A Mearns customer contact centre, which has grown from three to 32 staff in a year, has landed a major contract which will lead to another 20 jobs over the next three months.

Journeycall, which specialises in answering calls about train and bus services, beat several industry heavy weights to win a three-year call handling and fulfilment contract from Transport for London.

The company, based in Laurencekirk, has seen sales increase dramatically since 2003 making it one of the region’s fastest growing small businesses.

It was recently awarded development grants by Aberdeenshire Council and is also getting advice from Business Gateway.

Under the Transport for London (TfL) contract Journeycall will provide telesales and fulfilment of TfL’s Oyster card which four million Londoners now use to pay for travel on London’s buses, Tubes, Docklands Light Railway and some National Rail lines.

Oyster cards were introduced by TfL and Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone to help improve network efficiency and ticketing convenience. From August cards purchased online or by phone will be processed and dispatched from Laurencekirk.

“This is prestigious contract and we are delighted to have emerged victorious from a very testing selection process” said managing director Quentin Macfarlane..”It means we will be recruiting another 20 or so people in the coming weeks to work either as travel advisors in our call centre or as card processors in our new, secure, fulfilment office

“Many of our staff come from Montrose, Brechin, Stonehaven and of course the Laurencekirk area and we have been able to recruit and retain high calibre staff which I think was a factor in TfL’s decision”

Journeycall already answers 50,000 calls a month from people enquiring about train and bus times or wishing to buy tickets.

“The sale of rail tickets, in particular, has become an important part of our business mainly because of the availability of cheap fares-if you know where to find them”, said Mr Macfarlane. “We sell mainly to the public but are now getting enquiries from businesses that are discovering that rail travel can be a cheaper and more convenient option to flying.

“We very much support the re-opening of Laurencekirk railway station where we are hoping to open a small ticket office and rail travel agency. Not only would the station be a significant boost to the local economy it would also make it easier for our staff to get to and from work”

The company also provides telesales for megabus.com, the low cost inter city bus service provided by Stagecoach Group and it’s recently introduced megatrain.com operation linked to South West Trains.

Train & Bus Information and Tickets