Decision details

(i)  To approve the procurement of a Passenger Transport Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for a ten-year period through which the Council can seek competitive quotations for any passenger related transport.

(ii)  To delegate authority to the Executive Director – Growth and Prosperity following consultation with Executive Director Corporate Services (S151) to enter into all call off contracts through the DPS.

1.  The existing Home to School DPS is restricted to only delivering Home to School service provision and does not address the wider transport needs of the Council. A new DPS will enable wider transport requirements to make use of the DPS for travel arrangements if other services wish to join the DPS in the future through the specification of additional lots that are not specific to home to school travel.

2.  The replacement DPS will include a more competitive tender process to maximise competition within the market, which should support a reduction in the cost of transport through more visible competition, via reverse e-auctioning, to offset the cost impact of rising demand.

3.  New contracting arrangements will be based on a robust contract management framework and more comprehensive supplier performance monitoring to support the ongoing service improvement. It will enable more robust performance management of transport operators against service requirements to ensure that issues can be addressed, plans put in place to manage poor performance and contracts can be served notice for poor performance. This is not incorporated into the current DPS and associated arrangements.

Continue with existing DPS. Current contractual terms would require significant review and variation to accommodate proposed changes to maximise benefit. The opportunities in this regard are restricted by the current agreement only covering Home to School Transport and not addressing the wider transport requirement.

Third party arrangements were considered, however, were limited by opportunity and flexibility. This included engagement with Hampshire County Council to request access to their transport DPS established in 2023, however this was not viable as the agreement only covers Hampshire’s own requirements and would not provide available capacity to meet the Council’s needs.