Award of contract for the provision of coach services for the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Report: 8
Date: 20 October 2011
By: Director of Transport Services on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report describes the outcome of the procurement process undertaken between the MPS and the supplier under the current MPS Framework Agreement to secure the supply of coach services for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It recommends a contract award to the supplier for a maximum value of £9.399m.

The MPS Framework Agreement includes scope to provide coaches for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Olympics Logistics Infrastructure (OLI) Project alongside MPS Transport Services and Procurement Services has been engaged for over a year with the supplier to develop the Olympics requirements and agree an appropriate delivery solution.

A. Recommendations

That members

1. approve the award of a contract to the supplier under the existing MPS Framework Agreement for the provision of coach services for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, for a total maximum value of £9.399m.
2. note that the total maximum contract value includes an expenditure of £8.033m to provide a dedicated coach pool and management/engineering services, and to cover additional coach journeys for mutual aid officers travelling from their home force area to the host force area which fall outside of the coach pool provision.
3. note that because of the continuing uncertainty surrounding the ultimate volume of requirements, particularly arising from the present on-going review of recent public order events, a 17% budget contingency has been added to the arrangements to allow for potential increased demand; thereby increasing the potential value from £8.033m to £9.399m.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. During the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the MPS will need to transport up to 8,000 officers per day between their normal place of duty or mutual aid accommodation location to their Olympic duty areas via a Muster, Briefing and Deployment Centre (MBDC). This needs to be sustained over a 64 day period, taking into account variations in deployment numbers and the potential short notice changes to operational requirements.

2. In addition, there is also a requirement to transport mutual aid officers between their Donor and Host Force. Where large groups of officers are travelling at the same time from the same Donor Force, coaches provide the most effective means of ensuring timely point to point journeys.

3. Not only is there an unusually high demand for increased coach numbers and drivers to meet the police requirement, but in addition, LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) are securing significant numbers of coaches to transport athletes and officials around London and other venues. This is placing extraordinary stress on a much reduced supply position, and therefore it is imperative that the police requirement is secured as early as possible.

4. To deliver the above requirement, the Olympics Logistics Infrastructure Transport and Deployment project team has been working with MPS Transport Services, MPS Procurement Services and the current MPS provider of coaches, for the last 18 months to refine the Olympics requirement and agree the most effective solution to meet this requirement.

5. An Outline Business Case capturing the requirement and securing the required level of budgetary approval was approved by the Home Office Command to Plan and Resource (C2PR) Programme Board on 9th September 2010, followed by MPA Olympic subcommittee on the 7th October 2010.

Procurement Strategy Information

6. The current MPS Coach hire Framework Agreement with the supplier was let in 2008 for a maximum value of £13.3m and an expiry date of 31 May 2013. The MPS included within the scope of the Agreement, the requirement to transport police officers and police staff during the preparations for and during the London 2012 Olympics events.

7. The existing framework agreement covers the provision of coach hire services (including drivers) to provide operational support to major events, planned officer movements and emergency redeployments. The typical sizes of vehicles are minibuses (12 seats) and coaches (up to 53 seaters).

8. Since the contract was let in 2008, £1.7m has been spent to date, which leaves £11.6m headroom on the existing contract for both Olympics and business as usual delivery.

9. Following an 18 month process working with the supplier to review scope and shape the Olympics delivery, the MPS now seeks approval to award a contract to the supplier to cover the Olympics delivery. The contract covers the following key delivery areas:

1. Provision of a dedicated coach pool - The supplier will provide a dedicated pool of passenger coaches to meet the operational transportation requirements during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
   b. Provision of enhanced vehicle engineering support - The supplier will provide dedicated on site engineering support and support vehicles to ensure any work required to resolve problems with coaches can be carried out immediately, rather than relying on standard contractual service levels.
2. Provision of dedicated on-site management staff/resources - The supplier shall provide a Coach Management Service to ensure that the planning and monitoring of coach movements are delivered efficiently and effectively, minimising the risk of delay to the deployment of Police Officers.
3. Provision of coaches for mutual aid - The supplier will arrange and deliver mutual aid police officer movements across the country between the officers’ home force (Donor police force) to any one of three host police forces. The main Host forces will be Dorset Constabulary, Thames Valley Police and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Tendering process

10. As this is a single supplier framework agreement, the MPS was not required to re-open competition to deliver the Olympics requirements, however the Olympics proposal has been based on the prices secured within the current Framework agreement.

11. As part of this process, the MPS issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) pack, including a specification covering the requirements of the MPS at Games time, and a delivery questionnaire which requested how the supplier were proposing to meet the MPS’s requirement. The questionnaire examined the following key areas:-

1. Capacity - questioning the supplier on ‘how’ it would guarantee the performance and delivery of coach services, including the provision of services through its subcontractors.
2. Business continuity - requesting evidence on the supplier’s delivery model to understand how they will ensure continuity of service to the MPS, in relation to the provision of staff (particularly the retention of drivers) and coaches.
3. Resourcing - obtaining a clear plan from the supplier covering how they will secure their resources in terms of staffing for the London 2012 Olympic Games, together with key activities/milestones and deliverables, both in the lead up to, and during the Games.

