River fleet tender boo m AAH fights back
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by Nicky Clarke • Maintenance contracts worth millions of pounds are set to go out to tender over the coming months as the National Rivers Authority implements a policy of market testing in England and Wales for its 18,000 vehicles and items of plant.
The move is designed to improve operational efficiency by cutting transport maintenance costs by 10% and concentrating resources on the river watchdog's core activities.
The NRA's transport fleet includes crane-equipped flatbed rigids, Transit vans, Land Rovers and excavators.
Maintenance contracts worth f2.5m a year will be up for grabs in the Yorkshire, Anglian, Severn and Trent, Southern, Thames and Welsh regions. The NRA wants local third-party contracts to be implemented by next March and it is willing to sell engineering depots in these regions or to contract them out.
The 140 employees, some of whom are part-time, will be redeployed within the NRA or could face redundancy. The Northumbria, South-West and North-West regions already contract out some vehicle maintenance.
The NRA currently spends 1.5m a year on vehicle and plant maintenance at its network of 19 engineering sites.