Vehicle Removal and Storage

Description

Portsmouth City Council - the 'Council' - will be undertaking a procurement process later in the year to award a term service contract for the removal and storage of vehicles. Prior to undertaking the formal procurement the Council wishes to engage with suitably qualified and experienced operators in order to gain feedback on the draft specification, service levels, terms, contract duration, premises, programme, mobilisation and other factors. The Council has published the following documents on it's In-Tend e-sourcing system: • Draft Specification & Demand Information • Draft Terms of Contract • City Boundary Map The In-tend system can be accessed free of charge via the website address below: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/home The value of the contract is on average £75,000 per annum but is driven by demand and can fluctuate significantly over time. The Council is envisaging awarding the contract by 27th November 2023 with a contract commencement following on 1st April 2024. The council is considering letting the contract on an initial base term of 5 years with the option to extend by a further 3 years to a maximum total term of 8 years in increments of no less than 1 year and no more than 3 years. In order to award the contract, the Council will undertake a procurement process in accordance with the Open Procedure as set out within the Public Contract Regulations (2015). The current draft programme is set out below: • Issue FTS Contract Notice - 31st July 2023 • Issue Invitation to Tender - 31st July 2023 • Tender return deadline - 29th September 2023 • Completion of standstill - 23rd November 2023 • Contract Execution - 27th November 2023 • Service Commencement - 1st April 2024 In addition to alerting the market to this forthcoming contract opportunity the Council would also like to use the pre-procurement activity to gauge levels of operator interest, relevant operators, experience and give interested operators an opportunity to put forward any questions, comments or suggestions as per the outline agenda set out below. Whilst not a compulsory requirement for participation in the forthcoming procurement process, the Council would like to invite interested operators to attend a meeting held remotely via Microsoft Teams. Draft Agenda o Procurement programme and envisaged process o Contract Duration o Contract Terms o Service Levels o Premises o HGV and non-standard vehicles o Mobilisation o Pricing & Payment o Reporting & Information requirements  Account Management The Council will accommodate a 90 minute meeting per operator, meetings can be scheduled for dates and times convenient to both parties between 15th May - 2nd June and 26th June - 7th July, between 10am and 4pm. The Council request that operators come forward and provide dates and times together with the names and positions of the individuals who would be attending. All meeting requests should be made on correspondence via the Council's In-tend system. Lot 1: The Council has a Legal statutory obligation to remove abandoned vehicles and acts proactively in accordance with the Refuse Disposal & Amenity Act 1978. In addition to the above statutory obligation, the Council conducts other vehicle enforcement using its power enacted under the following statutory instruments inclusive of but not limited to: • Untaxed Vehicles - VERA 1997 • Persistent Evaders - Traffic Management Act 2004 • Parking Contraventions - Traffic Management Act 2004 • Dangerous Vehicles - Highways Act 1980 • Non-Motorised Vehicles (Caravans / Boars) - Highways Act 1980 • Noise Abatement (Car Alarms) Environment Protection Act 1990 • Traveller Eviction - CJPO 1994 • Civil Trespass - from Council Owned or Manged Land The Council also conducts vehicle removal enforcement operations in order to remove and relocate vehicles obstructing areas suspended for street works and public & civic events held annually within Portsmouth. The usual working hours under this contract would be between 0800 and 1700, although the contract requires the contractor to provide a 24-hours removal service in the event of an emergency and also provide an out of hours contact number as part of the service. The contractor will be required to provide an effective service which would need to have available resources to cover ad Hoc requests for removal of vehicles, predominately during standard office hours between 0800 and 1700 but there would be occasions when requests are made outside of these hours and/or in an emergency. The Council Authorised Officer or Designated Approved Officers shall approve all removals outside of the working hours. The contractor would be required to have a secure compound solely dedicated to Portsmouth City Council and have the capacity to hold up to 30 vehicles of any size. This could on occasions include vehicles exceeding five tonnes inclusive of all HGV and PSV categories. The Storage facility would need to be secure at all times, well lit and covered by CCTV. The contractor would also need to be able to provide a secure unit or storeroom preferably within the secure compound, or their premises to securely store any goods removed from vehicles by officers of the Council. Vehicles not claimed by owners would need to be stored following minimum statutory periods: • Abandoned Vehicles - 7 - 14 days • Untaxed Vehicles - 7 - 14 days (or as directed by DVLA) • TMA - Persistent Evader PE Vehicles - 28 - 35 days Vehicles may need to be stored longer than statutory periods if there is any ongoing investigations or disputes. Below is an indication of the removal types and an indication of the deadline for removals relevant to which category the removal falls in. "IMMEDIATE" shall mean a vehicle removal that is required with immediate effect - removal must be no longer than 30mins of the request. In general requests for immediate removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs. "URGENT" shall mean a vehicle removal, which must be carried out the within 2 hours of the request. In general requests for Urgent removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs. "STANDARD" shall mean a vehicle removal, which must be carried out the same day of the request. In general, requests for standard removals will be sent to the Contractor no later than 17:00 hrs. "EMERGENCY" shall mean a vehicle removal that is required outside of normal office hours - removal must be no longer than 1 hour of the request. The category of removal required, shall be detailed on the removal request sent to Contractor or notified direct to the contractor if the request is made by telephone. Removal requests shall only be made by "the Council" Approved Officers The contract performance will be monitored using specific Key Performance Indicators and service credits that will be applicable for any service failure, both of these will be clearly indicated in the tender documents. The contract will be executed using Portsmouth City Council's Standard Service Terms and Conditions for Removal and Storage of Vehicles.