Founded in 1913, trentbarton ‘the really good bus company’ is a subsidiary of Wellglade Group and operates its fleet across 43 routes that serve Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire & Leicestershire in the East Midlands.
FPA Consulting undertake the commercial contracting for the supply of electricity and natural gas together with utility invoice validation support on behalf of trentbarton.
Electricity and natural gas are traded commodities and are, therefore, subject to complex costs, price risk and market volatility. The procurement process requires specialist market knowledge and experience to ensure the most cost-effective supply contracts are sourced, whilst mitigating price risk exposure.
Our review processes enable us to understand the business requirements with respect to energy usage profiles and determine the most economically advantageous price-risk management strategy for the procurement of energy commodities.
Following an independent procurement exercise we issued ‘Invitations to Tender’ to a wide selection of UK electricity and natural gas suppliers. The Tender responses were evaluated and clarified where necessary, with subsequent bid summaries issued to trentbarton for consideration.
We then requested best and final offers from the preferred supplier prior to finalising new supply contract arrangements.
We support the contracting process with an invoice validation service to ensure that supplier invoices are in accordance with the contract pricing and terms.
This includes the validation of electricity, natural gas and water services including water supply, wastewater, surface water drainage and trade effluent. We validate fiscal meter invoices received by trentbarton from its suppliers and use this validated data to provide a suite of utility expenditure and consumption reports. We also resolve any disputed invoices and ensure all discrepancies are remedied in line with the agreed terms.
In a complex and dynamic commodity market environment, trentbarton has confidence that the best value utility supply contracts are in place and that the company is being charged exactly what has been agreed.
Our experience of providing a comprehensive energy invoice validation and consumption reporting support over the past 26 years has shown that on average 1 in 5 utility supplier invoices have errors e.g. incorrect meter readings, overestimated billing, incorrect Authorised Supply Capacity (ASC) charges applied (100kW electricity supplies only), incorrect rates / prices applied, usage discrepancies, meter changes and continuity of meter readings.
As a result of identifying these supplier invoice errors, collectively we have saved clients such as trentbarton significant sums of money over the duration of their utility supply contracts.
“Having worked with FPA Consulting since 2005 we have developed an extremely close working relationship and have total trust and confidence that our utility needs are fully understood and the appropriate and best value contracts have been negotiated. ”
Graham Sutton – Finance DirectorNTL initiated a plan to invest in new train simulators and engaged FPA Consulting to provide guidance and facilitate the procurement process.
