If you run private hire, Hackney carriage, PSV/PCV, minibuses or wheelchair-access vehicles, you’ll know that passenger transport DPS opportunities can be a reliable pipeline, but only when you treat them as more than a box-ticking exercise.
Wirral Council has published a contract notice extending its existing Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for passenger transport services, with an estimated total value of £61m (ex VAT) across the DPS lifetime (including an extension estimated up to £40m). The DPS is being extended from 1 September 2026 to 23 February 2029 to maintain continuity of service.
Because this is a DPS, it stays open for suppliers to request to participate throughout its duration. That makes this one of those opportunities where timing is on your side, as long as your compliance, safeguarding and operational model are genuinely tender-ready.
What is being bought, and who it’s for
Wirral’s DPS covers passenger transport services across appropriately licensed vehicles, with the Council inviting operators onto the DPS and then running calls for competition (call-offs) for relevant services. The Council expects contracts for periods of up to three years (depending on requirement), with potential extensions subject to performance.
There are two lots:
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Lot 1: Transport for vulnerable children
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Lot 2: Transport for vulnerable adults
In both lots, the service description includes minibuses, wheelchair access vehicles, private hire vehicles and Hackney carriages, with wheelchair access potentially required and passenger assistants required where indicated.
The detail that often decides winners: how pricing is presented
A small but telling requirement appears in both lots: contractors are asked to submit a rate per day, weekly rate, or a combined daily mileage and rate per mile “as directed on the schedule”, and no waiting time is to be charged.
That should shape how you prepare:
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build pricing that is easy to audit and compare
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avoid hidden assumptions (especially around dead mileage, escorts, wheelchair access time, and route variability)
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make your pricing narrative match your operational reality, so evaluators are not left guessing
What strong suppliers do differently on vulnerable transport DPS work
It’s tempting to think these tenders are mainly about being licensed and available. In practice, buyers are buying risk reduction.
Safeguarding and passenger management that is operational, not policy-heavy
If you are transporting vulnerable service users, the Council wants confidence that safeguarding is lived in the day-to-day. That typically means clear evidence of how you:
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brief drivers and passenger assistants
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handle incidents, concerns and escalations
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manage suitability for wheelchair access and mobility needs
Reliability when the schedule changes
Vulnerable transport work rarely runs like clockwork. A strong submission makes it easy to believe you can absorb change: vehicle breakdowns, staff sickness, delayed pickups, and sudden route adjustments.
Clear governance around subcontracting (if you use it)
If you rely on other operators to cover peak demand, your controls must be obvious: vetting, compliance checks, performance monitoring, and how you ensure passenger assistants are provided when required.
How to approach a DPS the smart way
Think in two phases:
Phase 1: Admission
Your goal is to get admitted cleanly on the lots you genuinely deliver, with a submission that makes compliance simple to verify.
Phase 2: Call-off wins
Once admitted, you need a repeatable way to respond to calls for competition quickly and consistently, because that’s where the revenue sits.
If you’re building a broader pipeline, it helps to keep your transport work organised in one place, using a structure that mirrors how authorities buy. Many operators use a combination of tender alerts and a consistent internal response pack; Thornton & Lowe’s transport-focused bid support is designed around exactly that kind of repeatability, especially for taxi and minibus operators who need to respond fast without compromising quality.
Where the tender will run
The notice states that procurement documents are available via ProContract Due North, and that requests to participate must be submitted electronically via the same portal. If your portal access, certificates, policies and insurances are not already “ready to upload”, that’s the first gap to close.
How Thornton & Lowe helps you win more of the call-offs
On passenger transport DPS opportunities, many suppliers can meet the baseline requirements. The difference is usually in how clearly you evidence safeguarding, mobilisation, contingency planning, and performance management in a way that evaluators can score quickly.
Thornton & Lowe helps transport providers strengthen bids with tighter method statements, stronger evidence selection, and structured quality assurance, so your submission is compliant, persuasive, and consistent across multiple call-offs. That can be the difference between being “on the DPS” and actually building a dependable pipeline of work.
Prepare for this DPS
If this DPS fits your operation, start by reviewing the published details in the Find a Tender notice for Wirral Council’s Passenger Transport DPS extension and mapping your evidence against the two lots (children and adults), including passenger assistant provision and wheelchair access requirements. If you’d like Thornton & Lowe to help you tighten your admission response or build a stronger call-off response pack, our team can sense-check compliance, refine your method statements, and help you present pricing and safeguarding in a way that scores.
