Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Councillor Youd, Lead Member
for Finance and Support Services and chairman of the Procurement
Board, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby approve:
 
·     
to Award the Contract forPostal Services, as
detailed in the table below:
 

Detail required

Answers

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Postal Services – 
Aggregated  services group

Name of Successful
Contractor

Whistl
UK LTD

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

04261268

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Private Limited Company

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Contract Value (£)

£         
520,000 per annum estimated average

Contract Duration

24 months

Contract Start Date

01/02/2025

Contract End Date

31/01/2027

Optional Extension Period 1

12 months

Optional Extension Period 2

12 months

Who will approve each Extension
Period?

Procurement Board (extension >
£150k)

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Peter Cowling 0161 793 4996

Lead Service Group

Resources and Transformation

How the contract
was procured?

(to be supplied by
procurement)

Framework contract

Framework Details (where
applicable)

(procurement body, framework reference
& title, start/ end date

Crown Commercial Service RM6280 Postal Services and
Solutions, Lot 2: Collection and Delivery of Letters, Large Letters
and Parcels within UK

Funding Source

Revenue Budget

Ethical Contractor (EC): Mayor’s
Employment Charter

 

EC: Committed to sign Charter

 

EC: Accredited Living Wage
Employer

 
The
Reasons are
In
February 2015, a group of authorities from the Yorkshire and
Humberside region agreed to form a collaborative group for the
procurement of mail services in the region. This was subsequently
extended to include authorities from Greater Manchester, The aim of
this procurement was to establish a single service provider to
deliver a robust postal service to the named contracting
authorities that provides savings and social value to all
authorities and to make use of volume-based discounts totalling
approx. 20million items, CCS framework contracts were created using
this process 2016-2020, The collaborative tender came to an end
31/08/20 and was due to be replaced. Due to delays during the covid
pandemic and framework renewals, a short-term extension was agreed
upon until a new framework could be established due to commence in
March 2021 up until 2025.
 
Approval to go out to competition was granted by the procurement
board during the approval of the final contract extension in 2024.
The approval was given to utilise the combined procurement of the
previous authorities via the same process’s as in 2015 &
2020  supported by the YPO using Crown
commercial services RM6280 Lot2 Collection and delivery of letters,
large letters and parcels within the UK.
 
At
the beginning of 2024, a strategic group was formed from each of
the authorities to understand the desire and scope for inclusion
for a new aggregated contract being set up and evaluated by the
Crown Commercial Service, in addition to the initial 25
authorities, including in the previous tenders the aggregation
would be opened to other organisations. The aim is to increase the
overall collaborative mail volume between authorities, which has
been reduced to around 12 million items over the past 5-years and
increase the volume-based discount to the group.
 
The
Procurement Process
Individual organisations interested in partaking were asked to
provide specification requests in April 2024; there were 25
interested parties who agreed to move forward to tender, Seven
suppliers are registered on the framework for Lot 2; invitations
were issued to the suppliers that offered services, CCS published
documents on 5th September 2024.Responses were received from the
suppliers in accordance with the conditions of the tender via the
portal before the 11am deadline on the 25th of September
2025.
 
Of the three submitted tenders, Royal
Mail failed the qualification evaluation for
the following reason:
3.4
of attachment 2 of the tender pack stated: “QUALIFICATION evaluation (Compliance Check)
 
First, we
will complete a mandatory evaluation to make sure that you have
answered all questions and have completed the Attachment 4 - Price
Schedule in line with our instructions. All bids passing the
mandatory evaluation will be progressed to the Technical
Evaluation.”
 
Paragraph 7.2.7 of attachment 2 stated: “The
prices submitted shall not exceed any existing commercial agreement
rates and shall be held firm for the duration of the procurement
and any resultant contracts.”
 
Royal Mail
was asked to resubmit a compliant bid on two occasions and current
commercial agreement rates were also shared with the them.
 
The
submitted tender did not meet this instruction and exceeded the
commercial agreement rate values, as such it did not progress to
technical or price evaluation.
 
Evaluation
process
To ensure that the skills,
background and experience of the evaluation team were appropriate
for this procurement, each evaluator completed an evaluator
declaration form. No conflicts of interest were
declared.
 
An evaluator guidance session
was held for each member of the evaluation team. The purpose of
this session was to review the processes and methodology and the
evaluation guidance to be applied to Potential Providers’
responses.
 
No Potential Provider(s) cited
potential/perceived conflicts of interest.
 
CCS undertook clarifications
via the eSourcing tool.
 
Each question was scored
individually with robust justification, applying the criteria
specific to that question within each of the questions as detailed
within the Bid Pack.
 
