KUCHING: Maxim as we all know is one of the e-hailing services that is available in Malaysia but apart from that it is actually an international company that operates taxi aggregation, food tech businesses, delivery and cargo services.
Maxim is actually among the world’s leading e-hailing services that was founded in 2003.
In Malaysia, Maxim has been working since 2018 and actively expanding its operating area since then.
In order to know more about the evolution of e-hailing industry in Sarawak, the growth of Maxim in Sarawak and the future of Maxim Malaysia, New Sarawak Tribune sat down with Maxim Malaysia company director Ahmad Khamal Abd Manan for an interview session to learn more.
E-hailing is a growing market in Sarawak, considering that, what growth can the users anticipate to be provided by Maxim?
E-hailing companies are now equipped with various services in order to fulfill the market demand. Demand such as delivery of food, items (documents, gift, items) delivery, cargo and others that involve the delivery industry. In future, keeping the market demand in consideration, Maxim will equip themselves with many more exciting services. Meanwhile, Maxim will continue to expand the services for courier, food and cargo.
We actually started our delivery services not too long ago which was during the pandemic because as we all know we were not allowed to move around back then. This ensured that our drivers back then could continue to work and Maxim users able to keep using the services in the meantime.
Can you share your views, what the future holds for the e-hailing market in Sarawak and how Maxim can ease the convenience of the community?
Sarawak is a great market for e-hailing. Sarawakians show tremendous support to the industry of e-hailing. The use of e-hailing is now an integral part of Sarawakians starting from ride hailing services to delivery of food or couriers, their support to the industry has been fabulous from the data we have collected. Sarawakians can expect many more exciting services to be offered by Maxim making the e-hailing market more competitive so that they can enjoy such services seamlessly.
We plan to expand into Lawas in the future. We do not want to limit ourselves to just city areas but looking forward to expand into suburb areas. Besides providing the services to our users, it can also provide job opportunities to the people to be our full-time or part-time drivers in order for them to earn an income.
As we all know, there are several e-hailing operators that are providing e-hailing services. Can you share with us what makes Maxim different from the other operators?
Being an international company Maxim has been in the e-hailing industry for around 20 years. We provide services for everyone.
The company itself always ensures that the fares are always affordable to everyone and the market remains competitive. One of the key advantages of Maxim is that we provide the cheapest rate among the services and we study from our data every week to ensure our rate remains the lowest every week.
Another advantage is that users can make advance reservations on the Maxim application and can immediately contact the potential driver. If a user selects the date and time in the pre-booking section, the user will be given access to contact directly with the driver who will pick them up later.
If you don’t mind, can you highlight to us the benefits of using the Maxim app?
Maxim operates in almost all the major cities of each state including Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan. What’s even more exciting is that in some cities Maxim is also operating in rural areas which is unimaginable comparing to other e-hailing operators.
The user-friendly application is also one of the key factors for them to choose Maxim. Users can choose which city that they want to use. It is easier if they need to make a reservation for family members who need transportation but are unfamiliar with the application. Most of the locations are already marked, this makes it easier for the driver to pick up and deliver to the exact location.
Maxim’s service also offers affordable fares with comfortable vehicles, users can also find out directly the cost of the journey when making a reservation on the application and the cost will not change when the journey gets held up in traffic.
Besides that, users can also make advance reservations on the Maxim application and connect with the potential driver. They can just select the date and time the user wants in the pre-booking section and they will be given access to connect directly with the driver who will pick you up later. This can save users a lot of time.
Maxim is an international company that is providing e-hailing services in other countries. Can you share the starting journey of Maxim in Malaysia?
Maxim Malaysia started operations in 2018. In 2018 we started with major cities such as Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Terengganu, Johor and Kuantan. But now in 2023 Maxim is already operating in big and small cities and we continue to expand with new launches every year.
What are the things that are taken into consideration when Maxim plans to expand to various cities?
Our main aspect of the business is the affordable price that we offer to the users. This way we reach out to as many users as we can. Nevertheless, we always do our market research and have a look at where the demands may be. Our research helps us to penetrate to various cities by using the data collected and even in rural areas so that users can enjoy our services to the maximum.
Currently, in how many cities is Maxim providing its services in Malaysia?
