The Procurement

Environmental Requirements

In line with the approach agreed with the market, all Conditions of Contract were revised to include:

• Mandatory Membership of the Eco Stars Scheme
• All bus contracts to be EURO V from August 2024 and EURO VI from August 2028
• Maximum vehicle age limits for taxis/minibuses
• Contract Conditions on engine idling included

Additional contract requirements included an Environmental question focussed on Eco Stars star ratings and a further question on ‘non-vehicle environmental initiatives’ whilst Eco Stars assessed the fleet, the Council wanted to know how bidders were improving their working practices in other areas and so bidders were asked to demonstrate their initiatives for:

• • Lighting, Heating and Energy
  • Metal, Plastic, Paper, Cardboard, Wood and Glass
  • Fuels, Oils, Lubricants and Additives
  • Batteries, Tyres and Spare/Replacement Parts
  • Water
  • Staff and Technology
  • Monitoring and Reporting of the above Initiatives over time

Historically, transport contracts had been weighted at 90% price and 10% quality/technical. It was important to ensure the new environmental award criteria played a meaningful part in the evaluation. Discussion with the client service was had to discuss a move to 80%/20%, compromise was made that this would increase the quality score weighting whilst not adversely impact tender prices. Community Benefits were removed as scored criteria and became mandated. This realignment allowed 85% of the quality/technical criteria to be devoted to environmental initiatives (17% of the overall score).

The mandated Community Benefit requires a donation to the Climate Action Fife ‘Community Tree Fund,’ whereby Contractors offset some of the emissions from bus contracts through planting of native trees within the area of Fife served by the contracts.

Fair Work Requirements

The Council’s Fair Work First (FWF) scored question focusses on the 7 FWF criteria and was included for bus contracts.

For all contracts, details are separately sought through a non-scored question on each bidder’s Real Living Wage (RLW) status. Where a bidder doesn’t currently pay the RLW, they are asked to provide a breakdown of staff numbers and roles not paid the RLW. This helps the Council to understand a contractor’s position and encourage them towards paying the RLW over time.