and score the corrected bid, rather than comparing price alone.
How many bidders should I invite?
Enough to compare, but not so many that each bidder cannot visit the site. Three or four is common on a facility of this type. Visit the site with each bidder together or on the same day, so that everyone sees the same openings and hears the same answers.
What weights should I use for technical and service scoring?
It depends on how critical the doors are. Where a stuck door stops a line or a loading dock, service can weigh as much as the technical score. For low use doors, technical fit can weigh more. Decide the weights before opening bids and record why. Our answer on high speed doors for a warehouse helps judge the criticality.
Can I ask bidders for reference sites?
Yes. Ask for sites with a similar door type and traffic, and ask whether you can call the facility manager. Treat a refusal as information. Do not rely on brochures or logos alone, because a door that works well in one facility may not suit another with heavier traffic or more dust.
Who should write the technical scoring grid?
Operations or engineering, with input from the health and safety team and, if present, the facilities manager. Purchasing should run the process. Writing the grid before bids arrive stops the scoring from drifting toward the bid you already prefer, and gives you a record if a bidder asks why it lost.
Do I need a scheduled maintenance plan in the tender?
It is good practice to include it as a priced line or an option, so you can compare service on the same basis. Ask for scope, visit frequency, reporting and spares in writing. Leaving it out can leave you with the lowest installation price and no agreed service afterwards.
Ready to send us your opening schedule?
Call +971 50 494 8667 or use the quote form. Send photos and sizes through send a photo, or book a free site visit. We cover Dubai warehouses and logistics sites, with jobs in other emirates booked by appointment.
Want this done properly?
Send a photo of your door or gate and we will tell you what we see.