Passenger Transport - Dynamic Purchasing System - Soft Market Testing

Swindon Borough Council is seeking feedback from the market on a new way of procuring the provision of buses, coaches, minibuses and taxis. This market assessment is not part of the procurement process, but is purely investigative in nature, to potentially assist the Council in defining a specification and contract for the services.

In preparation for this, it is our intention to hold some ‘Soft Market Testing’ (Preliminary market consultations) Workshops to advise potential suppliers of our future plans for tendering passenger transport routes.
The same information will be gathered from all providers, who wish to participate in the Soft Market testing to assist the Council.

This advert relates to a proposed ‘soft market testing’ exercise only and is NOT a call for competition.

Any contracts for services or supplies relating to this exercise may be subject to separate procurement process(es) in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended).
All participants in this ‘soft market testing’ exercise shall be responsible for their own costs (including third party costs) and the Contracting Authority shall have no liability to any participant.

Description
The purpose of the Soft Market Testing is to obtain feedback from the market on Swindon Borough Council’s new preferred procurement proposal to market for the provision of buses, coaches, minibuses and taxis..
A Dynamic Purchasing System(DPS) via the South West portal using ProContract is the preferred route to market, where the DPS is open to join at any time, however, the first round of mini bids will cover the main routes for public,community,education and social care transport services or routes in the following Lots provisionally :
o Routes or bus services requiring passenger vehicles with 17 seats or over.

o Routes or bus services requiring passenger vehicles with 9 to 16 seats including wheelchair accessibility.

o Routes or bus services requiring passenger vehicles with 4 to 8 seats including wheelchair accessibility.

o Ad hoc temporary transport requirements for social care requiring passenger vehicles of any capacity including wheelchair accessibility.

o Community and social care transport requirements including dial a ride operations requiring passenger vehicles of potentially any capacity including wheelchair accessibility.

Process and Workshop details

Participants are invited to respond to the attached soft market testing response document in writing no later than 26-th September, 2018, 14:00hrs UK Local time by e-mail to cparkinson@swindon.gov.uk

Workshops will be split into two - Taxi and Mini Bus at 11am and Bus and Coach at 14:30 and will be held on 27th September 2018 at Swindon Borough Council’s Offices.

As this is the launch of Swindon’s Dynamic Purchasing System (DSP), we would like to see as many suppliers as possible and the Agenda for the Workshops will be:

Agenda Taxi and Minibus

1. Introduction and Welcome 1100 -1110
2. What we are facing - the key issues 1110 - 1125
3. Soft Market testing – What is it and what are the benefits 1125 -1140
4. Tendering for the Future – Dynamic Purchasing System 1140 1220
5. E-Tendering 1220 -1250
6. Questions 1250 - 1320
7. Any other business 1320 – 1345


Agenda Bus and Coach

1 Introduction and Welcome 1430 -1440
2 What we are facing - the key issues 1440 - 1455
3 Soft Market testing – What is it and what are the benefits 1455 -1510
4 Tendering for the Future – Dynamic Purchasing System 1510 - 1550
5 E-Tendering 1550 -1620
6 Questions 1620 - 1650
7 Any other business 1650 – 1715

Participants who wish to attend the Soft Market Testing Workshop should provide a response indicating who will be attending and job title no later than 25th September 2018, 1400 hrs UK Local time by e-mail to cparkinson@swindon.gov.uk who will confirm details by 26th September 2018.

For the avoidance of doubt, no information provided in response to this questionnaire will be used by the Council in assessing providers during any future procurement process, scheduled to commence in 2018.

Please note that this project has been advertised nationally on Contract Finder, however, Supplying the South West Portal is the only portal that includes all the relevant documents required to respond to this soft market testing exercise.