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Thanks for tuning in. You're watching Notepad with me, Brahim Sunny. I am on location in my time because I'm attending the Selangor International Business Summit 2019. The interesting companies that I want to give focus on, one of them is PKT Logistics. My joining me is the Group CEO of that company, Datuk Michael Q. This company is one-of-a-kind because not only do they provide the core business of logistics, they also upskill the residents and citizens of Malaysia and Selangor as well. So, let's understand a little bit about their business and understand a little bit about how they train Malaysians to be better. And I thought, Michael, alright.
What are the key things that I want to highlight to the public is that yes, you do provide the logistics service for your customers, but it is also important that you don't rely too much on foreign employers, employees. Yes, and we like more on local residents. Yes. How does that work? Well, we noticed that one of the major issues doing logistics business is to get employees, especially on-the-ground employees. So, we are looking in various ways how to do it. I was on a trip to Japan one, and we were surprised that the Japanese brought me into a housing estate, and then inside the housing estate, there is a warehouse. And when I went into the warehouse, and I saw a lot of housewives inside there. Okay. So, I said, well, then I asked the guy, how many of them are actually full-time employees? They say, actually, there are only 25 of us, out of 100 plus. So, the rest are housewives. So, there I came back with a ton of idea. I am now situated in area, inshallah, with five kampungs surrounding me. So, when you build iconic buildings surrounding the kampung, so of course, it's very intimidating, you know, who are they and what not. Yeah, I didn't do that. I just told my staff to go and approach them, upon hulu and iman, good to the mosques, and ask them, we want to employ your housewives. Back to work. Okay. And and then that is how we started.
And when was this? A few years back? Well, that's about five years already. Okay. Five years back already. So, we created this program called Anak-Anak Bekerja. Abubakar. So, what we want to do, Anak-Anak Bekerja, what it means is that while the kid is studying, the mom is working. Yes. So, basically, the timing is like that. Normally, studied till the man will send the children to school 7:30 in the morning. Okay. They will come to work at 8:30. Okay. And then they only have four hours per shift, which is 12:30. They finish, they pack up, and then take the motorcycle, pick up the children, and go back and take care of children. Okay. Then another batch of housewives come at 1:30, and they finish at 5:30. So, the same idea, because if school, if school children has the evening session, they start around 12:00. Yeah. So, they send the kids to school. Yeah. Then work to work, and they finish just before the 5:30. Enough time for them to cook for the family and whatnot.
And how many people have been enrolled in this particular, for this program in Selangor? We have over 80 people. Of course, some come and some actually have confidence in working, and then they move on. But that's okay. Yeah, that's fine with us because our job is to create job opportunities and give them confidence to come back to work again. So, all the training is being done by you internally by the company? How long does the training last? Well, they need a week or name. Because some of them are actually already released, finished their education. They finish at least SPM, STPM. Some are graduates, married, but start working and whatnot. So, those graduates that marry and start working, when we bring them back, we get a higher position. So, because they are able to see that the whole GDM, you know, we can, you read the whole list, and they do picking and whatnot. Long. Okay. There's also the element of how then let's look at the impact of the job, right, that you are hiring and the more productive than previous arrangements by hiring foreign workers? Yes, of course. Because we noticed that foreign workers, when they, when it comes to what they all look for, all the time. So, when they are focusing on overtime, during the daytime, they are less efficient. Allah. So, Malaysians are more efficient in that sense. More work done. No. And I will say that Malaysian, that that statement, but more of housewives are innocent. When they come to work, they come to work to make a living. Yeah, not here because they don't have overtime. Yeah. So, they don't drag their time during the working day. They just come here and work, and then finish, they go back. But it's a win-win for you. Win-win situation. PKT Logistics gets the most out of their boys, and boys actually get the most out of the work. And we also have a very good social responsibility program for for the kampung people that we give them jobs, we give them a second income in the family, and of course, skills as well. Skills as well. And which some of them move on to to do part-time jobs, or some even started their own business because they have confidence.
