If you run a business in Maidstone, Canterbury, Folkestone, Dartford, Medway, Thanet, Ashford or the surrounding districts, public contracts are a real growth channel. Kent County Council states that it spends in excess of £1.6 billion of taxpayers’ money each year on goods, services and works for Kent communities. That spend runs through formal tenders, quotation exercises and frameworks that local suppliers can access when they register and respond properly.

Ask most people what goes into a tender price and they picture a spreadsheet — a number per tonne, a total at the bottom. In reality, the honest number is the last thing you write, not the first. Here's what a UK-wide waste collection framework taught me about pricing the miles nobody sees.

Ask most people what goes into a tender price and they picture a spreadsheet — a number per tonne, a total at the bottom. In reality, the honest number is the last thing you write, not the first. Here's what a UK-wide waste collection framework taught me about pricing the miles nobody sees.