Passenger Carrying Vehicle Contracts

“1. Please release all CURRENT prices and all tenders for home to school Passenger Carrying Vehicle (PCV) contracts at the last time of tender which service the Crediton and Okehampton area, identified as Cred and Oke and which company the contract was awarded to.

Please see here for a list of current PCV contracts for the CRED and OKE schools’ networks.

This list shows the current operator, the current rate and the start date with this supplier. The start date reflects when there was last a change of operator and does not necessarily mean this was the last time it was tendered. All contracts go through a periodic best value review.

Contracts commencing on 27 September 2017 are on a temporary basis following short notice withdrawal by the previous supplier.

Unfortunately, Devon County Council (DCC) is unable to supply you with all current tenders for home to school PCV contracts which service the Crediton and Okehampton area under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests which exceed the cost limit of £450 (equating to 18 hours of time).

There are 51 routes which have been tendered covering the CRED and OKE schools’ networks and as it would take approximately 30 minutes to one hour to find and collate the relevant information from different systems this exceeds the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 200 Section 12 ‘ Cost of Compliance. Therefore, this information is exempt.

DCC would, however, be happy to review this part of your request if you were able to refine the information requested to fall within the parameters outlined above, for example for a particular route or contract.

2. Please also provide information as to why a particular operator was awarded a contract if not the lowest bidder.

Contracts are awarded on the lowest compliant price for an approved supplier via the DCC Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for transport. The DPS is a framework which allows companies to become an approved supplier. Once approved on to the DPS and subject to a compliance check, contracts are automatically awarded to the lowest bidder.

3. If a contract was not awarded, even though there were bids, what was the reason for not awarding a contract.”

Options are tendered on the basis of the number of passengers expected to be carried. If these numbers vary from the anticipated number then the Option that is no longer required may be withdrawn.

Sometimes contracts for the provision of school transport may be linked in with tenders for public transport if this provides the best value for DCC, but this option may not come to light until all tenders have been received which may result in the original contract not being awarded.