What kind of problems arise when you roll out, say, Anak-Anak Bekerja? When I first rolled out, I have a lot of what I call it, for Tesla, an indirect protest by our management team because they don't think they can set it down. So, I don't believe in that because I know that they are actually trying to stop us from getting the housewives, which will take over the form of a good job as well. Okay. So, so, but you have that role of managing director. I say, no, I say, I disagree with all the problems they are saying. I say, to train them. Then I employ one person specializing in monitoring day-to-day activity of the Anak-Anak Bekerja. That's the only way because you will get people like the supervisor coming to you, see, they cannot be as good as them, and whatnot. So, but at the end, I overcame that. And now today, in our Shah Alam operations, we have any foreign worker. That's important. And to recap back to the company that you visited, 75% of their company is part-timers, 5% is a full-time. Yeah. What kind of ratio do you have at PKT Logistics at the moment? I think part-timers for operational people. Yeah. Of course, the skilled one will be the faulty driver. Okay. Then among this one will be 50/50. Okay. Yeah. Fifty-fifty.
Let's talk about other opportunities that you accord for people in Selangor. There's also this thing where it involves students. And students can earn a living while they study. How about that? Okay. Well, one of the challenges when we discover we want to scale our business to another level is to find skilled employees. Most of the logisticians in the market actually, they are working for another logistics company without skill, and learn from them, especially the MNCs. And then after that, they get another job outside. So, they were trained by the MNCs and they get a job outside. So, we, Malaysia, do not have a logistics diploma, logistics degree. So, what I decided that I should invest into education first, education in logistics-related subjects. Okay. So, I bought over Campus College, and I parked it inside a working environment. So, this is the almost first-of-its-kind teaching in a working environment. This is vocational training. This is a private college training. It is behaving like vocational training. So, the students, while they are studying, during their free time, they don't lay back in shopping malls and all these things. They actually work in the warehouse as well, similar to Anak-Anak Bekerja. So, instead of spending money, they are actually earning money. Yes. Okay. We'll take a short break. When we come back, we'll discuss more on identification training, pseudo-vocational, JBSB, with PKT Logistics. Don't go away.
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Thanks for staying on with us. I am currently at MITEC, attending the Selangor International Business Summit 2019. But the conversation that I want to have today is with Datuk Michael Q, he is the CEO and the MD or Managing Director of PKT Logistics. Datuk Michael has gone through with us some of the interesting programs that they are carrying out in their company in empowering women, empowering housewives by getting them jobs. And guess what? There's going to be a great opportunity because they are familiar with the things that they do, and they want to get the most out of their jobs. That was part of the program that you will see, SR program? Yes. As I mentioned just now. But we continue on our conversation with the education program. Something that you highlighted is that up to five years ago, four years ago, there was no, I guess, proper formal education in logistics. Yes. But now we do with that college education that you have. Why wasn't there any, I guess, education in logistics or certification in logistics? Well, logistics all in Malaysia, basically, we depend a lot on foreign investment, alright? So, when a foreign investor comes into Malaysia, normally they will prefer their own logistics company from their home country. So, then they will follow them to Malaysia, and then they will run the logistics business here. So, Malaysians, typically, I think the ratio was about 65, 60 to 65 percent dominated by MNCs. The rest is Malaysian logistics companies, and a small chunk of them, they do themselves. That means the manufacturer does their own logistics. Okay. Yeah.
And how are you different? How is PKT Logistics different? Well, because of that, when we found out that that problem, there is no logisticians that we can employ in Malaysia. We all have to employ them from the MNCs. So, you can imagine when they work for MNCs, their salary is so high. How can we afford to bring them over? Yes. So, we have no choice but to actually decide to go into education, specializing in logistics, and train your own training organization. Yeah. What would be inside the education of logistics? What would be the syllabus? How does it look like? Custom clearance and trucking, freight forwarding, international issue, trade, trade quotes, and whatnot, insurance, business law, all these can subjects is supply chain, procurement. Do you issue degrees or issue diplomas? And then including degrees. Our degree is a calibration with UK universities. Okay. So, that would be like, like a twinning program with them. Yeah. We use their program in Malaysia. And how do you have batches of graduates already coming up? Yeah, we have a lot of batches. I think up to date is about two to three hundred of them. That's that's specified.
