Courier delivery contracts explained

Securing courier delivery contracts for your business can be a lucrative opportunity. If you’ve never tendered before you may be a little confused about what is required and how it’s evaluated. Hopefully this blog will give you a better idea.

Courier delivery contracts are used by a variety of businesses and industries. For example:

• Medical equipment distribution
• Courier taxi services
• Distribution of food supplements
• Medical sample transportation
• Government documents
• Courier and warehouse services
• Postal services.

Recently, courier delivery contracts have had a specific focus on:

• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Technology
• Low carbon logistics.

This means you can expect buyers to ask how you will deliver on these aspects. If you don’t already take these into consideration, you probably start thinking about it. Buyers will be expecting to see how your business delivers these aspects compared to your competitors.

How courier delivery contracts are evaluated

Generally speaking, courier delivery contracts are evaluated on two (or three) things:

Quality

The quality section of your tender will likely have a higher weighting, particularly if it’s for a public sector organisation.

Example questions you may be asked in a courier delivery contract include, but aren’t limited to:

• What resources does the tenderer propose to put in place to deliver the service?
• Set out the way in which you will provide a sustainable, low carbon logistics service that minimises any negative impact on the city’s traffic congestion problems?
• Set out the way in which you will provide a secure service, adhering to the buyer’s Information Security Policy.
• Please provide details of how the solution will provide the flexibility required to match the buyer’s future needs.

Social Value (public sector)

As of January 2021, public sector contracts have a minimum mandatory weighting of 10% on social value. This means you must take into consideration the social, economic and environmental aspects of the contract. Be reminded that you should make promises you can keep. Buyers expect you to fulfil these promises, so don’t promise the world if you can’t deliver.

It’s best to do some research to see what the buyer supports. Then you can align your social value to theirs. Your social value promises should:

• Create new jobs and promote skills (apprenticeships etc)
• Encourage economic growth (pay employees the National Living Wage)
• Support COVID-19 recovery (employ local community)
• Tackle climate change (reduce carbon emissions/encourage recycling)
• Level up the UK.

If you’re tendering for a private sector organisation, you may not have to consider social value. It all depends on what the buyer wants.

Price

The price assessment will account for a certain percentage of the evaluation criteria. The cost must be the best and final offers. Bear in mind that the price you give is typically contractually binding.

Overall, for public sector courier delivery contracts, the contract will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender. This is known as the MEAT. It is when the buyer assesses your bid based on more than just the price. The aspects your bid may be evaluated on may include:

• Technical ability
• Accessibility
• Environmental benefits
• Ability to deliver on time
• Innovation
• Social characteristics

What your bid specifically will be evaluated on will be noted in the tender documents.

Need assistance when writing your next courier delivery contracts?

We understand running your own business can take up a lot of your time. You may not have the resources to time to write a winning response in house. Luckily for you, our sister company at Hudson Succeed know the trials and tribulations of writing a winning bid.

Our Bid Writers have an 87% success rate and over 60-years of bidding experience. We offer four bid writing solutions to suit your tendering needs.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have. You’ll also get a year’s subscription to our Transport Tenders portal.

Tender Improvement

If you have already been applying for tenders but aren’t seeing success our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Writers will go over your previous submissions and provide feedback and guidance.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect courier delivery contract for your business but are struggling to start? Send it over to our Bid Writing team and they can write the whole response for you. If you use our Tender Writing service, they’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Mentor  

Our Bid Writers can look over a bid response you’ve already written, checking it for errors before you submit. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes to go over your response and our Tender Mentor service can help.

Where can I find courier delivery contracts for my business?

If you’re wondering how to get courier contracts in the UK – we can help. Searching for courier delivery contracts can take up a lot of your time – time you just don’t have to spare. Well, luckily for you, we have a solution.

Transport Tenders hosts hundreds of new opportunities in the logistics industry from across the UK. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload live tenders daily from both the public and private sectors. You can filter results via keyword, budget, location and more. You no longer have to rely on inaccurate CPV codes. This means you’ll never miss out on courier delivery contracts for your business.

Below are previous courier delivery contracts sourced on our portal:

Courier Services – Multi Lot

CPD – Supplies and Services Division- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

Courier Services to Children’s Health Ireland

Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Courier Services: Temperature Controlled, Hazardous Material & Medical Records

East Of England NHS Collaborative Hub- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

Courier and Specialist Movements

Crown Commercial Service- North West- Budget: £2,000,000,000

Provision of Courier Services

Royal Berkshire Fire Authority- South East- Budget: £40,000

A subscription to Transport Tenders could increase your chances of securing courier delivery contracts. With the time saved and numerous opportunities found, Transport Tenders can feed seamlessly into your business development strategy. With a subscription to the portal, you receive:

• Unlimited access to the Transport Tenders portal. Increase your chance of success.
• A dedicated Account Manager on hand to help you will all logistics tenders.
• A free 20-minute phone consultation. Chat to one of our team about a contract you’re interested in. We can provide expert advice, insight and guidance to support your tendering efforts.
• A daily email bulletin of all the logistics tenders published that day helping you stay ahead of the game.

On Transport Tenders, we post contracts for:

• Rail contracts
• Courier services
• Public transport
• Transport services
• Logistical planning consultancy
• Recycling logistics
• School taxi contracts
• Bus tenders
• and supply chain solutions.

Book a free live demo today for a quick tour of our portal. Get in touch to learn more about our bespoke bid writing services.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can save you even more time, helping you identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two time-saving tools can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate.

Contact us for more information on how we can help your business grow.