Public procurement notice: Prior Information Notice Without Call For Competition
Published: 2018-01-16
Buyer: Highways England
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
CPV classification: 32234000 | 34927000 | 45316210 | 48000000 | 63712210
Estimated value: 150000000 GBP

Technical requirements: Highways England is in the early stages of developing a scalable free-flow charging solution for commencement of live service between 2021 and 2024, which will include schemes such as Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing. The solution would be a potential enabler to realising any longer term aspiration of interoperability between charging schemes and a smarter integrated service for the customer. Highways England wishes to speak to the market to gain their insights and experience in this field which will be fed into the development and make-up of the scalable free-flow charging solution.
Highways England is exploring different ways of breaking down the services required to develop and deliver a scalable free-flow charging solution and wishes to discuss these with the market.
1. Implementation of vehicle detection and identification solutions, which will be used as the basis of the charging and enforcement scheme(s).
2. Design, construction, configuration, integration and testing of scalable IT systems, including all custom and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software and the provision of physical infrastructure to support the free-flow charging solution.
3. Charging operations services, which includes the operational elements of the scheme including: charge payment processing, enquiry and complaints handling, account registration and management. A number of channels for the customer to pay, register and make enquiries; these can include but are not limited to online and contact centre.
4. UK and foreign enforcement operations services which include validating contravention candidates before raising penalty charges for non-compliance with the relevant scheme, issue of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) and the management and processing of all enforcement related customer queries, payments, representations, appeals and debt recovery. This includes interaction with key government third parties to enforce the free-flow charging scheme(s).
Highways England are currently considering a number of potential routes for acquiring each of the packages indicated, including:
Suppliers will have the opportunity to attend a market engagement day to be held in central London on 9.2.2018 at 10am. This will provide an opportunity for suppliers to gain an insight into the required services, raise specific questions in relation to the free-flow charging solution and provide feedback on the proposed approach to lotting of the services.
Interested parties are requested to read the pre-procurement briefing (located at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/28b6e170-aa37-4368-bc22-c637ca35bd62) and to confirm their attendance at the market engagement day by emailing TechnologyProcurement@highwaysengland.co.uk by 5:00 pm on 5.2.2018 should they wish to attend. Attendance is strictly restricted to 1 attendee per organisation. Lunch is provided. Interested parties should also outline any specific dietary or accessibility requirements.
This initial market engagement may be followed by a further programme of market engagement throughout the first half of 2018 to ensure the market is fully involved in the development of the free-flow charging solution before the procurement process is commenced.


Award value: 150000000