Water to contract out
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by Amanda Bradbury • Water companies look set to start contracting out further areas of their transport operations following the out tendering of the fleet maintenance work of 1,100 commercial vehicles operated by South West Water.
The water company says the deal with PI-11-1 Ideal will shave 17.5% off its maintenance bill Anglian Water is now not ruling out a similar move.
Regional transport manager Alan Burbidge says "it is an option" for Anglian Water to look at contracting out fleet maintenance of its 2,000 strong commercial fleet.
Around a third of the fleet is already maintained by a number of outside contractors—like South West Water, Anglian denies looking at out-tendering driving work done by trained engineers.
The remaining eight water companies' transport support services could be hived off if cost efficiencies could be seen to be made, says the Water Services Association.
Companies could either contract out, like South West Water, or create a subsidiary to handle transport-related work—as Southern Water has done with Topmark Vehicle Contracts.
Set up in 1989, Topmark handles contract hire work for the water company and others. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Water, Topmark is not subject to scrutiny by water watchdog Ofwat.