Indian staff offer "better" service says rail enquiries chief

Indian staff are not only cheaper but offer a better quality of service than UK call centre workers the head of the national rail enquiries service has told MPs.

The train operating companies have come under fire this week from the union Amicus for plans that could lead to up to 1,700 rail enquiry call centre jobs being offshored to India.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) told silicon.com earlier this week that it had not set an offshore agenda and that the location of its call centres would be a matter for its suppliers.

But Chris Scoggins, CEO of the national rail enquiry service, told a House of Commons transport select committee yesterday that a pilot project in India had already been "very successful".

"The quality is as good as, or in some cases better than the quality of our existing service," he said.

Scoggins denied accusations from one MP that Indian salaries being almost £10,000 cheaper is the main reason behind the move.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times the rail enquiries pilot project began eight weeks ago, with some calls being routed to Bangalore where they are answered by Indian graduates on a sixth of the salary of UK call centre operators.

The current service is run by BT, Serco, First Information and ClientLogic with 1,700 staff in call centres in Newcastle, Plymouth, Derby and Cardiff. ATOC is due to make an announcement on the new contract in early December.