Public-service buses

Tender description

It is the intention of Caerphilly County Borough Council (the Council hereafter) to set up a Contract for the Provision of Local Bus Services for Passenger Transport for a network of socially necessary local bus routes that complement the existing commercial network. Note: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at http://www.sell2wales.gov.uk/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=41008 The Council is seeking tenders for the provision of socially necessary local bus services. The procurement process for this framework will follow the Open Procedure in accordance with EU Procurement Regulations. All tenders will be evaluated on the following basis as set out in the Procurement Documents: Stage 1 — Selection Response Stage 2 — Tender Response: a) Mandatory Requirements b) Priced Submission Only those Candidates that pass Stage 1 Selection Response will have their tenders evaluated at Stage 2. At stage Two only those Candidates that pass all the Mandatory Requirements will have their Priced Submissions evaluated. The Council reserves the right to award contracts to one or more suppliers based on the most economically viable options available to it. If any route or combination of routes is found to be uneconomical then the Council may not decide to award contracts for those routes. The Council reserves the right to reject any bid submitted which is deemed to be incomplete. Candidates should complete the Pricing Schedule as per the instructions contained within the procurement documents. Operators are required to provide costs for any of the individual contracts they wish to be considered for. The Council is also giving the opportunity for Operators to link routes appropriately and provide a combination cost, if the Operator can provide a more cost effective approach by running routes as a package. As an example a contract for a daytime service may link with a contract for an evening service, whereby it would be more cost efficient to cover both service provisions with one vehicle. These proposals shall be tested by the evaluation panel to ensure any proposed combination of contracts are viable options for the Council based on cost. For the avoidance doubt in order for any Operators to be considered for linked (combination) contracts, the Operators must submit individual contract prices together with a combination price, thus demonstrating value for money in terms of lowest cost to the Council. The evaluation team will record all the linked contracts and evaluate them against the lowest Individual Price for each contract. If the linked contracts are more cost effective to the Council than the lowest individual priced contract, then the linked contract is viable. The evaluation team shall undertake this process for all linked contracts and against all individual contracts. For the avoidance of doubt where an Operator has submitted the lowest tendered price for more contracts than their available capacity, the evaluation team will recommend acceptance of those contracts, which will provide value for money in terms of lowest cost to the Council. The evaluation process will consider and test each individual contract and linked contracts submitted in accordance with the award of contract strategy (lowest cost and Operators vehicle capacity) to devise a matrix of Operators against routes. Operators must be prepared to accept the contracts allocated by the Council and will not be able to ‘pick and choose’ their preferred contracts. Therefore Tenderers are strongly advised NOT to bid for routes they are not prepared to undertake. For some contracts, the Council requests prices for operation on a ‘minimum cost’ or ‘minimum subsidy’ basis (see procurement documents for full details). The decision to award on minimum cost or subsidy will be made through an evaluation of the revenue predicted on ‘minimum cost’ contracts (based on known existing on bus revenue, including concessionary fare usage) and the price of the minimum cost tender submitted, compared with the cost of tenders submitted on a ‘minimum subsidy’ basis. Tenders will be awarded on the option that represents the lowest cost to the Council.