(11 Jan 2019, 9:44 am)RBZ 5459 wrote That's how the majority of councils and PTE's across the country give out tendered contracts - lowest bid wins. It's only until recently (the past two years is it?) that Nexus now take other factors into consideration in deciding the bid-winning operators - which is why the likes of Go North East have picked up vast amounts of school and passenger service contracts in recent years.
Usually there's a percentage weighting, cost vs quality, with cost normally always being the higher percentage.
This kind of tender evaluation isn't new at Nexus (I'd say it's been done like this for 5+ years at least), but is more uncommon for Durham County Council and Northumberland.
Each contract is different. The Nexus contracts being renewed in March 2019 have a 90% cost vs 10% quality weighting. For a fully conforming bid, the elements of quality include providing a Euro 6, Hybrid, electric or gas-powered bus (5%) or a low-carbon emission bus (full 10%).
Miscellaneous Works contracts, including the scholars services you mention, never include quality as a weighting. These tenders are awarded based wholly on the lowest annualised price. Ultimately if the patronage is quite low on 'normal' services, it'd be pointless for the local authority to include quality as a weighting, as they'd potentially be paying out more for a service which hardly anyone uses in the first place.