12. The award of this contract to the supplier represents value for money to the MPS, MPA and Home Office in respect to:

1. Quality - ensuring that an appropriately resourced supplier with proven capacity and capability of delivering to the MPS is contracted to deliver this critical work.
2. Cost - The contract value delivers a saving of £2.4m against the original outline business case costs of £11.8m.
3. Risk - by putting in place a binding contract with the supplier, the MPS is mitigating the potential risk of non-delivery of coach services to the MPS by contracting with an existing and established MPS supplier well in advance of the summer of 2012.

Responsible Procurement

13.The supplier is one of the industry leaders in sustainable development and environmental awareness. They were the first coach company to become Carbon Neutral by using Carbon offsetting as a stepping stone to delivering compliance. This process identified and measured the carbon producing elements of the business and identified ways to manage and improve these.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. The supplier’s policies, initiatives and actions with regards to promoting a working environment that actively encourages equal opportunities and non-discrimination were evaluated during the original tendering process and are subject to regular reviews during contract meetings. The supplier is based in Gillingham, Kent and employs local staff who are not directly subject to the London Living wage but are paid an amount equal to or above this requirement.

2. The supplier will be employing 4 new members of staff to support the Olympic Games who will be a mix of coach industry experts and transport managers. These will include a university graduate on a two year programme working beyond the 2012 period to gain experience of the wider coach industry.

3. The coach drivers who will be deployed on this project will be provided with vehicles from 5 existing supplier sub contractors, from outside the London area. The level of demand for coaches in this period will require a UK wide service and many London based coach companies are either already booked or not prepared to commit at this stage, hoping for short notice work with greater income than offered through this contract.

4. The security requirements of the Olympic programme exclude the use of temporary staff as coach drivers.

Consideration of Met Forward

5. The work to be undertaken under this contract is core to the MPS’s plans to deliver a safe and secure 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and plays a crucial part in providing police resources at the right place and the right time at Games time in support of the prevention of crime. This requirement supports the MPS strategy and corporate objectives by supporting operational policing and ensuring public confidence and satisfaction in the MPS and making London Safer.

Financial Implications

6. The total Olympics contract value is capped at £9.399m, against a budget of £11.8m which was approved by the Home Office and MPA on the 9th September 2010 and 7th October 2010 (MPA Olympic subcommittee ) respectively.

7. The contract will be paid for within Net 30 days, with the following pre-Games payment milestones to account for management service costs to support pre- Olympic planning and delivery activities (e.g. development of route maps, Muster
Briefing and Deployment Centre operating processes and ICT):

• Milestone 1 - 31st October 2011 - £173,822.50
• Milestone 2 - 31st March 2012 - £125,897.25
• Milestone 3 - 31st July 2012 - £210,604.50

All remaining costs will be incurred during Games time. A breakdown of costs is contained in Table B1 below:

Table B1 Financial Implications

Table B1

8. Final Muster Briefing and Deployment Centre coach pool numbers will be re-confirmed in January 2012, and the re-confirmed numbers will form the basis of the overall contract value. Point to Point coach journeys will be confirmed in the lead up to the Games period, and booked by MPS Transport Services in line with business as usual processes.

Legal Implications

9. Based upon the information contained in this report, the Olympic coach requirement is within the scope of the MPS coach hire framework agreement.
The contract is therefore compliant with EU and UK procurement law and DLS supports the contract award.

Environmental Implications

10. Environmental implications relevant to this contract relate primarily to CO2 emissions and miles travelled by coaches. Contractual obligations have been placed on the supplier to support the MPS in optimising potential coach routes via detailed network analysis, ensuring optimal routes can be followed by coaches, and thus reduce the number of miles to be travelled.

Environmental implication information is contained in Table C1 below:

Table C1 Environmental Implications

11. The provision of coaches to move police officers around the country and to Olympic events is pivotal to the whole delivery of the security arrangements for the Olympic Games. It is estimated that the coach element of this operation will involve over 1 million officer movements.

12. The supplier has already contractually assigned vehicles for every mutual aid movement and all London Transportation and Deployment movements for the whole Games period. The MPS will be the only partner in the Olympic family to have fully contracted a complete coach package if this contract is awarded.

13. Health and Safety of the Muster Briefing and Deployment Centres will be controlled by MPS staff as these are MPS sites and local risk assessments will be completed to include all the supplier operations. The supplier will be providing staff at each MBDC to ensure compliance with their own Health & Safety processes.

14. The supplier and all of their sub-contractors have a current Public Service Vehicle (PSV) Operators Licence issued by their local Traffic Commissioners, supported by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA). This licence covers all elements of operating and maintaining PSV vehicles, including the following:

• Maintenance Standards, including CO2 emissions.
• Vehicle Safety and Cleanliness.
• Financial viability.
• Driver regulations, including Working Time Directive
• Health & Safety requirements

D. Background papers

• OLI Transport & Deployment Outline Business Case approving a budget of £11.8m presented to and approved by the Home Office and MPA on the 9th September 2010.
• OLI Transport & Deployment Outline Business Case approving a budget of £11.8m presented to and approved by the MPA Olympic subcommittee on the 7th October 2010.

E. Contact details

Report authors: Dick French - Transport Services, Bill Egan - Procurement Services, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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