Maxim is now operating in more than 59 cities throughout Malaysia. We are also looking forward to launch our 60th city very soon and yes, it is going to be a location in Sarawak.
What are the other services that Maxim provides? Can you tell me more about this?
Some of the delivery services we provide are courier service, cargo service, food delivery service, laundry service, buy and deliver service, car towing service and spa and massage service.
For delivery of goods such as documents, gifts and other necessities using couriers users can choose whether to use a car or motorcycle as a courier. Often small deliveries will use motorcycles because it is easier and faster while large and heavy items will use cars. Car delivery is convenient to deliver goods or items during rain or monsoon season.
As for cargo, it is used to carry heavy and large goods, most users will use it when they are moving house or when they purchase furniture items. Users can choose the size of the truck according to their needs and according to the availability of their respective cities.
For food delivery by Maxim, it can also be made through the Maxim application, where users can order food at any selected restaurants. We will deliver food to your doorstep.
Laundry is one of the new services provided by us at Maxim, where users can send their dirty clothes and we will help to deliver them to a nearby laundromat.
Besides that, we also offer buy and deliver service which is also new at Maxim where users can buy daily necessities on the app and we will help deliver the goods directly to the home.
Interestingly, we also provide car towing and jump-start car battery services. Users only need to book on the app and pin the location and we ensure that help will arrive soon.
Other than that, users can also place spa and massage orders in the Maxim app, and beauticians will call for the selected treatment. However, this service is not available in all cities just yet, users can check in the application whether this service is available in your area or not.
Maxim also allows users to bring pets together with the ride. This service was introduced since our operation in Malaysia and is getting positive feedback until today. Maxim realised that not everyone has their own transport but need a ride and some of them require bringing pets together. With all these services provided, our main goal is to turn our app into a superapp whereby it provides multiple services for our community.
Are all of the services available in every city in Malaysia? How do users do the booking? Is it through the same application?
Not all cities have these additional services, but we will try our best to continue to expand to each city by promoting additional services. All bookings can be made on the Maxim application, just need to select a city and see what services are available. Maxim application is available to download through Play Store, App Store, Huawei App Gallery and Galaxy Store.
How does Maxim ensure the user’s safety? There were reports regarding harassment before as I was told drivers do not really need to provide full information about themselves and any vehicles can be used.
User’s safety is Maxim’s utmost priority. Be it our partner-drivers or passengers, Maxim always ensures during a ride all parties involved reach their destination safely. In order to ensure safety for both our partner-drivers or passengers, Maxim has provided an SOS button in the application that is connected with the user’s emergency contact. Once a user presses the button it will immediately alert the emergency contact and at the same time it will alert our system. Additionally, as an e-hailing operator, we are bound to follow the e-hailing regulations that have been established by LPKP Sabah, LPKP Sarawak and APAD. Our partner-drivers are required to submit complete documents such as PSV, NRIC, E-hailing insurance and Puspakom if the car is over three years old. Once our partner-drivers receive EVP from our company, then only will they be able to have access to our bookings. In order to ensure more safety and comfort for our users, cars over 10 years old are not allowed to operate as e-hailing. Maxim is very strict on this aspect, and always ensures quality of our service is well maintained. So, all the rumours about not providing full documents are baseless and untrue.
As one of the app’s features enables the driver to get the customer’s number thus opening the possibility of making contact thereafter, which has made some customers uncomfortable, especially women, would Maxim be taking any action or consideration to fix this?
Once we receive reports of such unwanted incidents, we immediately conduct our own internal investigation, if our partner-driver is found guilty, he/she faces action and depending on the gravity of the offence, the partner-driver’s account will be blocked or suspended and he/she will have no access to provide the service anymore. In the event, if a police report is lodged by our user, we always ensure we fully co-operate with the police and provide full information as requested by the police. As an e-hailing operator we consider it as our duty towards the society and consider it our corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Does Maxim plan to integrate a customer to driver in-app call ability like Grab without revealing customer’s phone number to ensure their safety moving forward?
At the moment we have started to slowly roll out the in-app call ability whereby the drivers will only be able to call the users through the in-app call ability to further ensure our users’ safety. However, it is still under development so we are trying our best to see whether it has any issue or bugs before it is entirely rolled out to each and every user. Maxim once again wants to assure users’ safety is the top most priority for us and we will never compromise when it comes to the safety of our users.
