With so many concerns over the economy, it is nice to hear from a company that is bucking the trend - but then it seems that's something Glasgow's Network Private Hire is particularly good at.

Having evolved from parent company Spring Radio Cars; Network is a fast-growing, highly competitive organisation, now with a fleet of over 600 vehicles. With Network, expansion is never far away, and a year ago the company merged with ACS Southside, acquiring a further 100 cars - and they have already grown that fleet to 150 cars!

Clearly growth is Network's primary goal, and twin policies of reliability and quality of service are the means by which they get there. "We offer an extremely reliable service," explains Manager Michael Cassidy. "We have a huge fleet which means we are able to cover all of the city - but we will 'pull' a car to do a job when needed, in order to look after the customer."

With a fleet comprising saloons, executive vehicles, people carriers and minibuses, this is a company ready and able to take work from all over Glasgow - but an operation like that requires a serious Data Dispatch system. Enter Auriga, the choice of many of the country's top fleets.

Auriga's flagship Evocab system powers this huge organisation, managing vehicle locations, and intelligently dispatching jobs to the best-placed vehicle. But it is the company's advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system which is proving the big hit, by dramatically improving Network's call-taking facilities.

Not only does IVR automatically answer calls and take bookings; it also acts as an automatic 'Back on the Phone' response service, detecting calls from customers who have already made a booking, telling them where their car is, and even its make, model and registration number.

For Network the advantages are clear: "It's great for us," explains Michael Cassidy. "It keeps our telephonists free to deal with other bookings, and customers like it because they get the information they need, and they're saving money by being on the phone for less time."

But the most important aspect of IVR is its voice-activated booking feature, which means freephones can be set up around town, and the customer needs only pick up the handset and say "yes" when prompted in order to make an ASAP booking. IVR even gives them a booking reference number, to ensure the customer gets in the vehicle they have booked.

The service has been a huge success, with IVR freephones installed at 20 locations such as supermarkets. "The customers love it," says Michael. "There are no queues; they just pick up the handset and say "yes", get their number, and away they go."

And the stats suggest that Network love it too. IVR is processing an impressive 15,000 jobs per week – over 20% of all the company's work - and that's without all the extra work it is doing dealing with those customer enquiries.

As you can imagine, all these services are doing wonders for Network's standing in the marketplace - and that is being reflected in the success they are experiencing. Network has recently won a number of significant city council contracts, and it has also just secured a major NHS contract. Central to these successes has been the quality of service; affordable pricing; and ability to cover work - thanks again to Network's huge fleet, and policy of servicing the whole of Glasgow.

Once again, the Auriga system helps here, with the Admin accounting package dramatically reducing the amount of time spent managing drivers and producing professionally presented invoices.

And customers can be sure that they will be safe in Network’s hands, thanks to Auriga’s integrated document management facility: "We keep a store of documents such as drivers' insurance, MOT, and licenses for the cars and drivers," says Michael. "This means we can make sure they are all up-to-date, and the drivers can be blocked from working if they expire."

Outside of the traditional private hire business, Network also has its own garage and MOT test centre, complete with an on-site engineer. This is used not only to service fleet vehicles, but also those of the general public.

Departing Network, the overriding impression is of a company ideally positioned to prosper in the present economic climate. "We're looking to grow. We are gaining drivers from other firms, due to our size and the volume of work that we do - and we aim to continue" explains Michael.

It's nice to hear a positive message in these difficult times!