Consensus scoring was applied
following the procedures set out in the Bid Pack. CCS facilitated a
consensus telephone call with all evaluation panel members
present.
 
The price evaluation
was conducted by the commercial evaluators. At no point prior to
completion of the technical envelope evaluation did members of the
technical evaluation panel have sight of costs offered.
 
Each bid was evaluated
against the following criteria:
 
Technical evaluation
60%

Implementation =
20%
Approach to service
delivery = 50%
Contract management =
20%
Social value –
10%

 
Commercial evaluation
40%
           
Price = 100%
 
Evaluation and Quality of responses
The
evaluation panel scored this section. Bids were evaluated
independently and then moderated in a group evaluation panel
meeting where the merits and shortcomings of each response provided
by the bidders were discussed and then a score was agreed. This
produced a final set of results as follows:
 
 
 
 
 
 

OBJECTIVE CRITERIA

Weighted scores

Bidder 1

Whistl

Technical Evaluation 60%

 

 

Implementation
20%

12.5

20

Delivery of service
50%

37.5

50

Contract management
20%

15

15

Social Value
10%

7.5

10

Technical
Total

72.5

95

Technical weighted Total 60%

43.5%

57%%

 

 

 

Commercial Evaluation

 

 

Price
100%

40%

33.81

Commercial weighted Total 40%

40%

33.81%

Total Final score

83.5%

90.81%

 
As is evidenced in the
details above Whistl’s response
was far higher in all the areas other than price, although
Whistl’s pricing was slightly
more expensive than the other bidder, Whistl scored higher on quality overall in the
evaluation making them the winning bidder.
 
Whistl will provide
collection/sortation and onward distribution to Royal mail
distribution centres, Royal mail will then deliver under its
Universal services obligation for the final mile
delivery.
 
Pricing
Suppliers were asked
to provide detailed pricing for a range of products including
1st & 2nd class mail. The costs have been
provided based on an estimated combined authority volume and are
below standard Royal Mail postage costs.
 
Based on the data
provided by CCS from the interested authorities, this detailed
pricing model has been created and has secured pricing throughout
the length of the contract for a range of products from
Whistl (this can be seen in the table
below).
 

Product type

April 24 onwards

Feb-25

£ Diff

% Saving Diff (per Item)

2nd Class Standard
0-100g

£0.66

£0.57

£0.09

-13.6%

2nd Class Large
0-100g

£0.76

£0.76

£0.00

0.0%

Hand written 2nd
class Standard 0-100g

£0.81

£0.75

£0.06

-7.4%

Hand Written 2nd
class Large 0-100g

£1.16

£0.77

£0.39

-33.6%

Hand Written 2nd
class Large 251-500g

£1.89

£1.37

£0.52

-27.5%

First Class Letter
0-100g

£0.87

£0.93

-£0.06

6.9%

 
In the period April
2023-April 2024 the authority sent out a total of 851588 items of
mail with a total spend of £477,269 due to significant
pricing increases on all mail services from Royal Mail in April
2024 the cost to the organisation increased
significantly.
 
The fluctuations in
mail volume per year make estimating the organisations mail spend
challenging, using the volumes based above and the new secured
contract spend the below table demonstrates the potential savings
of using the new contract.
 

Product type

April 23/24 volume

April 23-24 Spend

Estimated April 24-25 Spend Current
Pricing

Est April 25/26 Spend New
Pricing

Est Savings

2nd Class Standard
0-100g

749738

£412,355.90

£494,827.08

£427,350.66

£67,476.42

2nd Class Large
0-100g

4545

£2,908.80

£3,454.20

£3,454.20

£0.00

Hand written 2nd
class Standard 0-100g

12515

£8,385.05

£10,137.15

£9,386.25

£750.90

Hand Written 2nd
class Large 0-100g

1432

£1,474.96

£1,661.12

£1,102.64

£558.48

Hand Written 2nd
class Large 101-250g

781

£1,280.84

£1,476.09

£1,069.97

£406.12

First Class Letter
0-100g

82509

£51,155.58

£71,782.83

£76,733.37

-£4,950.54

Total

851520

£477,561.13

£583,338.47

£519,097.09

£64,241.38

 
In addition to the
unit cost savings, procurement using the CCS framework has also
secured fixed pricing for the initial term of the contract, which
is two years.
 
As previously eluded
too, mail volume and spending are influenced by various factors,
these include both residential and business growth, statutory
requirements, and enforcement activities such as parking services.
The majority of mail volumes distributed by the authority originate
from three service areas:
·     
Revenue and Benefits,
·     
Children's Services
·     
Parking Services.
 
These services have
statutory obligations to send correspondence via physical mail.
Whilst we continually work with the services to digitally transform
from traditional paper based services, there is still a requirement
for items to be sent by physical mail, which are set out in
legislation. For example annual billing and parking/bus lane
fines.
 
