EUROPE
Transdev is initiating a programme for 1,000 Ukrainian refugees which involves welcoming them into the Group and providing training to allow them to work as bus or coach drivers or mechanics. The Group is drawing from its exisiting experience in France, where for the past two years it has been offering a literacy and training program for people in difficult situations, to facilitate their return to employment.
In addition, Transdev is providing assistance to the families of its employees affected by the conflict in the Ukraine. In Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Group is collecting equipment, providing assistance for the repatriation of employees’ families and chartering buses at the Ukrainian border. Financial support is also being provided to help them settle in their respective host countries. In Germany, the Group has announced that Ukrainian refugees will be able to use trains on the NordWestBahn, Mitterdeutsche Regiobahn and Bayerische RegioBahn networks free of charge. In the same spirit, in the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden, Transdev in partnership with most local transport authorities, is offering free public transport.
Furthermore, Transdev, along with the Carius network, has mobilised a team of ambulance drivers to deliver 15 equipped ambulances to the border of the conflict, driven by volunteer employee drivers. This convoy is accompanied by a Transdev Grand Est bus, transporting collected donations, which will repatriate the volunteer employee drivers. The first convoy left on the night of March 14-15 from the firm’s Bouc Bel Air site.
Finally, in many of the Group’s subsidiaries around the world and at Transdev’s head office, collections of clothes, over-the-counter medicines and hygiene products have been set up in partnership with humanitarian associations and will be sent regularly to Ukraine. “We had to be there for our Ukrainian employees, but also for all Ukrainians. This is why we are working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ukrainian Embassy and also the charity Aide Medicale Caritative France Ukraine. We are also mobilising other networks, federations and professional associations to create a national collective and respond to the urgency of the situation,” said Thierry Mallet, Chairman and CEO of the Transdev Group.
