DfT National Freight Model

What the buyer says

The Department for Transport (DfT) intends to procure a supplier to develop a new National Freight Model (NFM), an in-house, cross-modal freight modelling capability designed to support transport policy development, appraisal, forecasting and decision-making across the UK. The NFM will replace existing freight modelling approaches and provide a modern analytical framework capable of representing freight movements across road, rail and domestic maritime modes. The contract will include the design, development, calibration, validation and implementation of a multimodal freight model capable of estimating current and future freight demand and flows by commodity, vehicle type and transport mode. The model must support the analysis of domestic freight movements and international freight movements to and from the United Kingdom, including maritime and rail freight services. The NFM will be required to assess the impacts of changes to infrastructure, land use, economic conditions, logistics behaviours and government policy interventions. It will also enable the testing of alternative scenarios and sensitivities to support transport planning, network resilience analysis, decarbonisation initiatives, freight mode shift assessments and wider strategic policy development. The successful supplier will be expected to develop and document the model, provide supporting methodologies, undertake any necessary data collection or acquisition activities, deliver stakeholder engagement and training, and ensure that the Department can operate, maintain and further develop the model independently following completion of the contract. The procurement may include associated research, data acquisition, innovative analytical approaches and the development of new methodologies necessary to deliver…