The name Wilts & Dorset was first seen on the sides of buses in 1915, when a service commenced between Salisbury and Amesbury. The company rapidly expanded, with particular growth coming from serving the many military establishments on Salisbury Plain. Meanwhile another bus company, Hants & Dorset, established in 1916, was also growing rapidly from its Bournemouth base.
In 1965 the two companies, by then both state owned, were merged and in 1972 the Wilts & Dorset name disappeared when the operation was subsumed into Hants & Dorset. However, Wilts & Dorset was reborn in 1983 when Hants & Dorset was broken up in preparation for privatisation. Now based in Poole and owned by the Go-Ahead Group, Wilts & Dorset runs an extensive network of routes in Dorset, Wiltshire and South West Hampshire.
This is a Dual Destination/Split Run model. OM44116A features the destination No.4 Poole and OM44116B features the destination No.2 Salisbury