CPV 60 Transport services

About CPV 60

CPV 60 is the Common Procurement Vocabulary division covering transport services other than waste transport. It is the movement of people and goods bought as a service, distinct from the vehicles themselves under CPV 34.

The division covers road passenger transport, home-to-school and special educational needs transport, social care and community transport, supported local bus services, taxi and private hire services, patient transport, rail and tram services, freight and logistics, and removals.

The dominant activity in public procurement terms is passenger transport for people the state has a duty to move: children entitled to free school travel, children and adults with special educational needs or disabilities, care users attending day services, and patients requiring non-emergency transport. That work is statutory, continuous, and locally delivered, which makes it one of the most accessible public markets for small operators.

Active CPV 60 tenders

Live activity follows the school year for the largest stream. Home-to-school and special educational needs transport is retendered on annual or multi-year cycles, usually with awards timed well before September, and is typically divided into a large number of individual routes so that small operators can bid for one or several.

Supported bus services form a second stream, procured by transport authorities to maintain routes that are not commercially viable. Franchising in some city regions has changed the shape of that market substantially, replacing individual subsidised route contracts with larger area-based operating contracts.

Active sub-category	Typical procurement route	Primary buyer pattern
Home-to-school transport	Route-by-route framework or DPS	County or unitary council
Special educational needs transport	Framework with individual allocation	Council children's services
Supported local bus services	Route subsidy or franchise contract	Transport authority or council
Patient transport services	Large multi-year contract	ICB or ambulance service
Freight, logistics, and removals	Framework or open procedure	Any large public body

Top buyers procuring CPV 60

Councils with education and social care responsibilities are the highest-volume buyers, since home-to-school and care-related transport are statutory duties. In our own corpus East Sussex County Council and Leicester City Council are among the most frequent publishers under this code, alongside Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, Transport Scotland, Perth and Kinross Council, and Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Transport authorities and combined authorities buy supported bus services and, where franchising applies, whole networks. Integrated care boards and ambulance services procure non-emergency patient transport, which is a distinct market with clinical and safeguarding requirements that general passenger operators do not typically hold.

Typical contract values under CPV 60

The median notice sits above a million pounds, which reflects multi-year contracts and the aggregation of many routes into a single procurement rather than the value of an individual route. Individual home-to-school routes are frequently worth tens of thousands of pounds a year, well within reach of an operator with a handful of vehicles.

The largest values attach to patient transport contracts covering a whole health system and to franchised bus operating contracts, both of which reach into the tens of millions across their term and are accessible only to substantial operators. The gap between the two ends of this division is wide, and small operators should look specifically for route-level or lot-level opportunities rather than being deterred by headline contract values.

Compliance and certifications for CPV 60 bidders

Operator licensing is the fundamental requirement: a public service vehicle operator licence for bus and coach work, or the appropriate local authority licensing for taxi and private hire, with a nominated transport manager holding the relevant certificate of professional competence. Buyers verify licences directly and check that the licence authorises the number of vehicles proposed.

Passenger transport for children and vulnerable adults requires enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks for drivers and passenger assistants, and buyers usually require these to be current and, in many areas, registered with the update service. Safeguarding training is specified, often to a locally defined standard. Vehicle accessibility requirements apply for services carrying wheelchair users, along with securement standards and driver training in their use. Patient transport carries additional clinical requirements including infection control, patient handling competence, and in some cases clinical escort provision. Operators should also expect close attention to vehicle maintenance records and to driver hours compliance, both of which are audited during contracts rather than only at tender.

Frequently asked questions

Is home-to-school transport realistic for a small operator?

It is one of the most accessible public sector markets there is. Councils divide the work into individual routes precisely because a single operator cannot cover a county, and many run dynamic purchasing systems that admit new operators continuously rather than only at recompetition. An operator with a small fleet and appropriate licensing can bid for a handful of routes and build from there. The practical requirements that trip operators up are the safeguarding and licensing evidence rather than the commercial terms, and those should be assembled before bidding rather than during.

What has bus franchising changed?

Where a combined authority has franchised its network, the commercial model has changed fundamentally: instead of operators running services commercially and the authority subsidising gaps, the authority specifies the network and contracts operators to run it for a fee, taking the revenue risk itself. That replaces many small subsidised route contracts with a smaller number of large area contracts, which favours larger operators, though authorities frequently include smaller lots specifically to preserve a mixed market. Operators should establish whether the area they serve is franchised, is consulting on franchising, or remains deregulated, since the three imply completely different procurement.

How is patient transport different from other passenger work?

It is a health service rather than a transport service, and it is evaluated accordingly. Requirements cover clinical assessment of patient needs, infection prevention, patient handling, escort provision, and integration with hospital discharge processes, alongside the ordinary transport requirements. Performance measurement is demanding, focusing on punctuality against appointment times and on discharge waiting times, both of which have direct clinical consequences. Operators moving from school or community transport into patient transport consistently underestimate this, and the successful entrants usually partner with or recruit from health backgrounds.

Should I watch CPV 60 or CPV 60-1?

Both, since buyers use them inconsistently. Group 60-1 covers road transport services specifically, and a great deal of home-to-school and community transport is coded there rather than at division level. Watching only the division risks missing route-level notices coded to the group, and watching only the group misses multi-modal and general transport procurements. For most passenger operators, monitoring the division captures both, since group codes sit within it.