Corporate responsibility

Community

Our transport services help maintain the heartbeat for the communities we serve. When people depend on us, we have to be dependable. A key performance indicator for Arriva is the proportion of planned or contracted mileage that we succeed in operating on our deregulated and contracted bus and rail services. In 2007, we are proud to have operated 99.1 per cent of the 520 million vehicle miles that were scheduled - an improvement from the 98.9 per cent achieved in 2006.

But our community engagement goes deeper than that with a real commitment by our people and businesses in their local areas. Work with charities, local sports clubs, schools, neighbourhood groups and the arts all help to cement relationships between Arriva, its employees and our local communities.

Our UK employees are supported with fundraising for their chosen good causes in their local communities. Wider local activities have included visits to school and community groups to spread safety awareness among youngsters, free transport for community groups and free advertising on buses for local organisations and charities.

As part of our focus on young people and education, Arriva produced a school pack for teachers and 11 to 16-year-olds in the UK. It supports key areas of the curriculum including lesson plans for maths, sensible road use, how to catch a bus and planning a route to school.

The attraction of sport to encourage young people to lead healthier lifestyles is harnessed through a number of community initiatives. For example, in Wales, Arriva is main sponsor for the Wales Deaf Rugby Union team and supports women’s and children’s soccer teams with sponsored kit, with safety awareness integral to these and other community programmes.

Budding young sportspeople won training grants in Arriva’s ‘Search for a Star’ appeal, after being voted for by UK bus passengers.

In Liverpool, Arriva’s Healthy Schools Bus, in partnership with Everton Football Club, has completed more than 210 school visits since its launch in November 2006, giving more than 11,000 pupils a fun focus on healthy eating and exercise. The initiative includes follow-up visits, monitoring pupils’ progress in nutrition and fitness. Plans are being developed to replicate the success of the scheme over a wider area.

The safety of people in the communities where Arriva operates is a key element to our work with local people. Arriva employees in Portugal give regular safety lessons in schools, while in the UK each regional bus depot has a schools liaison officer who works with pupils to develop safety awareness. Arriva also has two people working with Transport for London’s schools liaison programme. In Wales, work with disadvantaged youngsters promotes a shared sense of community which in turn has the added benefit of reducing antisocial behaviour and reducing rail trespass.

Innovation in this field includes Arriva Sweden’s launch of a ‘disco bus’ fitted with lights and a sound-system to engage young people in a positive way, an initiative now being replicated in Italy.

We have expanded the ‘Child Safe’ campaign for families on holiday in Spain and Portugal. Children using Arriva buses are given brightly coloured wristbands on which their parents write emergency contact details. The wristbands carry a distinctive logo which is matched on ‘Child Safe’ shops and businesses where a lost child can go to be reunited with their family.

In Italy our SAF business sponsored a children’s arts project promoting understanding of the environmental role of public transport, with sculptures from recycled materials displayed in cities across Europe with the children’s green transport messages.