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Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
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Author:  captain cab [ Mon Jul 06, 2015 7:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up to be waved through




Plymouth City Council plan to shake-up its school transport provision with city taxi firms

A DECISION to change school taxi provision for pupils with special needs is to be waved through after Conservative councillors opted not to challenge the shake-up.

Councillor Terri Beer previously said she would pull the planned overhaul of the school transport service for 700 children, many who have “complex and unique needs”, before scrutiny to ensure child safety was “paramount” to the new contracts.

The Labour-run Plymouth City Council is looking to knock £350,000-a-year off its £3.5million transport running costs by activating an early release clause to call time on its contract with current providers Taxi First and Crownhill Taxis.

The contract had been due to run until August 2016 but the council wants to open it up to more operators, including small businesses, to save cash and improve the service.

High level decisions have to also be approved by the Conservatives after Labour lost its majority in the May election, with the two parties adhering to a ‘working agreement’ to push through city business.

The school taxis contract decision had been due to appear before the Ambitious Plymouth panel today (Mon July 6) but councillors decided to drop the issue.

Tory leader Ian Bowyer confirmed his opposition party had no objections to the move, paving the way for the changes to be made.

“We do recognise that issues such as school transport should be kept under review and when there is an opportunity to save some public money, you understand the council would like to do that,” said the Eggbuckland councillor.

“That wouldn’t be unreasonable for either side, Labour or Conservative, to look at. We are aware that times are tough and money is short, so we need to spend it wisely.”

Labour’s Cllr Jon Taylor, in charge of re-shaping the council in order to make savings, said he never received a call to appear before scrutiny.

“If Cllr Beer wanted it to go to scrutiny, like she said mentioned before, she could have invited me and officers to talk through it,” said Cllr Taylor.

“But that request never materialised. I would have been more than happy for that to have happened, but I take it the Conservative group were satisfied with the answers they were given.”

The Cabinet are set to be asked, when it meets tomorrow (Tues 7 July), to give Cllr Sue McDonald, in charge of children and young people, the power to approve the new contracts without them needing to be looked at again by the party’s top table.

Cllr Taylor said this was so that the new providers could takeover running the service as early as possible in January 2016, providing £110,000 of savings to the 2015-2016 budget.

He confirmed all newly contracted drivers would have to go through a disclosing and barring (DBS) check and pass an English exam before being allowed to ferry children between their home and school.


Read more: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymout ... z3f8hKkxWp
Author:  Nidge2 [ Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
Community transport groups??
Author:  Chris the Fish [ Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
I will not be going through hoops to get a contract. It seems some of my colleagues are keen though, good on them, I will stay on the Ranks while they are on their school runs.
Author:  grandad [ Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
If the jobs are going out to tender, how do they know that they will save the money? Are they assuming that some people will cut each others throats to do the jobs cheaper?
Author:  Chris the Fish [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
It would seem they are already going down that road.

I am personally aware of one driver who will bid 33% less than the current driver is getting at the moment.

Others are considering how much to bid and all seem to consider how much less they will do the contract for, none seem to have considered how much more they can get away with. It looks like the race to the bottom has started.
Author:  toots [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
The current driver is probably paid by an operator so there really isn't any need to go in less than what the current driver is being paid, the council will save money by cutting out the middle man :wink:
Author:  grandad [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 5:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
Leicestershire County Council Have been running an idea whereby contracts are put out on a "reverse auction" basis where operators bid against each other by bidding lower than the last bid. Sort of ebay in reverse. They claim that it works with the big bus company's. However, one look at the state of the buses that are being used will show that all that has happened is the buses are really old and most must struggle to pass their periodic inspections. Many bus company's have simply folded because of the low prices.
Author:  Nidge2 [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
grandad wrote:
Leicestershire County Council Have been running an idea whereby contracts are put out on a "reverse auction" basis where operators bid against each other by bidding lower than the last bid. Sort of ebay in reverse. They claim that it works with the big bus company's. However, one look at the state of the buses that are being used will show that all that has happened is the buses are really old and most must struggle to pass their periodic inspections. Many bus company's have simply folded because of the low prices.



It started round here some years ago, if your VAT registered round here don't bother bidding on a contract because the non VAT lads will bid it to the bottom.

What they tend to do round here is double kids up, one operator will take another operators run on for a small fee because he's bid to low for the job. The two kids might have different difficulties but might go to a school not far from each other.
Author:  skippy41 [ Tue Jul 07, 2015 10:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Plymouth school taxi contracts shake-up
Chris the Fish wrote:
I will not be going through hoops to get a contract. It seems some of my colleagues are keen though, good on them, I will stay on the Ranks while they are on their school runs.


I have never put in for one either, I now get more airport work, while the rest are trapped into doing in some cases £3.00 runs
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