The Dartford River Crossing is a critical part of the Strategic Road Network in the South East of England. The A282 Dartford Crossing connects the two eastern orbital ends of the M25 carrying traffic over and under the River Thames. It also provides an essential link for local traffic joining the motorway. As part of the Spending Review announcement in October 2010 the Government stated its commitment to introduce ‘Free-Flow' charging at the Dartford Crossing. The Department for Transport Business Plan 2011-2015 dated November 2010 and updated most recently in May 2012 includes the “introduction of ‘Free-Flow' charging at the Dartford Crossing” which aims to reduce current levels of congestion by introducing newer technology and road layout changes that support a ‘free-flow' charging arrangement. The Highways Agency wishes to commence procurement for a Service Provider to deliver services in relation to the Dartford ‘Free-Flow' Charging (DFFC) Scheme.
It is the Highways Agency's intention to award the contract to a single Service Provider, which may be:
(a) one contractor which delivers all the services; or
(b) a consortium which collectively delivers all the services or which delivers some of the services itself and uses sub-contractors for the delivery of the remainder; or
(c) a prime contractor which delivers some of the services itself and uses sub-contractors for the delivery of the remainder.
The Service Provider should have experience in the delivery of the required services and/or services of a similar nature comprised within the scope of the contract. Bidders for this contract will therefore be expected to demonstrate the capability to design, build and operate a solution for the provision of services in relation to 'free-flow' charging at Dartford and expertise in managing and taking responsibility for the delivery of an integrated service.
The current operation at the Dartford Crossing involves collecting the road user charge on-road at a barrier within a plaza environment, as well as administering a tag based system. Currently, approximately 43 million vehicles per year use the Crossing during the charging period. As part of the new scheme, electronic road user charging will be introduced.
The services required under this procurement are as follows:
1. Implementation of vehicle detection solutions at the Dartford Crossing, including but not limited to ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition), DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) and vehicle classification, which will be used as the basis to detect, charge, and enforce the scheme;
2. Design and delivery of scalable back office services required for operating a ‘Free-Flow' charging service, primarily relating to the Dartford ‘Free-Flow' Charging (DFFC) Scheme.
The design and delivery of scalable back office services comprise:
a) The detailed design, construction, configuration, integration and testing of a scalable IT system, including all custom and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software and provision of physical infrastructure to support the DFFC Service.
b) Operational back office services, which includes: charge payment processing, discount processing, enquiry and complaint handling, account registration and management, and the management of tags. The Service Provider will also provide a number of channels for the scheme user to pay, register and make enquiries; these can include, but are not limited to the internet, a contact centre, retail provisions and short message service.
c) The Enforcement Management Service, which includes validating contravention candidates before raising penalty charges for non-compliance with the relevant scheme, the issue of all Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), and the management and processing of all enforcement related scheme user queries, representations, appeals and debt recovery. The Service Provider will be required to interact with key government third parties to enforce the Scheme.
3. Supply of software licences for use by the Secretary of State/Highways Agency or any of his tier one contractors (including Design, Build & Finance Operators (DBFO's) Companies) and concessionaires and by other Contracting Authorities which are 'other highway and traffic authorities / other road and highway charging or tolling organisations, of any specially written, third party (including any COTS), or Service Provider (the party awarded this contract) software used in the delivery of this contract for use by such entities in relation to other road user charging and/or tolling schemes which may be separately procured.