Risks
Identified
Business Continuity & Operational Impact
As Whistl are currently providing services to the
tendering authorities is expected there should be zero impact on
business continuity during the implementation of this
contract.
 
Risk of legal
challenge
The tendering and
evaluation process has been thorough, robust, well-documented and
transparent. It is therefore considered that the Crown Commercial
Service has mitigated itself from risk of legal challenge from
unsuccessful bidders.
 
Social
Value
A weighting of 10% was
evaluated into the tender agreement with suppliers being asked to
describe any specific or tangible social value measures that they
were prepared to offer, The priority theme
for this tender is tackling economic inequality
As part of the tender
SCC requested the successful supplier to enrol into the Social
Value portal to manage Salford specific social value.
 
Whistl outlines the below existing social value activities that it will
continue to maintain throughout the period of the framework
agreement.
 
Work Experience and Local Partnerships:
Whistl
provides work experience placements to
individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and those facing
employment barriers. For instance, our Glasgow depot partners with
North Lanarkshire Council to offer job support to individuals with
additional learning needs. This has led to successful long-term
employment and career progression within Whistl. Similar collaborations exist at our Bedford
and Bolton depots, where we support local authority campaigns to
assist long-term unemployed individuals, demonstrating our
commitment to local communities. Furthermore, the Whistl Account Management team have worked in
partnership with Salford City Council and has committed to the
Salford Futures initiative for 2025. As part of this initiative,
Whistl will provide an 8-week work
experience placement to Salford residents who are currently
unemployed or under-employed. A work placement is ideal for
residents who have a gap on their CV and/or inconsistent employment
history. Salford Futures will help to provide participants with the
opportunity to develop the required workplace competencies skills
and experiences.
 
Apprenticeships and Small Business
Support:
The Whistl Apprenticeship
Fund supports small businesses near our depots, funding Level 2 to
5 apprenticeships focused on early years learning, digital, and
engineering. This initiative not only benefits small businesses but
also promotes skills development in local communities.
 
Whistl
Driver Academy:
Launched in 2021, the Driver Academy addresses the
industry’s driver shortage and barriers to entry for
underrepresented groups, including long-term unemployed and women.
To date, over 40 individuals have completed the program, gaining
HGV qualifications that typically cost £7,000. This
initiative directly contributes to workforce development and
community enrichment.
 
School Engagement and Career Advice:
We actively engage with local schools and educational
institutions to provide career guidance and work experience
opportunities. For example, our HR Business Partner, Louise
O’Neil, serves as an Enterprise Advisor for a high school in
Bolton, helping bridge the gap between education and employment. We
also offer work experience across various departments, such as
logistics, HR, marketing, and finance, giving students exposure to
a range of career paths. On the
18th July, Nicola Broadhurst, Internal
Sales Manager along with 9 of her Whistl colleagues made the annual visit to St.
James’ Highschool in Bolton, to share their advice on
careers, skills and knowledge and opportunities at Whistl, and answer the many questions the students
had.
 
Environmental Impact
Whistl have provided information on
its reduction of environmental impact initiatives some of these are
listed below:
 
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) Vehicles
To drive a step
change in CO2 reductions at a customer level, Whistl have recently launched an initiative to give
customers the option to replace the equivalent amount of diesel
used for their collections and replace it with HVO. This reduces
emissions on mail collections by 98%, a monthly statement on this
CO2 reduction to support your Salford’ ESG management
information can be provided.
 
FlexiPod
– Route managment
Flexipod is
an innovative enhancement in state-of-the-art transport management
system used by Whistl,. This
advanced proof of delivery and collection software captures
real-time information, feeding it back to their dedicated transport
management system and reporting databases. With Flexipod and Paragon Whistl are able to plan routes more efficiently
reducing overall stem mileage and reduce C02 output.
 
The source of funding
is:
Revenue Budgets
 
Legal Advice obtained: Yes
 
Financial Advice
obtained: Yes
 
Procurement Advice obtained:
Yes
 
HR Advice obtained:
N/A
 
Climate Change Implications
obtained: Yes
 
Contact Officer: Peter
Cowling
Telephone number: 0161 779 4996
 
·     
This matter is also subject to consider by the Lead
Member for Resources and Transformation. The Lead Member has been
consulted and is supportive of the proposed contract.
 
·     
This matter is not subject to consideration by
another Lead Member.
 
·     
The appropriate Scrutiny Committee to call-in the
decision is the Procurement Board.
 
 

Signed:    Cllr J
Youd          Dated:
   13 January
2025.
           
   Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 13 January 2025
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 20 January
2025 unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision Making
Process Rules.