CASE STUDIES

Background

County Durham is a large county with a wide range of settlements and landscapes. The county, which is a socially, economically and physically diverse area, covers approximately 862 square miles (2233 square km) and is home to more than half a million people in 12 main towns and over 300 smaller settlements, many of which are former colliery villages.

The historic city of Durham is home to the world-renowned Castle and Cathedral, which together form a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county contains many other culturally significant sites including the Beamish Open-Air Museum, the Bowes Museum and Durham University, one of the UK’s highest ranked universities.

The council comprises of an elected assembly of 126 councillors, which will change following the next local elections in May to 98 elected members, accountable to the people in County Durham. It is responsible for providing a wide range of public services to the people of the county, as they represent and promote the interests of County Durham when dealing with regional, national and international affairs. Durham County Council is a unitary council. This means the council provides most council services in county Durham.

The Council is proud of how it works closely with partners, local people and organisations including, voluntary and community organisations to have a say in how local services are provided to their area.

Challenge

Durham County council has been a member of TPPL since 2012 and has since accessed many of the procurement solutions available to them to support delivery of various fleet assets and services. Currently, the council operates an extensive, diverse fleet consisting of approximately 1200 vehicles, including cars, vans, medium commercial, and specialist heavy commercial vehicles such as gritting trucks, road sweepers, and refuse collection vehicles.

In addition to vehicles, the council operates a fleet of approximately 1500 pieces of plant machinery and ground care equipment of all shapes and sizes such as JCB machinery, ride on mowers, plant trailers and handheld tools to maintain green spaces and shared public areas.

During a recent chat with council representatives Alex Cummings and Iain Peverall, it was revealed that one of the biggest challenges for the council to electrify their fleet is finding infrastructure to support a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The county covers an area of more than 1,000 square miles, much of which is rural meaning the operating profile doesn’t always suit an electric vehicle due to limitations with range capability.

Opportunity

Alex and Ian are both experienced fleet professionals. Ian is the area workshop and depot manager, who has been with the council for 2 ½ years, but has had 24 years of related experience outside of the council. Alex has been at the council an impressive 41 years, starting out as an apprentice mechanic, progressing to a workshop supervisor and then workshop manager prior to serving in his current position as County Fleet Manager.

Despite operating across an elongated area which presents with a variety of challenges, more than 25% of the van fleet had already been converted to full battery electric vehicles, plus a 26 tonne RCV. This demonstrates excellent progress; However, there is still some work to be done given the forthcoming ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles.

Since becoming a TPPL member much of the equipment across both fleets have been sourced through procurement solutions offered by TPPL in partnership with lead authorities such as The North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO), Hertfordshire County Council, and Commercial Services Kent Limited (CSKL). TPPL helped simplify the process and support the council to acquire items in line with its well-planned 5-year rolling replacement programme, developed by key personnel.

Other projects included the procurement of electric charging infrastructure to support the transaction of the council pool car fleet from internal combustion engine vehicles to full battery electric vehicles. The infrastructure hardware consisted of 27 dual socket chargers deployed across 4 buildings at 5 council depots.

Benefits

County Fleet Manager, Alex Cummings has been instrumental in developing and delivering the council fleet decarbonisation project. When asked on the main benefits of using TPPL as a procurement provider, Alex commented:

“Their route to market is simple and enabled the council to streamline the procurement process. By using TPPL we know they keep us compliant with procurement legislation ensuring that we are transparent and fair with the wider market in our fleet purchasing processes.

By applying technical expertise, they are able to advise on supplier and product availability to enable a compliant direct award approach where necessary. Sometimes a compliant direct award is beneficial to reduce timescales and ensure we result with a product fit to serve our operation and that is suited to our technical personnel because of familiarity to them and availability of parts. TPPL can tailor our approach to enable local/regional suppliers to be engaged with, allowing us to reinvest in the local community.

Conclusion

Aside from the financial aspect of the procurement process, TPPL emphasise a significant importance towards the socio-economic benefit to the community, through actively encouraging positive social outcomes to be delivered as part of contracts awarded for goods. The organisation assists Durham County Council with incorporating these elements into its approach to market, helping deliver a better outcome for taxpayers in the local community.

By accessing TPPL procurement solutions and their managed procurement support, the council has incorporated a streamlined and pragmatic approach to their fleet purchasing programme within the challenging world of public sector procurement.

Not only does this enable a fast, efficient, and fully compliant tender process to be conducted for the council, it is helpful for suppliers and ensures maximum supplier participation, due to the simplicity of process. By increasing supplier engagement, the council receives a greater number of bids and achieves better value for money.

For more information on the range of TPPL procurement solutions, please contact a member of the team at enquiries@tppl.co.uk or click here.

Photo ©: Emphyrio