Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 8 May 2026, 14:29 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Inter - Hospital Shuttle Bus Service

Authority: NORTH CHESHIRE & MERSEY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST (Central government)

ServicesBelow thresholdConcessionSME suitable
Concession value (operator's revenue)Value not publishedoperator revenue, not the authority's budget
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 30 Nov 2029 · up to 30 Nov 2031 with extensions · starts 1 Dec 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

North Cheshire and Mersey (NCM) NHS Foundation Trust is issuing this Preliminary market engagement notice for the purpose of engaging with the market in order to inform the further development of draft proposals for the NCM Inter-Hospital Shuttle Bus Service.

The objective is to :

  • Understand experience and capability
  • Understand service delivery models
  • Consider fleet, accessibility and sustainability
  • Consider technology and innovation
  • Consider safeguarding, quality and compliance
  • Understand commercial and contractual feedback
  • Understand levels of interest

Interested suppliers are invited to review this notice and respond as outlined within the Engagement process description.

CPV: Hire of buses and coaches with driver · Travel services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Dec 2026 – 30 Nov 2029 (3 yrs) · up to 30 Nov 2031 with extensions
Delivery: North WestEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How NORTH CHESHIRE & MERSEY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST buys Hire of passenger transport vehicles with driver (CPV 6017), and who usually turns up

NORTH CHESHIRE & MERSEY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Hire of passenger transport vehicles with driver (CPV 6017) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bidWhat to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 12 known-size awards · market: CPV 6017 · North West England, n=6
25%83%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 of 9 known-location awards · market: CPV 6017 · North West England, n=9
44%78%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 6017 · UK-wide, n=23
—46 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 46 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 17 of 17 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 6017 · North West England, n=11
100%45%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyerNo bid counts published
The market121 lots with bid counts · CPV 6017 · UK-wide
12% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid12%
Market: 15 of 121 lots with published bid counts.
2–317%
Market: 21 of 121 lots with published bid counts.
4–640%
Market: 49 of 121 lots with published bid counts.
7+30%
Market: 36 of 121 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market42 lots with estimate and award · CPV 6017 · UK-wide
31% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate31%
Market: 13 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%24%
Market: 10 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate45%
Market: 19 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 601736 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 59 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 59 similar lots
1 bid19%
11 of 59 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–347%
28 of 59 similar past lots received 2–3 (47%).
4–622%
13 of 59 similar past lots received 4–6 (22%).
7+12%
7 of 59 similar past lots received 7+ (12%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Concession
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
8 May 2026, 14:29 BST
Last source update
8 May 2026, 14:29 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-042564
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Hire of buses and coaches with driverTravel services
Delivery area
North West (UKD6)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0694cf Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

8 May 2026 → 1 Dec 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published169 days ago
    8 May 2026, 14:29 BST
  2. Market engagement148 days ago
    29 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    We would like to invite interested parties to email [email protected] prior to the 19th May 2026 to express their interest.

    Any interested parties will be asked to complete a confidentiality agreement before the Trust is able to share further details of the requirement.

    Following the signature of the confidentiality agreement the Trust will provide a questionnaire which will give more detail of the requirement, and invite interested parties to give their thoughts / observations.

  3. Today
    24 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 37 days
    1 Dec 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 May 2026, 14:29 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

NORTH CHESHIRE & MERSEY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PPWH-9484-CZLJ Lovely Lane, Warrington, North West, WA5 1QGContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure