Machinery Tenders and Contracts

Machinery tenders cover agricultural machinery such as tractors and mowers, construction and plant machinery such as excavators and dumpers, and the hire, supply and servicing contracts built around them.

Stotles brings together machinery tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Plant hire is typically let as multi-lot frameworks such as YPO's and Scotland Excel's, and grounds machinery is called off ESPO's grounds maintenance equipment framework.

Machinery tenders are scored on price, equipment availability, servicing and breakdown response, operator support and whole-life cost. Hire frameworks are split into lots by plant type, so suppliers can bid where they have the fleet.

Machinery must meet PUWER, lifting plant must be examined under LOLER, and operators of hired plant need recognised CPCS or NPORS cards. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Machinery is bought through several owner-run frameworks. YPO's framework for the purchase and hire of plant machinery, site equipment and tools is called off by direct award, for example for forklift hire, and by further competition for specialist and plant vehicle hire. Scotland Excel's vehicle and plant hire framework covers non-operated plant, excavators and road surfacing equipment, and councils call it off by direct award.

ESPO's grounds maintenance machinery framework is the route for mowers and tractors, with councils running further competitions among the suppliers on its mower lots.

Councils, water and utility companies, the NHS estate, national parks and land management bodies run the bulk of machinery tenders, mostly for grounds equipment, plant hire and agricultural machinery servicing rather than one-off purchases.

Most maintenance and servicing contracts run two to four years, with some hire frameworks extending further. Outright equipment purchases and short-term plant hire can close in a matter of weeks.

Read equipment replacement plans, asset registers, framework renewal dates and expiry dates for existing supply contracts, which show machinery work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Machinery notices carry 16600000 (Specialist agricultural or forestry machinery) for grounds and land machinery, 45500000 (Hire of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment with operator) for plant hire, and 50530000 (Repair and maintenance services of machinery) for servicing.