TRANSPORT & MOBILITY The Journey to Success
Chris Wilson, Managing Director of public sector commissioning specialist adam, explains how introducing digital commissioning in several London boroughs has helped a London- based SME win more contracts to provide transport services for children with special educational needs and vulnerable adults.
Winning public sector work can be extremely difficult for small businesses, however well-qualified they are to deliver the required services. This is oſten the result of restrictive framework agreements, meaning that contracts may not be widely advertised and the commissioning process is typically long and costly. Even those who do make it onto these framework agreements can suffer from a lack of transparency. This happens when they lose out to a larger provider who wins work they also put in an offer for and they don’t receive feedback about what they can do differently next time. For those that do secure contracts, they are forced into completing extensive paperwork to just do their job, which they have to complete each time they win a piece of work, stretching resources further.
“Everything we need to win contracts
and manage them is available in a single easy-to-use system.”
However, one London-based SME, Airport Transfers, has navigated its way through the maze and is steadily increasing its share of local authority transport spend. This success has been built on two factors – high quality, specialised services and a new approach to local authority commissioning which enables SMEs to compete on a level playing field with much larger suppliers.
Airport Transfers was established eight years ago with a single driver and operator and initially focused on private hire services. About four years
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ago, the company began providing child and adult transport for a local borough council on a small number of regular routes.
At first, working with the council was quite a challenge. Airport Transfers Account Manager Oana Paval described it as: “Very slow, very inaccurate and very difficult. We had to deal with not-so-transparent processes, which were made even harder by all the taxes we had to pay as enrolment fees and all the paperwork, which had to be sent by post.”
The company decided to spend time improving its internal procedures and processes. Aſter a year obtaining quality accreditations (ISO9001, ISO14001 and Investors in People), it was able to demonstrate in a very transparent and measurable way to the local authority that its services met all their quality requirements.
Business grew steadily and Airport Transfers was careful to only bid for services that were within its capacity to deliver. This sustainable approach to growth enabled it to keep quality scores high while offering competitive prices.
The major breakthrough came when, one aſter the other, five London boroughs began using our digital commissioning technology. With this model, all accredited providers can see where the boroughs place all their requirements, clearly stating all the needs of the children and adults who require transport. As all the information is provided up-front, Airport Transfers and other providers can immediately determine whether they have the resources and skills to provide that particular service and then bid for the work. They can amend their bid in response to competitive tenders until one organisation wins the business.
Oana added: “In this way, the council gets a good price while we get the steady work we need to keep our staff happy.
“The payment process is simple and easy, predetermined and clear.
“Most important
of all, service users benefit because the focus moves from administration to
providing them with the best possible experience.”
“Our founder and general manager Ionel Tanasa handles the bidding and I manage the rest of the activities. This includes day-to-day management of the routes, allocating jobs to drivers, recruiting new staff, organising training, updating documents, managing contracts and overseeing payment.”
Since the five London boroughs started using our digital commissioning technology, Airport Transfers has successfully bid for over 30 daily routes and over 10 term time routes, along with many ad-hoc journeys. This steady flow of work has helped significantly with business planning. By looking at term dates, they know approximately when transport will be required. They have set up a calendar for bidding for contracts, uploading documents for any new routes and coordinating ‘meet and greets’ with new users, ensuring everything is in place for the start of each term. They can also plan everything from training and recruitment to buying new vehicles. As
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