Tender

Road Haulage and Warehousing Services

NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Tender

02 Mar 2026 at 11:13

Planning

12 Mar 2025 at 16:58

Summary of the contracting process

Network Rail Infrastructure Limited has announced the tender for "Road Haulage and Warehousing Services," aimed at enhancing logistics and material management operations across the United Kingdom. The tender process is currently in the "tender" stage with an expression of interest deadline set for 27 March 2026. The services required encompass round-the-clock warehousing and road transport solutions, facilitating the movement of various essential materials, from sleepers to abnormal loads. Additionally, the contract involves operating and managing nine Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) to optimise the supply chain efficiently. This competitive flexible procurement procedure involves an initial Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PSQ) stage and subsequent evaluations based on a 50% technical and 50% commercial weighting. Business entities interested in participating will have the opportunity to attend a Procurement Launch Event on 17 March 2026.

This tender offers substantial opportunities for growth, especially for businesses specialising in logistics, warehousing, and transportation. Companies with scalable and flexible operations can leverage this contract to expand their services and footprint within the UK. With a yearly road haulage expenditure of approximately £28 million, this opportunity is particularly attractive to entities equipped to manage large-scale transport operations, inventory management, and provide advanced technological solutions like Transport Management Systems. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as voluntary and community sector enterprises (VCSEs), are encouraged to apply, proving suitability for these operations. The potential for additional storage solutions and the necessity for adaptive management strategies provide further avenues for business development, appealing to organisations eager to establish themselves as key logistics partners for Network Rail.

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Notice Title

Road Haulage and Warehousing Services

Notice Description

Network Rail requires a 24/7 road haulage service to manage the collection, haulage and delivery (including loading and offloading) of materials by road, including, but not limited to: sleepers, short rail, rail ancillaries, aggregates (loose or bagged), switches & crossings, troughing, manufactured materials, and large and abnormal loads, including, but not limited to: locomotives, tampers, rolling stock and specialist switches and crossings to a specified location. The requirement over the previous two years has made ~35,000 individual journeys on a yearly basis covering the entire UK and ~100 international journeys utilising vehicles ranging in size from vans to large extendable flatbeds and cranes. Network Rail also has the requirement for warehousing management. This includes but is not limited to: physical and systemic receipt of stock; physical and systemic put-away of stock; management of stock to legislative and Network Rail defined specifications (i.e. Certificates of Conformity, COSHH, detonators); management of life-expired stock; physical perpetual inventory checks; physical and systemic pick of required materials; physical despatch and delivery of materials to defined delivery point; physical and systemic capture of material proof of delivery records; physical and systemic receipt and processing of requests for material return; physical and systemic receipt and processing of requests for material repair; physical collection of returned media (e.g. pallets, collars and cable drums); physical distribution and collection of repair materials to and from repair agents and systemic capture and processing of such material; provision of Customer Services Helpdesk; undertaking of certified racking inspection checks; collection of materials from some of Network Rail's Materials Suppliers and delivery to the RDCs; distribution of materials from supplier-operated Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs). Standard Operating Practices shall be developed by the successful supplier in conjunction with Network Rail. The scope of the proposed Contract covers combined services including the provision of a transport planning team to co-ordinate and manage all transport requests covering both the Road Haulage and Warehousing distribution requirements, proactively managing all haulage requirements and providing information to support the delivery of improvements in safety, value, and sustainability. The contract will also include combined system requirements including a Transport Management System, Web-Based Order Portal and a Customer Relations Management (CRM) System. Network Rail has a requirement to operate nine (9) RDCs which also forms part of the scope of this Contract. Supporting the geographical routes and regions with the supply of maintenance materials, this more localised supply chain is intended to make critical materials more accessible to the end user by being geographically closer to Minor Stocking Points (MSPs) and providing access 24/7 on an on-call basis when outside of core working hours. MSP regular deliveries schedules are required to be managed through the RDC(s) but the operation of the MSPs is outside of the scope of this Contract. Network Rail requires a supplier to manage and deliver a vehicle trunking service delivering materials throughout the RDC network. The trunk vehicles are currently managed centrally from the Coventry RDC. There are three vehicles that work to a set schedule. Stock for each RDC is marshalled in Coventry and delivered two or three times each week to every RDC. Stock picked at the receiving RDC is then loaded onto the same vehicle and backhauled to Coventry, marshalled, and delivered back out to fulfil customer demand at the MSPs. Trunking fulfils customer expectations on the basis that each MSP has a milk run schedule. Network Rail currently lease the 9 RDCs as detailed within the associated tender documents and the scope of the Contract includes the requirement to operate the leased buildings delivering a warehousing solution. As set out in the Contract, Network Rail requires the successful supplier to be flexible, with the possibility that RDC operations may grow or be downscaled over time. Any requirements for upscaling or downscaling shall be discussed with the successful supplier on a case-by-case basis. The value of stock, as of July 2025, within these RDCs is currently ~PS80m (SCO Network Rail owned), there is additional customer owned stock. From time to time, Network Rail may require additional storage locations to hold Stock which cannot be stored at existing Network Rail sites (being RDCs and any other Network Rail storage sites). The Supplier shall work with Network Rail to find such suitable additional storage locations, either at premises owned by the Supplier or another external location as required. Network Rail currently spends on average PS28m per year on road haulage services, and PS9m per year for warehousing services, with the expectation of this remaining broadly in line with the annual spend, with an element of flex due to demand. Further details are set out in the specification within Schedule 1 of the Contract.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Options: As part of this tender, Network Rail will require Potential Suppliers to provide pricing for the provision of additional third-party storage space to support the storage of fleet spares materials in accordance with paragraph 2.3, Schedule 1.2 of the NR1 contract. This won't be included as part of the evaluation process. Network Rail may or may not choose to include this requirement in the contract. This contract will be available to Network Rail, Great British Railways, DfT Operator Limited, and their subsidiaries, successor organisations and affiliates.

Renewal: A 4 year Extension which can be used at the sole discretion of the contracting authority.

Planning Information

Site Visits 27/03/2025 including overview presentation. 11/04/2025, Deadline for Pre-Market Engagement including formal responses.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04ec65
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/018335-2026
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Planning, Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK4 - Tender Notice
Procurement Type
Framework
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Selective
Procurement Method Details
Competitive flexible procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

60 - Transport services (excl. Waste transport)

63 - Supporting and auxiliary transport services; travel agencies services


CPV Codes

60100000 - Road transport services

63120000 - Storage and warehousing services

63122000 - Warehousing services

63712000 - Support services for road transport

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£308,000,000 £100M-£1B
Lots Value
£308,000,000 £100M-£1B
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
2 Mar 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
20 Mar 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
30 Sep 2025Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
31 Aug 2027 - 31 Aug 2031 4-5 years
Recurrence
2034-01-01

Notice Status

Tender Status
Active
Lots Status
Active
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SE1 8SW
Post Town
South East London
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI4 Inner London - East
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI45 Lambeth
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Lambeth
Electoral Ward
Waterloo & South Bank
Westminster Constituency
Vauxhall and Camberwell Green

Further Information

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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