Strategy, Procurement, Design and Implementation

Background

Following his election in 2000, the Mayor of London requested Transport for London (TfL) to design and procure a Road User Charging Scheme within Central London, which could be implemented subject to consultation, in accordance with the powers granted under Schedule 23 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

A wide variety of issues surrounding customer services, technology, infrastructure and enforcement would need to be resolved quickly in order to meet an aggressive implementation target.  At the same time, the team would need to design and procure a complex set of systems and services for a scheme in a major capital city that was without precedent in scale.  In addition, this procurement, design and implementation needed to be achieved under intense public scrutiny.

Business Challenge

Our client required:

An In depth understanding of procurement processes, outsourcing, programme management, ITS technology and enforcement legislation and good practice
Strong systems integration and communications experience
Experience of other road pricing schemes and lessons learned in other parts of the world
Implementation best practice and experience
Programme leadership
Regulatory environment guidance

Our Approach

With the high level charging strategy defined, our teams focus shifted to the specification and procurement of the various components of the Congestion Charging Scheme:

• We developed the specifications and contracts for customer contact and payment services and the roadside enforcement infrastructure Statement of Requirements with our consultants playing key roles in the preparation of requirements specifications and tender documents for all system related elements, and in the evaluation of the resulting tenders
• We provided in-depth technical support in defining and negotiating the technical interfaces with the DVLA and other third parties to support enforcement and registration processes
• We also formulated the evidential strategy, a factor in ensuring that a charging scheme of this size would work

Following the contract award our team was part of the commercial contract oversight and variation team. We acted as test witnesses and design authority prior to scheme go-live.

Business Outcome

The team worked with the customer at all levels, from the Directors of Congestion Charging downwards, to deliver the Congestion Charging Scheme within tight timescales.  Consulting Stream lead a number of work streams integrating a range of technology and infrastructure, which had not previously been implemented on this scale. The scheme successfully went live in February 2003.

Services Provided

• System and operations architecture and visioning
• System specification
• Competitive Tender Management and supplier selection
• Procurement Strategy Definition
• Large Scale Procurement Management
• Supplier negotiation and contract drafting
• Programme Definition and Management
• Cost modelling
• Traffic measurement

Skills Deployed

• Design Authority
• Communications network design
• Systems integration management
• Operations management
• Commercial Negotiation
• KPI, SLA, OLA Creation
• Stakeholder Management
• Interface specification
• Testing and acceptance
• Legal and evidential skills concerning maintenance of the chain of evidence for charging purposes
• Real-Time Traffic Management Systems Technology

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