Support services for road transport

Tender description

Scottish Ministers have invested in the region of 30 000 000 GBP since 2011 to establish a comprehensive electric vehicle charging network across Scotland which now consists of over 1 000 publically available charge points across the mainland and islands. This investment supports the ambition to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032. Transport Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, are now seeking to appoint a new Charge Point Network Operator (CPNO) (‘single supplier’) for the management of the publically available electric vehicle charging network, known as ChargePlace Scotland. It has been concluded that these services would be best met through the procurement of a single-supplier framework agreement, which offers both the required flexibility and prompt response mechanism to meet demand, which is required for the ad-hoc nature of these services. It is intended that the framework agreement shall be for a period of 2 years, with the option for 2 further year long extensions, during which the Scottish Ministers shall be entitled to call-off services from the framework agreement. It is estimated the value of services to be called-off over the 2-year period, will be in the order of 2 500 000,00 GBP. The CPNO will be expected to provide the following basic requirements: (i) provision and quality assured operation of a robust and reliable charge point management system, open charge point protocol (OCPP) compatible with all types of charge point currently installed on the ChargePlace Scotland network; (ii) delivery of a service capable of managing tariff collection for over 250 hosts; (iii) provision of an active fault management capability including fault reporting and liaison with both host/owners and maintenance contractors; (iv) provision and operation of a fully staffed 24/7 customer service facility with capabilities of customer contact via various modes including social media; (v) provision and operation of a publically accessible website, providing an interactive, real time status mapping system of the ChargePlace Scotland network; (vi) ability to develop and provide interoperability services; (vii) provision of a reliable and efficient communications strategy to inform users of the status of the network, and to promote the benefits of the network and electro-mobility to the general public. It is envisaged that the services can be provided remotely at the economic operator’s offices with attendance required on an ad-hoc basis at Transport Scotland’s offices. However, on occasion, the provider may be required to undertake the following duties: (i) attend the offices, or other locations within the UK as and when required; (ii) attend meetings at Transport Scotland’s main office in Buchanan House, Glasgow or other offices as and when may be required; (iii) liaison with other Transport Scotland advisers/consultants/contractors at their specific offices. The supplier will be procured through the restricted procedure, a procedure under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. This is a 2-stage procedure, comprising a pre-qualification stage and a tender stage. Section II.2.9 of this contract notice describes the criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates. In order to be considered for this procurement competition, economic operators must complete and submit an ESPD, which can be downloaded via the Public Contracts Scotland portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk). It is anticipated that a total of 5 economic operators will be invited to tender stage.