NW2579 Water Tankering (North) - Bulk Water transport including driver(s)

Tender description

Northumbrian Water Ltd (NWL) has a requirement for the transportation of water from our Water Treatment Works (WTW) to service reservoirs in our Northern Operating area. The geographical coverage will be the North East of England, from Berwick to the borders of North Yorkshire and from the East Coast to the Cumbrian border, covering Weardale, Teesdale and Kielder. Services for this contract are not required in Essex and Suffolk. The requirement is for both planned and emergency works. The operation involves the use of the NWL operational water tankering fleet and the service provider will be required to provide drivers and tractor units, which must be compatible with the NWL fleet. Annual spend is in the region of £700,000 per year Lot 1: The requirement is for both planned and emergency works. The operation involves the use of NWL operational barrels and rigids to transport potable water. The vendor is required to provide drivers and tractor units compatible with the NWL fleet. NWL currently have 5 barrels based at our Whittle Dene WTW site and also one rigid vehicle. Any vendor must ensure they therefore have a minimum of 6 drivers and 5 tractor units to satisfy NWL work at full capacity. Note the rigid can also be used by NWL employees and there will be a lesser requirement to support this operation. Note these numbers may change over the duration of the contract. NWL's minimum requirements for this service are: 1) We require a maximum response time of 2 hours for this service. Once a request has been received, we require the vendor to be able to arrive at our Whittle Dene Water Treatment Works to collect the relevant tanker barrel and be ready to load within 2 hours. Note for clarity we would require any vendor to be able to provide 3 drivers/tractor units within 2 hours of the emergency call out and the additional 2 drivers/tractor units within 3 hours of any emergency call out. 2) All drivers are required to hold the National Water Hygiene Card (Blue Card). We would require a register of drivers with the relevant Blue Card data from the vendor as well as other relevant qualifications. 3) Work is typically undertaken 24 hours, seven days a week. NWL typical work hours are 07:00 to 22:00 (day) and 22:00 to 07:00 (night). Outside of normal tankering operations, the service provider will be required to provide an emergency call-out facility.   4) As there is a degree of manual handling required (e.g. off loading of hoses from the vehicle to the point of discharge) drivers will need to be physically fit undertake the workload. 5) The vendor must be able to provide Northumbrian Water Limited with all records and documentation requested. Drivers will be required to keep a drivers hour book and records of driver's hours to demonstrate compliance with GB Domestic Driving regulations. 6) The vendor is to comply with NWL's drug and alcohol protocols (as advised in Ariba). Once a barrel has been collected on occasion there will also be a requirement to draw water from dedicated hydrants across the North East (this will be accompanied by NWL staff) to service reservoirs in our Northern Operating area. There is an additional requirement to support Interruption to Supply (ITS) incidents across the North East by utilising barrels at Whittle Dene WTW and filling from Whittle Dene or other dedicated filling stations across the Northern region. To clarify, the potable water transportation are therefore threefold 1) bulk transfer 2) infusion from hydrants 3) Supporting Interruption to supply (ITS) events. To support the servicing and repair of barrels and rigids there will also be a requirement to undertake transport facilities to appropriate garages. Further information will be provided within the scope document in Ariba