Bradford Council is looking into ways it can cut down its £6.1 million annual cab bill.

The authority pays for cab journeys for 1,350 vulnerable children and adults across the district, using around 820 cars, minibuses and wheelchair accessible vehicles a day.

Currently the work is awarded to a mixture of larger cab companies and single operators, which all face continual assessment on their quality of service and value for money.

One contract, worth around £3.8 million a year, pays for cabs to take children to and from school. This includes 600 pupils with special educational needs and 200 pupils who attend the district’s Pupil Referral Units. It is paid for by the Council’s Children’s Services department.

A separate contract, worth £2.3 million a year, is a more ad hoc arrangement and caters for the needs of 250 children in care and 300 vulnerable adults. It is paid by the Council’s Adult and Community Services department.

But the Council believes it can get more value for money and greater flexibility by combining the two contracts into one.

The single contract would start in 2014. It is likely to take the form of a so-called Dynamic Purchasing System, which means suppliers who meet certain criteria could be entered onto the system at any time and would bid for work through ‘mini competitions’.

A Council report says: “Such an approach would provide the Council with a highly flexible contracting system servicing the whole of the district.”

The report will be discussed by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday at City Hall. Committee chairman Rizwan Malik (Lab, Heaton) said they would be receiving a presentation about what the changes would mean.

He said: “It’s about being able to maintain the quality of service to the public. I’m going to be very keen and interested to hear the officers’ report and have a wider discussion with the other members of the committee.”

e-mail: claire.armstrong@telegraphandargus.co.uk