Arriva UK bus has donated buses to Ukraine

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Arriva UK bus has donated and delivered three buses to support Ukrainians fleeing the current conflict, following a call for support from Ukrainian-based organisation, Global Talent and a charity it supports which is involved in evacuation missions, called Aerial Recovery Group.



Global Talent sought the help of Aerial Recovery Group to help evacuate some of its employees from Ukraine, and wanted to offer support back to the charity by way of a thank you. When they found out that the charity needed large vehicle transport to help their efforts, Global Talent turned to a contact called Steve West, from Arriva UK Bus (Head of Programmes and Project)s, who called out for support from his colleagues. Three buses were identified for donation but the challenge was to deliver these to Poland, over 1000 miles away. From Poland a local team would pick them up and proceed onto Hungary and then to Ukraine.


Arriva North West supplied the vehicles. Bill Francis, Engineering Administration Manager, worked closely with Brian Moore, Fleet Administrator, and Barry Dobson, Service Delivery Manager. They teamed-up with Engineering Managers, Toby Cooper (Chester) and Richard Summers (Runcorn), to ensure the buses were inspected and fit for their new purpose – even producing translated guidance and procedures for starting-up and maintaining the vehicles. The team worked through significant challenges to get the buses ready for the journey, and were on hand to offer technical support as the buses made their way to Poland.

The drivers, taken in Roermond Netherlands.


John Bickerton and Lynne Beale from UK Bus volunteered to drive the buses on this epic journey alongside a group of third party volunteer drivers who gave up their own time to work with Arriva to fulfil the mission. Once into Europe, the team had support from Arriva Netherlands and Arriva Czech Republic, who welcomed the buses into the depots and helped with re-fuelling and specialist engineering inspections to ensure the buses would arrive in Poland ready and fit for their intended use.

John Harris, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Global Talent, said: “From the moment we contacted Steve at Arriva, the team have been nothing short of exceptional. Not only have they provided the vital vehicles we asked for, but they have also supported the fleet movements to the border and provided essential logistical advice. This will make a real difference. I cannot thank the Arriva team enough - thank you very much.”


Bill Francis, said: “The whole team responded with passion and care, and this is a great example of what can be achieved when we work together as one team. Our hearts went out to the people of Ukraine - no parent should ever be placed in a position where they can’t protect their children, so we were determined to move heaven and earth to help. I’d like to thank the industry colleagues who made this happen.”


Steve West said: “The warmth and willingness in Arriva made it possible to give these vehicles to such a worthy cause. The seven volunteer drivers are amazing but they acknowledge they are just delivering buses. The people who we handed them to will take them into Ukraine, towards guns and conflict to rescue other people's children. It has been a huge privilege to support the charity and an amazing example of what we in Arriva can do, together.”


Across Arriva, we’ve seen some incredible examples of our businesses’ ongoing efforts to support the people of Ukraine. Colleagues in Italy volunteered to support a local charity by driving to the Ukrainian border in Poland to collect 32 women and children. In Hungary and Slovakia, our teams provided buses to help move Ukrainian people across the border. Arriva Poland converted an area of its depot to accommodate food donations for refugees, and in the Czech Republic our team worked in partnership with Slovak Railways to bring more than 450 Ukrainian people to safely during the first few days of the conflict. Arriva Croatia has worked with other bus operators to make its fleet available to the Croatian government and in Denmark and the Netherlands free travel has been granted to Ukrainian refugees using Arriva services