Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 12 Oct 2026, 13:02 BST

Official UK procurement notice

TVCA-PROC-0952 - Connected and Autonomous Mobility (CAM) Technology Partner

Authority: Tees Valley Combined Authority (Local council)

GoodsAbove threshold
Planned pipeline value£15,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 14 Dec 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 31 Mar 2032 · starts 14 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) seeks to engage the market through this Pre-Tender Market Engagement (PTME) exercise to inform the potential procurement of a supplier to provide a Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) technology solution for the introduction of autonomous buses in the Tees Valley.

For the purposes of this PTME, Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) refers to transport technologies that enable vehicles to operate with automated driving capability and to interact with supporting digital, operational and infrastructure systems.

Through this PTME, the Contracting Authority aims to:

•Understand the market’s appetite to be involved in the potential future procurement exercise;

•Validate the supplier's proposal;

•Understand the capacity of the market and timescales for delivery

•Potential risks associated with the procurement

•Understand opportunities, costs and considerations

•Provide potential suppliers with an opportunity to raise queries and points of consideration in advance of any potential procurement exercise.

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Tees Valley portal at: teesvalley.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-Darlingto… ↗

To respond to this opportunity, please click here: teesvalley.delta-esourcing.com/respond/J2BY2F6XG4 ↗

If you experience any technical difficulties from accessing the above url, then please contact the Delta eSourcing Helpdesk on call 0800 923 9236 or email [email protected].

CPV: Specialist vehicles

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 5 yrs
Contract period: 14 Apr 2027 – 31 Mar 2032 (5 yrs)
Delivery: North East

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Tees Valley Combined Authority buys Passenger cars (CPV 3411), and who usually turns up

Tees Valley Combined Authority’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: Passenger cars (CPV 3411) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerTees Valley Combined Authority · 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: 75 of 181 known-size awards · market: CPV 3411 · North East England, n=9
41%67%

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 East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 42 of 181 known-location awards · market: CPV 3411 · North East England, n=13
23%31%

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: 29 decided notices · market: CPV 3411 · UK-wide, n=8
15 days54 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 15 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 141 of 227 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3411 · North East England, n=18
62%83%

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 buyer66 lots with bid counts · all categories
30% had one bid
The market26 lots with bid counts · CPV 3411 · UK-wide
15% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid30% / 15%
Buyer: 20 of 66 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 26 lots with published bid counts.
2–332% / 31%
Buyer: 21 of 66 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 26 lots with published bid counts.
4–617% / 46%
Buyer: 11 of 66 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 26 lots with published bid counts.
7+21% / 8%
Buyer: 14 of 66 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 26 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 buyer59 lots with estimate and award · all categories
22% below estimate
The market14 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3411 · UK-wide
36% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate22% / 36%
Buyer: 13 of 59 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%76% / 36%
Buyer: 45 of 59 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate2% / 29%
Buyer: 1 of 59 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 14 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 341160 monthsPublished estimate£15m
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 23 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet30% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 23 similar lots
1 bid30%
7 of 23 similar past lots received 1 bid (30%).
2–330%
7 of 23 similar past lots received 2–3 (30%).
4–626%
6 of 23 similar past lots received 4–6 (26%).
7+13%
3 of 23 similar past lots received 7+ (13%).
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £15m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
Goods
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
12 Oct 2026, 13:02 BST
Last source update
12 Oct 2026, 13:13 BST
Authority reference
TVCA-PROC-0952
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-096068
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Specialist vehicles
Delivery area
North East (UKC1)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078595 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

12 Oct 2026 → 14 Apr 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published11 days ago
    12 Oct 2026, 13:02 BST
  2. Today
    23 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 4 days
    26 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT

    The table below outlines the key dates for this pre-tender market engagement exercise:

    • Pre-tender market engagement clarification question deadline: Monday 19th October 2026, 12pm
    • Pre-tender market engagement submission deadline: Monday 26th October 2026, 12pm

    For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Tees Valley portal at: teesvalley.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-Darlingto… ↗

    To respond to this opportunity, please click here: teesvalley.delta-esourcing.com/respond/J2BY2F6XG4 ↗

    If you experience any technical difficulties from accessing the above url, then please contact the Delta eSourcing Helpdesk on call 0800 923 9236 or email [email protected].

  4. Tender notice expectedin 53 days
    14 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 173 days
    14 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 12 Oct 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    12 Oct 2026, 13:02 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    12 Oct 2026, 13:13 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

Tees Valley Combined Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PDNG-8971-ZVCR Teesside Airport Business Suite, Teesside international Airport, Darlington, North East, DL2 1NJContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure