Met Police

Sep 24, 2020

Background

The Metropolitan Police has a prevailing relationship with National Express Transport Solutions. The Kingsferry has supported the successful delivery of large-scale events from 2008 - the present. National Express Transport Solutions have been called on to repeatedly deliver successful ground transport solutions for the Metropolitan police.

Events include the 2012 Olympics, the 2019 Donald Trump London visit, London New Years' Eve Fireworks, Extinction Rebellion protests, Notting Hill Carnival & most recently Operation London Bridge. Supporting these events has involved supplying upward of 200+ vehicles to the Metropolitan police.

Our Transport Solution

Throughout all hires, a proactive approach is taken to keep up with daily changes to pick-up locations and destinations. As a result, our operations team cover a 24 hr period of route monitoring and planning.

All drivers supplied for large-scale events undergo rigorous security checks and we ensure that the security details required are provided to the client within a timely manner. Daily contact is maintained between the Account Manager and Project Lead at the MET Police to ensure a full understanding of the requirements and that any changes and requests are responded to within a 24-hour period.

Once a requirement is determined, our in-house project team assemble to ensure a bespoke service level was provided.

Notting Hill Carnival (2008 - present)

Notting Hill Carnival is a two-day annual event that takes place in August with on average 2 million attendees. National Express Transport Solutions have been tasked with supporting the metropolitan police in the safe and efficient delivery of Notting Hill carnival annually since 2008.

Due to the vast popularity and a large amount of footfall at Notting Hill Carnival, operational planning begins approximately 2 months prior to the event taking place. Route planning is carried out to ensure the service is run to maximum efficiency and that drivers’ hours are not overrun in accordance with daily driver limits. As a result, c.80-85 vehicles are supplied per day with two drivers each.

The requirement year-on-year is to supply c.165 vehicles transporting c.4000 officers daily from major police stations in London to the Notting Hill area. In 2019, over the course of the carnival, 326 drivers were utilised resulting in a total of around 2000 hours of manpower.

Extinction Rebellion (2019)

The extinction rebellion protests required a reactive approach. Drawing on the strength of the combined brands, 130 vehicles were provided with 260 drivers over a 12-day period. The vehicles transported officers to various protest locations. This resulted in c.575 officers being transported per day. Proactively is required for a protest of this magnitude.

Operation London Bridge (2022)

The news of Her Majesty’s passing required an abrupt and timely response. National Express Transport Solutions supported the Metropolitan police with the deployment of police officers in and around the capital during the period of mourning.

Operation London Bridge was the biggest logistical movement of officers the Met has ever seen with 10,000 officers deployed on the final day. A minimum of 2000 officers were deployed daily with several duty changes and alterations requiring a proactive response.

"The weekend went really well, and Monday was a huge success. So thanks to you and all of your team for the tremendous effort and delivering on what was, at the beginning of the week, an insurmountable challenge for D+10, we simply could not have delivered the operation without it."

"Together we managed to support the largest deployment of policing in the history of the United Kingdom. Delivered within 10 days. This is a remarkable achievement of which, each and every one of you should be immensely proud."

"Although this was a planned event it was still unknown in terms of when it would happen and meant an unprecedented number of Officers to arrange transportation for and without the assistance of your teams we would not have been able to achieve such fantastic results."

Jason Powell 

Head of Fleet Services

Met Police

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