It all begins wayback in the 1960’s, when the Buchanan family first dipped their toe into road transport. Dennis Buchanan was driving a lorry for another Hereford haulier when an opportunity arose to gain his own contract with British Canners – a big company in the city at that time. He acquired his first lorry and started growing his new business...

Dennis’ son Keith would be involved right from the beginning. Even though he was still at school, Keith would help Dennis do repairs to the lorries and go out with him all over the country to learn the job. Within a few years Keith had passed his HGV test and was driving a lorry of his own – with an 8-track fitted of course!

In 1971, Veronica Buchanan – Keith’s mother - had won a school contract from the local council and was taking children to school with a minibus. This would be the beginning of a long-standing commitment to what is known today as Special Educational Needs Transport for Buchanans Coaches.

Not being content with Heavy Goods and Minibuses the Buchanans ventured into taxi work. Acquiring Telecabs, with a fleet of taxis and an office in Widemarsh Street, Hereford.

With British Canners closure, with it went the work for the lorries. Dennis and Keith had to think about what to do next. A local coach operator – Western Coaches was looking to sell up. Dennis and Keith decided that operating coaches must be easier than lorries! And so Buchanans Coaches was born. Combining Western Coaches with their own minibus work. Incidentally, our ‘Elephant’ logo is a homage to a similar one used by the Western Coaches business.

By the mid 1980’s, the government of the time were keen to sell off as many nationalised industries as they could – including public bus services, which were at that time mostly owned and operated by the state, with a few exceptions. Hereford was chosen as one of a few trial areas to see what privatised bus services would look like. The Buchanans, not wishing to be left out, registered some bus services of their own which were very popular. By the end of the trial only a few operators were still in it – Buchanans Coaches continued to operate its bus services until selling them to Yeomans Canyon Travel in 1991.

Since exiting bus service work, Buchanans Coaches has concentrated on private hire and coach tours. Running a successful tour program until the advent of the global pandemic in 2020.



Today Buchanans coaches operates a modern fleet of vehicles from our base in Stretton Sugwas where we cater for local schools, private clients and group travel providers, we work closely with our partner business – Rural Concierge, providing trips and holidays in the UK and Europe.