And let's talk about how they can add value to the time that they are studying. You're mentioning that there is another program that PKT Logistics is doing. One of them is on training students by giving them jobs. Yeah, actually, just some people are JBSB. Okay. So, tell me about that. So, JBSB program is similar to the housewives. So, we thought since we have so, since their students, and they have always have a gap in between classes. So, since they have a gap in between classes, and we already have this program for Anak-Anak Bekerja, morning shift or afternoon shift, four hours per day. So, we also open up for students who wants to have a part-time work. Because I myself as a student, when I was in the UK, I have found part-time jobs, and that's how it builds my character over today. I agree, a soft skill, how to handle people, and whatnot. Happy. And so, ours is the key, the most key thing, communication. How do you manage to pay? And also a strong believer in TVET education, as you know. Okay. But as a private institution, how can I behave like a TVET institution as well? So, the only way is to park them inside a working environment and allowing our students to actually work part-time in the warehouse operations as well. Do you have any intentions of getting some sort of accreditation in terms of TVET? We don't, I don't think at the moment that is a TVET accreditation yet. But soon, maybe it will come, you know. And when is around, I guess we want to apply for that as a TVET institution. So, I'm a student, and I'm learning at a university or college, and I'm trying to understand how I can get more money. Do I get skill as well? Of course, I'll get soft skills, and also the hard skills as well, especially the logistics skills that you are studying. Is this warehousing only? Or is it originally? We started warehousing, then we noticed they are so efficient, and they are so hard-working and consistent. We also open up other departments to them. Because we also do accounting subjects, so we give them accounting departments, admin departments, front desk. So, the students are everywhere. No office. So, we try to reduce our full-time employees to about 25%, and we allow a lot of students to come in to learn what they are studying. And this is a gain massive. Not only will the students gain actual, I guess, work, you actually get to train them. And if they, how many of them actually join the company? Most are the good ones. What a good one. So, the bad ones, we don't know. We don't know. Okay.
We'll take a short break. When we come back, we'll discuss a little bit more about the driver program, the lorry driver program of PKT Logistics. Don't go anywhere.
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Thanks for staying with us. This is a very fascinating conversation that I have with Datuk Michael Q, CEO of PKT Logistics. We are currently on location at MITEC, because this Selangor International Business Opportunity 19 is currently happening here. And Datuk Michael, so we know that you guys train housewives, we know that you guys train students and give them, you know, opportunity to gain an income, but at the same time build their soft skill and of course, hard skill in terms of logistics business. But there's also another element here on training, I guess, lorry drivers. Yes. Little colleague, we don't call them lorry drivers. It's not professional now. Okay. So, what an estimate trucker? Smart girl. Let's talk about some hot chocolate. Well, the Malaysian transport industry has a very bad perception, especially lorry drivers, because of so many road accidents on the road and whatnot. And and also the perception towards the customer itself. So, and also, then we know that employability in graduates are getting less. Yeah. Okay. Problem, government trying to address a problem and whatnot. So, we decided when we come up with a program to allow graduates to become smart truckers. Well, we didn't tell them this for life. Because if you tell them, it's all right. Can you imagine how you're going to go back and tell your friends and family, I'm a truck driver for life. I delivered angry with a degree. So, they asked my trucker. They are here to do. They are almost like hands-on operation. First four years, you become a smart trucker, learning four to six thousand a month. Alright. On the fifth year, you can up to become our senior warehouse logistics manager. What what does that mean? That means they can go to the warehouse, back. No need to travel anymore. So, within their four years, they, when they come for their six-month internship, instead of six months waiting to do small things, we actually train them for safety driving, logistics education, and some training ourselves, internet training, and get them a license. Not though. I just have to interject here. You see, what you, you studied in the UK, you've seen how there is no stigma. If you tell other people, oh, I'm driving. No, there is nothing wrong. You see a passion. And we met truck drivers in R&R. Yeah. Yeah. In the UK. Yeah. Yeah. And I say, how is it driving trucks? They say, oh, this is our third generation driving trucks. Of course, and they are paid well, and they're trained well. It's an honorable job, and it's a fantastically highly skilled job. Are you, are you creating that in your small way? Yeah, in a way that we have, because there is no born to do smart trucker. Okay. I just give them a chance. Because if I see them for life, they will not join. It's like, so like, it's only four years. They will try once. They try and find that this is a good income, then they will become a smart trucker, or they'll become an entrepreneur. Now, they become a Saha one. They say, okay, Michael, I would like to buy my own truck. Then can I become your vendor? I say, sure. Yeah. Because you didn't desert. Yeah. Yeah. I had to use them anyway. I'm also seeing anyway. So, maybe he has one truck, later on, he buys another truck, another beautiful. So, these are creating a new industry and new jobs for people. I think this is something very massive. Because look, we all know that doing business, frontline, the center is important. Like I said, you know, there is another interview of PKT Logistics with us, Ronnie, with my colleague Cynthia, on it. I want to review there. We talked about the business of PKT Logistics itself. But how do you build your capacity, right? And and everybody keeps on saying, oh, you know, it's always the people is the most important investment that we have. You know, our workers are the greatest asset that we have. Yeah. I don't know how most companies can justify that kind of statement. But here, it's clearly seen. Right? These guys are clearly valuing. Okay, we need housewives, we need students, we need smart truckers. It builds into something else. Yes. Is there other things that might be in store that would be so interesting as well? We are still looking into whether we can innovate new services and what type of jobs we can create in the future because there are so many things moving. The logistics industry is really booming in Malaysia.
