Award of contract for public order carriers

Report: 20
Date: 20 November 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report seeks MPA approval for the purchase of Public Order Carrier vehicles and the award, to the preferred bidder, of a 5 (+ 2 extension option) year fleet management and maintenance contract. For commercial reasons, the name of the preferred bidder, costs and implementation plan details are contained in the accompanying exempt report.

A. Recommendation

That members approve the purchase of Public Order Carrier vehicles and the award of an associated 5(+ 2 extension option) year fleet management and maintenance contract to the preferred bidder. Full details of the preferred bidder and implementation plan are contained in the linked exempt report.

B. Supporting information

1. The MPS fleet of protected Public Order Carriers consists of 204 vehicles; 53 were procured nine years ago, 30 (2 of which are unprotected training vehicles) two years ago and a further 121 are supplied on seven year leases with the current contractor, Mercedes-Benz Charterway, due to end between March and September 2004. All the vehicles are currently maintained by contract with Mercedes-Benz Charterway; the contract also covers 5 similar Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) vehicles that will not be part of any future contract.

2. A competition has been held in order to select a contractor to supply and support the Public Order Carrier fleet from Summer 2004. Potential suppliers were invited to submit proposals against three supply and support options; these were:

• Output-based service (expressed in output terms of available carriers to meet the MPS specification).
• Lease or vehicle purchase (owned by the MPS) and contract maintenance.
• Any other proposed cost effective (and possibly novel) model that would meet the task.

3. Three companies tendered for the contract: Mercedes-Benz Charterway, AssetCo Emergency and Venson Public Sector Ltd. All three tenderers proposed the same Mercedes Sprinter based vehicle, similar to the type currently in use. None proposed novel supply arrangements. In all proposals, the ‘buy’ rather than ‘lease’ alternative proves to provide better value for money.

4. The proposed procurement strategy is therefore to replace the existing leased vehicles and those owned vehicles older than 10 years by a new fleet to be owned by the MPS but supported by a fleet management and maintenance contract with the preferred bidder.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Diversity, equality and human rights policy issues were specifically addressed as part of the technical assessment. From the information provided, there are no equality or diversity issues with the company recommended to be the contractor.

D. Financial implications

Details are provided in the linked exempt report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Stuart Middleton, Director of Transport Services, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

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