Issue - meetings

Report ES18007

Report ES18007highlighted a number of performance issues at the start of the ten-year Parking Services Contract awarded to APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd on 3^rd April 2017 (jointly procured between L B Bromley and L B Bexley with

both authorities having separate contracts).

The contract provided a number of challenges for APCOA in the first two months given:

·  the scope of the contract;

·  delivering services for two boroughs; and

·  a number of services traditionally undertaken by the Council being handed over to APCOA on a single date.

A number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) address key areas of the contract with monthly invoice deductions made for poor performance. 

On enforcement and deployment of Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs), APCOA fell below minimum standards on several occasions during initial months of the contract and a number of significant deductions were made from monthly contract payments. A number of CEOs employed by the previous contractor opted not to transfer to APCOA creating a knowledge gap and logistical/operational weakness. New managers, supervisors, and CEOs were sought with a consequent settling in period and with the lease for a permanent base not secured until September 2017, APCOA moved in the meantime from a temporary office for three months to the Civic centre for a six-week period.

To help fill the knowledge gap, officers offered advice and instruction on local matters and best operational practice. Although APCOA’s revised deployment plan will help meet contract requirements, officers will continue close working to stabilise and build on improvements in recent months, ensuring satisfactory geographical coverage, deployed hours and shifts, and agreed modes of transports (moped, car or foot). 

Between April and May 2017, some payment machines were unable to take customer payments due to familiarisation with collection schedules and collecting and transporting cash for payment. Machine repair times were also an issue as additional training was undertaken to manage and repair machines. APCOA completed additional training in May and June ensuring that all engineers are capable of repairing machines. Enhanced training was also provided to Kiosk Attendants for fixes normally completed by engineers at the Civic Centre and Hill multi story car parks. APCOA also improved their service agreement with machine manufacturers to provide a better service when local engineers are unable to fix a machine.

Although ACPOA are now responsible for many business processes previously undertaken by the Shared Parking Service (e.g. scanning/logging appeals, printing official PCN recovery documents, email enquiries, Enforcement Agent Warrants, IT management, and reconciling banked monies) considerable work was necessary to fine tune the processes and ensure the full integration of many IT systems. On occasions, some KPIs in this area were not met and KPI penalties applied.

APCOA also underestimated the level of litter which can quickly accumulate in car parks, including instances of fly tipping. Close performance monitoring and officer advice assisted APCOA understand local issues and hotspots but it took a number of weeks for KPI standards on cleaning and maintenance to be met.

Areas where APCOA  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49