Let's talk about your office. Your office, because I mean, logistics, let's go kill ourselves. All right. Let's take our house. Normally, when I have a tour from Malaysia from Polytechnic, certain idea shot, when they say going, we see the warehouse, they all will be so sleepy and very tired on the way. They say, why am I going to visit a warehouse? So, when they reach our warehouse, and they went for the tour, and they find that this is like a Google office. Yeah. So, we need to transform the perception of logistics. Perception is very boring, dirty, and you know, the whole, oh, not not cool enough. So, we need to change that. So, what we did is, we make our office like Google. Google. So, every floor has a pantry, and every pantry has a concept. We have a dream in office, we have a lounge, we have a lounge, and we also have a nice changing room for them as well. So, we really invest into this current area to retain our employees. So, staff retention program is very, very strong. For the staff to stay in a company, of course, when you have a nice workplace, it's very hard for you to now, you know, think of hope. Now, now we don't have a problem looking for employees. Because if you go to Facebook group, PKT Talent Hunter, you'll find that there are 20,000 people waiting to get a job there.
This interview has touched on three stigmas that we normally associate this country with. Number one, the first stigma is foreign workers are more productive than local workers. Based on your experience, that's not the case. Motivation. Okay. So, clearly, local workers, if they have the right motivation, if they have the right work structure, and what ours is most important, you might get more productivity out of them. You have foreign workers. Yes. What? Second stigma is that graduates, particularly young employees, there are, you know, Millennials. Yeah. They are managerial. I don't know how else to put it, right? But clearly, from your work experience with these students, it's not like that. You know. All right. So, the third stigma is on the difficulty in companies hiring people. And you're saying that the studio types of people queuing interval for us? Yes. That's crazy. So, our HR KPI is a zero recruitment cost. No. Because they are, because what happens is, when the students visited us during the time when they were studying diploma or degree, so they reset the office, and they got inspired. They say, oh, this is going to be my working place. So, when they go back, they actually follow us on Facebook, and they add themselves into the PKT Talent Hunter. Whenever there's a job, after they graduate, they apply for a job there. So, that's how we capture them through Facebook as well. Just when did tour, after they toured, go back, after Santana, forgotten about us. But if they like our page, they continue to follow the company. Yeah. They continue to follow our story, how we, our activity, our new cool warehouse, our new CSR program. All these things they follow, they like us. And then the very minute they look for a job, they only can think of one brand in their mind. Last time, they think of the MNC brand. But now they think of one brand at the moment. And the one brand that we're speaking of, ran our PKT Logistics. Never. I've been speaking rhetorically. Oh, he is the Guru CEO here, discussing and the ongoing service firm on location at MITEC in conjunction with the Selangor International Business Summit 2019. If you've missed any part of this interview, zero to a strong.com. Look for Notepad. These interviews can be found. You can watch these interviews on your mobile devices as well. Just download the Astro On The Go app. We'll get the application. Next time, you know, before I forget, there's also the website, Invest Selangor.com. As well as Lagos.com. These are two websites you can learn more about these particular events. So, with that, until next time, thanks very much for watching and goodbye. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
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