It began operating motorbuses in 1912, and became a limited company on 26 October 1986 due to the Transport Act 1985.

[10] On 21 January 2008 Southend Area Bus Users' Group and Councilor Steve Aylen successfully campaigned for improvements to Service 6A[11] after having been withdrawn in 2005.

[16] In 2007, Arriva Southend were criticised by Southend Borough Council for the age of its bus fleet, as some of its buses at the time were nearly 20 years old and many did not have low-floor, easy-access step-free entry[17] which was important for older people, as Southend had an ageing population with the most senior citizens in the country, although most areas did not have full low-floor networks at the time, and buses were built to have working lives of about 20 years.

[19] On 8 February 2009, Arriva reduced the frequency of services 7 and 8 to some areas, which angered some residents in Hockley and Hawkwell, as it made it very difficult for them to get to and from Southend Hospital and Clements Hall Leisure Centre on time due to the 7 and 8 either running very late in the Shoebury area, or buses turning back before reaching their terminating point.

[22] The Hockley Residents' Association also said that the figures for low customer numbers used to justify the frequency reduction were flawed.

[26] Arriva Southend has started using an "undercover passenger" scheme to attempt to better understand problems and complaints with the changes they have made to their services, encouraging passengers to participate by offering them a week's free bus travel for rating the services they use.

The route merger resulted in drivers not given sufficient time to complete the whole route, which has caused buses to turn back before reaching their terminating point, missing out certain bus stops and leaving passengers stranded from over 45 to 90 minutes to wait for the next Service 29.