Arriva Midlands
In Derby - Ascot Drive

Arriva now runs around 100 buses in the city of Derby from the Ascot Drive depot. In 1924 Derby Corporation began operating local buses in Derby. Daimler was the main provider of vehicles at this time ranging fom the COG5s to the Fleetline. The buses carried a Green and cream livery. Trolley buses played a big part too. Some model buses have been produced, and many veichles from this era have been preserved and are stored at various locations around the country.

The company became Derby City Transport. The livery changed to Blue and cream. There was alot of competition around the late 80s and early 90s when Camms of Nottingham and Midland Red began to compete with the council owned company. Camms mainly ran a fleet of worn out buses, such as older versions of the Fleetline and some coaches. Some of these were found to be unroadworthy when checked, as were some of the DCT example during the period of fierce competition. Camms cheap fares often temped passengers to "Catcha Camms". Mercian Midland Red also gained passengers in this way, often running free services for a week to attract custom, hoping that paying passengers would return again the following week. Unlike camms they ran a fleet of what were often described as breadvans. Camms was later taken over by Dunn Line in 1999.

The competition ceased to be and the name changed to Blue Bus Services, with this name appearing on a similar livery. At this time many vehicles still carried the Derby City Transport name and some were even painted into the camms livery as this attracted passengers. Volvo Citybuses, aswell as Fleetlines and Ailsas, made up the double deck fleet. Scania K92s with Alexander bodywork made up the single deck fleet, alongside a variety of mini buses including the short lived Optares. When the cowie group, now Arriva, took over in the 1990's, yet another name change was in store. This time it was to be City Rider. The blue City Rider name accompanied with the logo of a compass was put on a background of bright yellow with a blue stripe at the bottom and a red one at the top. Some new Darts and Olympians were introduced into the fleet, and a number of routes and times were revised quite drastically. A promise was also made that no mini buses would be over 5 years old, something that has not been kept to this day.

The Corporate image has led to most of the present fleet being in the well known Arriva livery. However at the time this was begining to be inroduced, Arriva Derby had vehicles not only in the City Rider livery, but also in the Derby City Transport and Blue Bus liveries. There was a great variety. Older vehicles such as some of the Ailsas and some of the Fleetlines were withdrawn, being sold or scrapped. more Citybuses were brought in from London, newer Scanias (L113s). Mini Pointer Darts, and standard Alexander bodied Darts arrived, introducing SLFs to the fleet. A Leyland National Greenway, previously a trainer bus, made a comeback for about a year, being used regularly before being sent to Fox County (Leicester) in 2001. Recent years have seen the withdrawal of more Fleetlines, Scanias and the last remaining Ailsas.

The last remaining Fleetline, 4301 (GTO 301V) was withdrawn mid 2008. Most of the Citybuses were withdrawn shortly after following the arrival of brand new Scania single deckers, and new double deckers. Brand new Solos replaced all of the Minibuses by the end of October 2008. The entire fleet is now low floor. At the end of 2013 the oldest vehicles in the Derby fleet is T reg MPD 2222, and 4 W reg Alexander Darts.

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