Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 29 Apr 2026, 15:11 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Visitor Oyster Cards and Website Development

Authority: Transport for London (Public body)

ServicesAbove threshold
Planned pipeline value£643,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 1 Nov 2029 · starts 1 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Visitor Oyster Card (VOC) provides a specific pay as you go product for visitors to London. The product can be purchased by visitors from outside the M25 motorway in the UK and across the world, unlike the traditional Oyster Card, the VOC can only be brought prior to arrival in London & all customers are charged a non-refundable £5 activation fee.

The VOC can be used wherever an Oyster card can be used, as well as on the Gatwick & Heathrow Express services. Whilst the £10.50 fee remains consistent for all denominations, Visitors can buy the VOC pre-loaded with various amounts of credit from £10 - £50.

This MSQ is addressing the marketing, fulfilment, account management, website management and customer service provision for the VOC, all of which is currently managed within one contract, by a single partner. This MSQ is seeking to gain insight if the scope and requirement can be procured as one, or split.

CPV: Advertising and marketing services · Commercial property management services · Web server software development services · World wide web (www) site design services · World wide web (www) site operation host services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Transport for London buys Provider services (CPV 7241), and who usually turns up

Transport for London’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: Provider services (CPV 7241) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerTransport for London · division 72
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: 3 of 13 known-size awards · market: CPV 7241 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=17
23%71%

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 Greater London (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 of 13 known-location awards · market: CPV 7241 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=17
46%24%

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 7241 · UK-wide, n=20
—70 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 70 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 12 of 15 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7241 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=26
80%54%

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 buyer186 lots with bid counts · all categories
44% had one bid
The market35 lots with bid counts · CPV 7241 · UK-wide
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid44% / 14%
Buyer: 81 of 186 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
2–346% / 37%
Buyer: 85 of 186 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
4–68% / 9%
Buyer: 15 of 186 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
7+3% / 40%
Buyer: 5 of 186 lots with published bid counts. Market: 14 of 35 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 buyer25 lots with estimate and award · all categories
48% below estimate
The market24 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7241 · UK-wide
71% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate48% / 71%
Buyer: 12 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 17 of 24 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%32% / 29%
Buyer: 8 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 24 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 0%
Buyer: 5 of 25 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 24 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 722136 monthsPublished estimate£643k

This lot is listed as CPV 7221. The table above uses the notice category.

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 102 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet8% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 102 similar lots
1 bid8%
8 of 102 similar past lots received 1 bid (8%).
2–331%
32 of 102 similar past lots received 2–3 (31%).
4–631%
32 of 102 similar past lots received 4–6 (31%).
7+29%
30 of 102 similar past lots received 7+ (29%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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 £643k, 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
Services
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
29 Apr 2026, 15:11 BST
Last source update
29 Apr 2026, 15:11 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-039307
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Advertising and marketing servicesCommercial property management servicesWeb server software development servicesWorld wide web (www) site design servicesWorld wide web (www) site operation host services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068e37 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

29 Apr 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published180 days ago
    29 Apr 2026, 15:11 BST
  2. Market engagement157 days ago
    22 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    TfL wishes to seek your views on the extent of your capability, capacity and appetite for the global marketing, fulfilment, account management and customer service provisions for the Visitor Oyster Card as described in Section 3.

    The feedback from this questionnaire will help inform decisions on the final procurement strategy and route to market for the promotion of the Visitor Oyster Card and will work alongside any other option appraisal work undertaken.

    TfL would appreciate your feedback in the form of a response to the following questionnaire, with the specific questions to be answered in the blank tables/boxes provided. Should you consider a particular question as not applicable to your organisation, please state "not applicable" in the tables/boxes provided.

    Please note responses to the questionnaire does not form part of any formal procurement process.

    If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Tyreke Brooks - [email protected].

  3. Today
    27 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 4 days
    1 Nov 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Apr 2026, 15:11 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

Transport for London

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PHMT-6197-NWNZ 5 Endeavour Square, London, London, E20 1JNContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure