OpenStage · tender 207 days to close

Dynamic Purchasing System for the Provision of Statutory Transport Journeys on behalf of North Ayrshire Council

TransportCPV 34121000

Value£12.6m

Deadline31 Mar 2027

Published4 Feb 2021

RegionNationwide

Timeline

Published 4 Feb 2021207 days leftCloses 31 Mar 2027

Who to contact

William Tomelty

procurement@north-ayrshire.gov.uk

+44 1294324354

The procurement contact named on the official notice.

How to submit

Open the submissions portal

The submission route named on the official notice.

Contract value in context

£12.6mtotal contract value

median £102k

this tender£0£13.6m

This is a large award for Transport Equipment — above three-quarters of comparable contracts. Based on 15,368 valued Transport Equipment tenders in our corpus.

When this comes round again

North Ayrshire Council has published 174 notices across all categories, and 40% of its awards go to a supplier it has used before.

Which is the argument for getting on the list rather than winning this one. The incumbent is rarely the last winner — it is the roster. See the retention odds by category →

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The brief

North Ayrshire Council ("NAC") are responsible for the procurement of service transport contracts to meet the education and social care needs of children and vulnerable adults as well as other passenger or transport requirements.

Most of the transport will be within the North Ayrshire area, but there will also be cross-boundary requirements ranging beyond the North Ayrshire area.

NAC is setting up a Dynamic Purchasing System (“DPS”) to procure these contracts.

The DPS will be setup using the Restricted Procedure (with the caveat of no limit to the number of tenderers who qualify) and is open to any supplier who satisfies the selection criteria specified in this Contract Notice.

A DPS is a completely electronic system and is similar to a framework agreement but a key difference is that, unlike a framework agreement, suppliers can join a DPS at any time.

The DPS will commence on 1st April 2021 until 31st March 2027, with no option to extend.

The DPS will be split into the following categories: Category 1 Wheelchair Accessible with Escort Category 2 Wheelchair Accessible without Escort Category 3 All Other Vehicle Types with Escort Category 4 All Other Vehicle Types without Escort Category 5 Ad Hoc Journeys Contracts operated through this DPS can generally be undertaken by taxis, private hire cars, minibuses, wheelchair accessible vehicles and non-plated vehicles.

Requirements

What the notice asks for

North Ayrshire Council ("NAC") are responsible

Sentences from the notice that state an obligation, surfaced automatically and shown in the order they appear. Not an exhaustive list — always confirm against the tender documents.

The gates

What this notice demands of you

2 named, none in explicit obligation language. Each one is quoted from the notice.

Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS)Frameworks & routes to market

Dynamic Purchasing System for the Provision of Statutory Transport Journeys on behalf of North Ayrshire Council

Framework agreement (any)Frameworks & routes to market

A DPS is a completely electronic system and is similar to a framework agreement but a key difference is that, unlike a framework agreement, suppliers can join a DPS at any time.

Matched against the notice text, so this is a floor — the tender pack will demand things the notice never mentions. “Says must” means the quoted sentence itself used obligation language; anything ambiguous is left as a mention.

What it takes to bid this

45–80 daysof bid-team effort

£30.8k–£54.8kat typical UK bid-team rates

Typical UK bid effort for the £10m+ band — an estimate, not a quote.

Qualify & bid/no-bid ~10% · SQ / PQQ ~20% · Written response ~55% · Review & presentation ~15%

Typical for this category — confirm against the ITT pack

Show at bidComparable references / case studies
Hold at bidFinancial standing (accounts, often ~2× contract value turnover)
Hold at bidInsurance cover (PL / EL, often PI)
Show at bidSocial value commitments

Hold at bid = pass/fail conditions of participation. Show at bid = scored in the quality response. Plan for delivery = contract obligations from day one.

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Buyer intelligence

Make the case to bid

Reveal who to approach at North Ayrshire Council, and generate a go-to-market strategy from their news, accounts and people.

Free to start. Named contacts come from published notices; the strategy is generated from the buyer’s news, accounts and people.

Deep dive · beta

The full intelligence dossier

Our agent reads North Ayrshire Council’s accounts, hunts live signals, finds the people who decide — and hands you a bid strategy plus a go-to-market influence plan, including what your team should post this week. You approve every paid step.

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Source & provenance