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MUNICIPAL Vans, though, generally go home with their rivers. Spencer
Page 36
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says: "The council employs a it of housing maintenance personnel, people ke plumbers and plasterers. These staff are art of the City Works division and they tend ) drive around in the vans and keep them at reir houses overnight."
As the army of City Works staff clock off, ie nocturnal Fleet Services fitters get crack. 1g on the trucks and vans. "We have 21 fullme fitters here," explains Spencer. "They do fork in the daytime, although the vast major:y of them work during the evenings and ights. The quietest time is between 9pm and o.3opm when the shifts change over."
This is, of course, the public sector—yet, stonishing as it seems, the Fleet Services .ivision doesn't receive a single penny from he City Council. Rather, Spencer's team opertes along the lines of any other private busiless.
Council tradesmen
UI those plumbers, electricians and other .ouncil tradesmen need their vans, and the [rivers need their skip loaders, bulk loaders, ippers and wheelie-bin vehicles. The City ::ouncil requires its four mobile libraries, too. Without the procurement expertise of the leet Services division, trucks and vans don't 'each the various departments. The govern ment's Best Value public sector policy rules here.
Under the last Conservative govern ment, Compulsory Competitive Tendering put cost at the top of the agenda. Here, public sector departments had to buy cheapest—CCT even saw private companies service RAF jets. Expenditure is still scrutinised with Best Value, but the programme is designed to give a decent, workable service. The cheapest option is not necessarily the best.
The Fleet Services department leases the trucks and vans, and then supplies them to the various departments, along with a maintenance deal. Remember, though, that Spencer's team works along the same lines as a going concern—so it marginally increases the vehicle/service rate so that it makes a profit.
Spencer readily admits that the council's divisions are "captive customers" but, he says, the principles of Best Value balance all the costs. "We have compared hire rates with the private sector and we know that our rates are very competitive," he asserts.
The Best Value philosophy is theoretically a simple one, although the machinery behind it is complex.
"The person who is in charge of, say, the groundworks division, will contact us if his vehicles' leases are coming up for expiry. He'll take a look to see if his department's requirements are the same. If they are, we will have to organise a replacement programme for them.
"Our Purchasing Section then advertises for a new batch of vehicles in the European Journal."
The trade magazine offers private firms the opportunity to supply local authorities with just about anything, although it's unlikely that, say, a Sicily-based dealer would bother to supply trucks to a city council in North-West England. "We rarely get interest from outside the NorthWest," says Spencer.
Council protocol
Nonetheless, Manchester City Council protocol dictates that the Fleet Services department advertise its needs in the magazine. Interestingly, even if a serious con. tender does vie for business at thli stage, the process carries alone regardless.
He says: "Then we advertise nationally and locally; we send ou. very specific tenders to dealerships. chair a panel which examines all th( returned tenders. Best Value does no necessarily mean the cheapest. It ir more about what suits the job."
With all these stages, the procure ment process can take up to one year Factors such as these set municipa work miles apart from road trans port. "I think it would be interestinj to have been involved in haulage. It' definitely a different culture workinl for a local authority," he reflects.