Services available

While local authorities are free to choose from a number of buying organisations, central government department fleets are now being made to use Buying Solutions (update – now known as Government Procurement Service).

Stuart Walker suggests that Buying Solutions has the “widest spread of services”.

Its framework agreements cover:

  • Vehicle hire
  • Vehicle purchase
  • Lease of cars and car derived vans
  • Lease of commercial vehicles, conversions and trailers
  • Fleet management services
  • Vehicle insurance (brokers)
  • Trailers and mobile units
  • Accident and emergency ambulances (health customers only)
  • Vehicle conversion (health customers only)
  • Vehicle insurance (underwriters)

Fleet operators should be aware that framework agreements typically last three to four years and Buying Solutions has recently introduced a new framework for vehicle purchasing with a new framework for leasing due to go live in May, 2011.

Dale Eynon, head of fleet operations at the Environment Agency, will switch from a full tender to the new leasing framework in May. He estimates this will speed up the process by two to three months.

Starting point

Walker advises local authority fleet operators to make Buying Solutions their first port of call.

“Buying Solutions has representatives from the whole public sector consulting on its frameworks so it is the best starting point,” he says.

“If they can’t meet your requirements, then consider looking elsewhere.”

The challenge fleet operators face is that there are a large number of procurement organisations.

“You can get lost in a myriad of information,” James says. “It’s difficult to know what’s out there. Often you hear about frameworks by word of mouth.”

Complicating things further is whether the framework is open to all public sector bodies or not.

“There are non-collaborative frameworks that apply to a particular authority that no-one else can use and there are collaborative frameworks that are open to others,” explains Derek Thornton, head of strategic accounts at Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions.

Throw in the issue of compliance too and it’s clear that framework agreements are not problem-free.
“Anyone could set up a framework and it might not be done properly,” James says. “There’s a bit of nervousness among local authority fleets about making sure we’re compliant.”

James’s solution is to put everything to his council’s legal team for approval before using the framework.

Clifford suggests an accreditation scheme or stamp of approval showing that a framework is compliant would be useful for fleet operators.

Pro5, a buying consortium made up of five of the largest public sector professional buying organisations in the UK, has worked alongside the ERG to ensure it is compliant.

More on page three