Car Club Scheme - Portsmouth

Portsmouth City Council - the 'council' - is inviting tenders from CoMoUK fully accredited operators for delivery of a car club scheme within the city on a concessionary basis following a mutually incentivised open book partnership model.

The council is targeting to have secured a partner operator by 31st January 2023 who will then be required to work with the council to develop the scheme for review at the Traffic & Transportation (T&T) Cabinet meeting on 16th March 2023. The report taken to T&T will need to confirm as a minimum:

Subject to approval being obtained at the meeting and completion of statutory Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) processes, the successful operator will be required to effectively launch the scheme promptly over Spring 2023.

The contract will be let using flexible commercial concession terms and will run for an initial period of 5 years from launch of the scheme extendable to a maximum term of 8 years at the discretion of the council in extension increments of no less than 1 year.

The council forecasts that revenue that could be generated by the operator could equate to approx. £2M over the initial 5 year term based upon growing the fleet to 20 cars by year 3 increasing to £4.3M over an extended 8 year term based upon growing the fleet to 30 cars by year 6 on a maximum member utilisation basis. The council's spend on car hire for staff and grey fleet costs, which could be included within the contract at the option of the council at any point over the term of the agreement, equates to approx. £250,000 per annum.

The operators car club fleet at point of launch and for the duration must meet Euro 6 emissions standards as a minimum for on street parking for residents and for Lakeside Business Park must provide BEV vehicles from the onset of the launch. Currently the on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure comprises of 98 charging points located across the city. Subject to approval of funding bids the council is seeking to expand infrastructure significantly by a further 320 charging points by the end of 2023 of which 20 are anticipated to be reserved for the Car Club bays.

In respect of designated parking areas for the car club fleet, the council has considered zonal models but has decided upon initially pursuing a fixed bay back to base model, although the council will reserve the right to investigate zonal and other models with the successful operator over the term of the contract.

In order to support the establishment and development of the car club the council will charge the operator a significantly discounted rate of £30 per annum for on street parking permits and, council owned car parks if car park spaces prove suitable,

In order to provide maximum scheme development flexibility over the term of the contract, the council will award the concession contract in accordance with the regulations that apply to 'light touch regime' services set out within the Public Concessions Regulations (2016). The council will run the procurement process in general accordance with the 'open procedure' as set out within the Public Contracts Regulations (2015), although the council's express position is that this approach does not give rise to any legal obligations to act in full accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations (2015).

The procurement programme for awarding the concession contract is as follows: