Writing a Ground Transport Brief or Tender: A Buyer’s Checklist
Most transport quotes come back impossible to compare — and it’s usually the brief’s fault
Send three ground transport suppliers a vague brief and you’ll get three quotes that can’t be placed side by side: different assumptions about vehicle type, different read on what’s included, different view of who’s covering what if plans change. That’s not a pricing problem. It’s a scoping problem, and it’s fixable before a single quote goes out.
This is a working checklist for anyone putting together a brief or tender for group transport — procurement teams running a formal process, school business managers going out to several suppliers, corporate travel or events leads briefing a partner, or anyone about to fill in a transport proposal request and wanting it to come back useful the first time.
Start with scope, not vehicles
Before specifying vehicle types, define what’s actually being bought. Is this a single booking, a recurring programme, or a framework agreement covering multiple sites or dates across a year? Is it point-to-point transfers, a full day at disposal, or a multi-day touring itinerary? Suppliers price these completely differently, and a brief that doesn’t separate them out invites quotes that aren’t actually comparable.
What a supplier needs to quote accurately
• Passenger numbers, including any variation across the programme (a framework agreement covering different group sizes at different times should say so)
• Pickup/drop-off points and any multi-stop or multi-site routing
• Dates, and whether they’re fixed or need flexibility built in
• Accessibility requirements, confirmed rather than assumed
• Any pupil-, delegate- or passenger-specific considerations the supplier needs briefed in advance
What to ask every supplier to confirm in writing
1. Driver vetting standard — DBS level, licensing, and how it’s evidenced
2. Vehicle standard — age, accessibility, PSVAR/MOT compliance
3. Insurance level, matched to group size and risk, not a generic minimum
4. Who the named on-the-day contact is, and how they’re reached if plans change
5. Cancellation, amendment and substitution terms — before there’s a deposit on the table, not after
A supplier that answers all five clearly, in writing, before any commitment is a good sign. One that can only answer some of them, or answers vaguely, is telling you something about how the rest of the relationship will go.
For contracts and framework agreements specifically
A single transfer and a multi-year framework agreement need different things from a brief. Recurring or multi-site work benefits from being explicit about: how pricing holds (or doesn’t) across the term, how new sites or dates get added without a fresh tender each time, what reporting or management information is expected, and who the single point of contact is for the life of the agreement rather than per booking. PCG manages transport across everything from single-day corporate bookings through to multi-year framework agreements and public-sector contracts, and every one of them starts from a brief built this way — the process doesn’t change with the size of the contract, only the detail in it.
Where confidentiality needs to sit in a tender
Some tenders — a supplier evaluation that shouldn’t leak before it’s decided, an event or visiting party that needs to stay out of the public domain, a commercially sensitive framework negotiation — need the transport partner to work under the same discretion as everyone else in the process. That’s what PCG’s published Discretion & Confidentiality Policy is for, backed by NDAs on request — worth raising early in a tender process rather than assuming it, since not every supplier operates that way as standard.
Social value: what’s actually being scored
Most school, local authority and public-sector transport tenders now score more than price and vehicle standards. Under the Social Value Act 2012 and the National TOMs framework most public buyers use, criteria like local employment, apprenticeships and training, and environmental commitments (carbon reduction, net zero plans) typically carry real weight in the final score — commonly at least 10% of the total, and 15-20% or more with a growing number of buyers. Central government contracts work to a similar minimum under the Government’s own social value model, and the largest government contracts require suppliers to hold a published Carbon Reduction Plan just to be eligible to bid at all.
If a brief or tender document doesn’t mention social value explicitly, it’s worth asking the buyer directly whether it’s being scored and against what criteria — a supplier response that addresses local hiring, skills and environmental commitments only when specifically asked for them is starting from behind one that has the answer ready. Worth building into the brief itself: ask each supplier what they can evidence on local employment or apprenticeships, and what environmental commitments they can put in writing, rather than assuming a coach or minibus supplier has nothing to say on either.
Getting this to us
If you’re putting a brief together and want a second pair of eyes before it goes out — or you’re ready to send it straight over — request a proposal using the points above and we’ll come back with a properly scoped response, not a placeholder quote waiting on the details you haven’t sent yet. See the full range of what we manage on Services and how we run the standards side of it on Standards.
-
Passenger numbers, pickup/drop-off points and routing, dates and flexibility, accessibility needs, and clear questions on driver vetting, insurance, on-the-day contact and cancellation terms — a brief that covers these lets suppliers quote accurately and lets you actually compare what comes back.
-
A framework or multi-year contract brief needs to cover how pricing holds across the term, how new sites or dates get added, what reporting is expected, and who the ongoing point of contact is — a one-off brief only needs to cover a single date and route.
-
Yes — a transport partner working under a published discretion and confidentiality policy, backed by an NDA where needed, can be brought into a sensitive tender or supplier evaluation without it becoming public before a decision is made.
-
Send passenger numbers, dates, routing and any accessibility or timing requirements upfront — a request that includes these usually gets a properly scoped response first time, rather than a round of follow-up questions before pricing can start.
-
Often, yes — under the Social Value Act 2012 and the National TOMs framework most public buyers use, criteria like local employment, apprenticeships and environmental commitments commonly carry at least 10% of the total score, and 15-20% or more with some buyers, even when a brief doesn’t say so explicitly.