Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 1 May 2026, 11:43 BST

Official UK procurement notice

P-3449 Supply of Bus, Coach and Support Vehicle Replacement Parts

Authority: Translink (Public body)

Dynamic marketGoodsAbove thresholdUtilities
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 18 May 2026from the planned procurement notice
Market period 8 yrsends 31 Jul 2034 · starts 1 Aug 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Translink is seeking to engage the market about the establishment of a Dynamic Market for the purchase of replacement parts to service the maintenance of its Bus, Coach and Support Vehicle Fleet.

CPV: Buses and coaches · Miscellaneous transport equipment and spare parts · Parts and accessories for vehicles and their engines

How this dynamic market works

From the published notice
Type
Dynamic market
Market period
8 yrs from 1 Aug 2026

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
What this means for your bid
  • “P-3449 Supply of Bus, Coach and Support Vehicle Replacement Parts” is a dynamic market: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

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

How Translink buys Parts and accessories for vehicles and their engines (CPV 3430), and who usually turns up

Translink’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Parts and accessories for vehicles and their engines (CPV 3430) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerTranslink · all categories
What 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: 6 of 9 known-size awards · market: CPV 3430 · UK-wide, n=10
67%20%

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.

Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 2 known-location awards · market: CPV 3430 · UK-wide, n=14
1 of 250%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Northern Ireland.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 decided notices · market: division 34 · UK-wide, n=52
157 days49 days

Half of these awards were announced within 157 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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 1 of 9 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3430 · UK-wide, n=5
11%20%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

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 buyer17 lots with bid counts · all categories
6% had one bid
The market37 lots with bid counts · CPV 3430 · UK-wide
8% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid6% / 8%
Buyer: 1 of 17 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
2–329% / 41%
Buyer: 5 of 17 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
4–624% / 14%
Buyer: 4 of 17 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
7+41% / 38%
Buyer: 7 of 17 lots with published bid counts. Market: 14 of 37 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.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.

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 343096 monthsEstimate 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 34 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet41% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 34 similar lots
1 bid41%
14 of 34 similar past lots received 1 bid (41%).
2–326%
9 of 34 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–615%
5 of 34 similar past lots received 4–6 (15%).
7+18%
6 of 34 similar past lots received 7+ (18%).
Check who supplied similar work and whether the route limits bidders.
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.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
TYRE-LINE ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT LIMITEDLive contractP-3183 Supply of Bus and Coach Wheel Rimsruns to Sept 2028—£250kMatched as the earlier contract
ENGINE TRUCK N.I. LIMITEDEarlier contractP-2109 Supply of Support Vehicle Partsnotice published Feb 2022——Matched as the earlier contract

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
Goods
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Utilities
Commercial structure
Dynamic market
Who may use this agreement
Any qualifying supplier may apply while the market is open
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
1 May 2026, 11:43 BST
Last source update
1 May 2026, 11:43 BST
Authority reference
P-3449
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-040418
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Buses and coachesMiscellaneous transport equipment and spare partsParts and accessories for vehicles and their engines
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069021 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Admission period ends
—

Timeline

1 May 2026 → 1 Aug 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published174 days ago
    1 May 2026, 11:43 BST
  2. Market engagement160 days ago
    15 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    Translink wishes to invite suitably interested Suppliers to express their interest via the Messaging system on etendersNI by searching the CfT name below. The deadline is 1pm on Friday 15th May 2026.

    "Pre Market Engagement - Dynamic Market for the Supply of Bus, Coach and Support Vehicle Replacement Parts"

  3. Tender notice expected157 days ago
    18 May 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts83 days ago
    1 Aug 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    1 May 2026, 11:43 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

Translink

Contracting authorityPublic undertakingNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PTMT-7134-NRMV 22 Great Victoria Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT2 7LXContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure