1. Choose a route to work that matches your capacity
With direct customers, you find organisations that need collections and deliveries and agree the service with them. With subcontracting, you supply capacity to another operator under its terms. With public sector tenders, a buyer advertises a requirement and asks suppliers to respond through a stated process. The sales effort, control over pricing and delivery obligations differ. Decide which route fits the vehicles, drivers, locations and cover you have now.
- An owner-driver should check whether the work needs one vehicle or continuous cover that requires a second driver or vehicle.
- A local fleet should check whether geographic lots let it compete for a manageable part of a larger requirement.
- A specialist operator should look for requirements that match its equipment and training, rather than treating every delivery notice as a fit.
2. Find public courier tenders using the buyer's service language
Search for courier services, scheduled collection and delivery, same-day delivery, document distribution and medical transport where relevant to your business. Use locations and service types to narrow the results. A notice headed logistics may include storage or other work you do not provide. Read the scope before adding it to your pipeline.
- Use Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and the relevant Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish portal. The official links below explain where to start.
- Use our courier market page for dated examples, past buyers and award records. The official notice is the place to check whether a tender remains open.
- Keep open tenders, planning notices and awards separate. An award can help you research a buyer, but it is not an invitation to bid for that contract.
3. Read the route schedule before deciding to bid
Extract the collection points, delivery points, operating days, service windows and expected volumes into a working schedule. Ask how urgent jobs, failed deliveries, waiting time and return journeys are handled. Check whether volumes are estimates or commitments. A contract with an attractive annual value can still be a poor fit if its busiest periods overlap with work you already deliver.
- Can you meet every collection window after allowing for loading, traffic and handovers?
- What happens when a vehicle breaks down or a driver is unavailable?
- Are out-of-hours calls required, and what response can you credibly promise?
- Does the contract require a dedicated vehicle, or can you combine the route with other work?
4. Check the goods, evidence and participation conditions
Read the documents for insurance, driver checks, vehicle requirements, tracking, proof of delivery and relevant experience. Requirements depend on what is carried. Documents, ordinary parcels, medicines and clinical specimens should not be treated as interchangeable services. Check specialist handling and training requirements with the buyer and appropriate advisers before bidding for work outside your current operation.
- Make a list of mandatory conditions and the evidence requested for each.
- Check whether references must cover similar routes, volumes or types of goods.
- Confirm which conditions must be met at submission and which at contract start.
- If a requirement is unclear, use the stated clarification channel before its deadline. Do not assume the buyer will accept an alternative.
5. Price the operating day, not only the loaded miles
Build your own cost model before completing the buyer's pricing schedule. Include driving and waiting time, empty mileage, vehicle costs, fuel, maintenance, cover, dispatch and administration. Check how the schedule treats extra stops, urgent jobs, cancellations and price changes. Use the volumes and assumptions the buyer asks you to use, and keep a record of those assumptions.
- Run the proposed route at expected volume and at a lower volume to understand your exposure.
- Check whether the price is per mile, journey, stop, route or fixed period; do not compare different units as if they were the same.
- Identify costs you incur even when no journeys are ordered.
- Review payment terms and the cash needed to start the service. Get professional advice for commitments you cannot confidently assess.
6. Submit through the named portal and answer the scoring questions
Register on the buyer's submission system early, download the full pack and record every deadline. Follow the requested format and answer each question against its criteria. Explain how you will run the actual service: dispatch, cover, tracking, exceptions and reporting. Support claims with evidence you can substantiate. Upload in time to resolve technical problems and retain the submission receipt.
- A tender alert or a BidSkim account does not submit a bid on your behalf.
- Framework admission and later delivery contracts are different steps; joining an agreement does not guarantee journeys.
- If you do not win, use any feedback the buyer provides to improve the next bid. Keep useful buyer and route research for future opportunities.
A short qualification sheet for each opportunity
Before writing a response, record the buyer, notice link, submission deadline, clarification deadline, service area, goods carried, operating hours, vehicle needs, estimated volume, pricing unit, mandatory evidence and mobilisation date. Give every unanswered point an owner. If you cannot meet a mandatory condition or the service costs do not work, record that decision and move on to a better-fitting opportunity.
