(04 Sep 2015, 9:39 pm)tyresmoke wrote North East & Yorkshire have been effectively merged for a few years now, with the same management team 'controlling' both divisions. Fleet swaps between the two will likely be happening more often, as fleets become more standardised.
It is interesting to see Midlands & Shires being merged together, when you'd expect Shires & Southern Counties would probably be a better fit.
I don't know much about the stuff going on behind the scenes but certainly there is restructuring going on as part of Deutsche Bahn's push for growth across the business, although they have recently announced intentions to float part of Arriva on the stock exchange.
The merging of divisions seems to be a logical step on paper, based on the geographical area they serve, and the size of each operation. It's a huge shame, and an extremely stressful and uncertain time for those involved, but it's been said many a time on here what happens when the shareholders click their fingers.
Do Arriva have like a marketing team, commercial team, etc, for each bus division? I'd assumed they'd be operating under a shared model, given that they've went that way (for as long as I've known) with customer services. It's not uncommon for companies that size of Arriva to operate in the 'shared service'/'support function' model, as they'll just expect greater utilisation from a smaller pool of staff. Doesn't make it right for those involved though...