How Jin Man Keeps Deliveries Fresh with mDrive

From Indonesia to Taiwan, there are almost as many recipes for fishballs as there are fish. However, there is one thing everyone agrees on: fishballs are best when they're fresh.

Jin Man is one of Malaysia's leading fishball producers. This 30-year-old business believes they have the best recipe, using only wolf herring (ikan parang) in their products. In their words: 'we aim to serve customers with the best fishball ever produced.'

Jin Man currently has four restaurants, but the majority of their business is wholesale. The business produces approximately 30,000 fishballs a day, which they deliver to retailers throughout the Klang Valley with six vans.

'Freshness counts,' says Cho Kar Soon, General Manager at Jin Man. 'The product only lasts for four to five days, and we need to make sure it arrives at retailers as fresh as possible.'

Jin Man's delivery staff typically make three to four deliveries covering approximately 100km each daily. As their sales grew, they noticed that expenses for tolls and fuel were eating into their margins.

Plans to expand the business further triggered them to look into how their vehicles were being used and identify ways to effectively optimise their operations.

Kar Soon wanted to better understand his drivers' delivery schedules. He says, 'there is a cost issue, but there's also our reputation to consider. When I tell a customer they can expect delivery at a certain time on a certain day; I want to know for sure this will happen.'

The company had no way of monitoring driver routes, and, as such, could not guarantee when deliveries would reach the customer. It also had no visibility into how their vehicles were used throughout the day.

Jin Man needed to gain oversight of vehicle usage, petrol consumption, and routes to improve service levels and customer satisfaction.

The ability to view a vehicle's location in real time and see its driving history through the mDrive platform was what Kar Soon was looking for. Along with the ease of set up via a plug-and-play device, he found a way to improve the company's operations quickly and easily.

With mDrive, Kar Soon now has real-time access to all his vehicles' information, right on his smartphone. This enabled him to track the location of all his vehicles, monitor their usage, manage drivers, and give his customers more assurance on service.

mDrive also enabled Kar Soon to plan better routes for each delivery. 'We're already saving RM200 in fuel per driver, per month, plus RM100 in toll fees thanks to the mDrive platform,' says Kar Soon.

And with real-time notifications, Kar Soon could relax knowing that he would be alerted if anyone tries to start a vehicle at odd hours or when a vehicle leaves a predefined area. He would also get warnings when a possible fault is detected with his vehicles, enabling him to plan his business around the repair in advance, avoiding delays. 

Route optimisation will play a bigger role in the future for Jin Man as it plans to expand nationally. The company is investing in two new trucks and planning more routes and stops. Fuel- and toll-cost efficiency will be crucial in keeping prices competitive.

'Monitoring is an area we're interested in,' he says. 'We're looking at monitoring refrigeration in the vehicles to make sure stocks stay fresh. Anything that helps the reputation of the company and the product.'

In all, mDrive allowed Jin Man to do more for less. It delivered savings of RM300 per driver per month from lower fuel and toll costs. It provided full visibility of its fleet in real time from a single dashboard that is accessible from any location. And it improved the timeliness of its deliveries to retailers while giving Kar Soon peace of mind.

Looking to optimise your fleet? Find an mDrive plan that works for you