Reading Car Club

Reading Borough Council seeks a car club operator, holding full accreditation with Carplus, to work in partnership with the Council to provide car club services within the Reading area. The Council anticipates an initial fleet of six vehicles will be available to the car club operator. The Council seeks an operator capable of managing the car club service on behalf of the Council, using Council owned vehicles (new vehicles will be procured upon commencement of this contract). The fleet of vehicles must be available solely to Council staff, or its approved partners, between the hours of 08:00 and 18:00, Mon – Fri, excluding bank holidays. Outside of the hours specified above, the operator will hire out the vehicles on a commercial basis. The council expects a percentage based rebate from all fees received, offset against the cost of operating the vehicles during ‘work hours’. The successful operator will be required to insure, manage and maintain all vehicles to an acceptable standard and will provide suitable customer service throughout the life of the contract. As part of the Councils ongoing commitment to carbon reduction we are also considering the inclusion of Electric Vehicles into the Fleet. The Contractor must demonstrate experience of managing and maintaining Electric Vehicles within the context of a car club. This contract will be for an initial period of 36 months with an optional extension period of up to an additional 24 months. In order to respond to this opportunity you will need to register on In-Tend select "view details" then "express interest". Expressions of Interest must be received by 5pm on Friday 15th April 2016. Reading Borough Council intends to use the information supplied to assess whether suitable providers exist to meet our requirements. If the Council decides that there is sufficient interest we may decide to proceed with a procurement exercise via further advertisement, which will formerly invite tenders. The Council does not commit to enter into a formal procurement exercise at this stage.