With the announcement of a nationwide movement control order by PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin last night (March 16), all business premises have been ordered to shut down, with some exceptions.
Premises offering essential services like utilities, telecommunications, transport, banking, health, pharmacies, ports, airports, cleaning and food suppliers will still be operational.
But with the guidelines being rather vague, we reached out to various Malaysian online services to see if they will still be operational throughout this 2-week period.
Here they are, categorised in terms of their services, along with their responses to our enquiries.
For You To Find Food
1. DeliverEat
DeliverEat was the first online food delivery service in Penang when it was established in 2012. In 2017, they expanded to KL.
On their Facebook, they’ve announced that they’ll be serving customers as usual, but will be delivering their food with their latest SOP—contactless delivery to ensure safety and hygiene.
Riders will hang the order on your door handle/leave it at the guardhouse/place it on top of your delivery box, and the customer will provide a code to the rider to confirm the order.
Cash on delivery will be temporarily unavailable to avoid contact between rider and customer.
2. dahmakan
dahmakan is a healthy food delivery service whose in-house chefs craft a dynamic menu, which is available on a pre-order basis.
In an announcement post made on Facebook, they announced that they will continue operations as usual.
3. RunningMan
RunningMan is a food delivery startup that offers a menu of cuisine from over 345 delivery restaurants.
According to its CEO, Andrew, they will be operating as usual, but are facing the challenge of eateries closing starting tomorrow.
“Therefore, we are actually planning and working immediately on a special menu which caters to COVID-19 needs,” he told us.
“Some extra prevention measures will also be carried out with our deliverymen in order to provide safe deliveries.”
4. Grab
In the Grab app you’ll find transport, food delivery, payment solutions, along with some other services.
They announced on Facebook that all of their services including GrabFood, GrabMart, Transport and GrabExpress will continue to operate as usual, and they’ll be updating users on any further developments.
5. foodpanda
Another one of Malaysia’s leading online food delivery services, foodpanda will be operating as usual.
They also wrote on Facebook, “Our rider hubs provide hand sanitiser and masks free of charge to all our riders, who are instructed to wash their hands every two hours and after each time they handle a delivery.”
Furthermore, they’re encouraging users to switch to online payments.
6. MyGroser
MyGroser is an online grocery delivery service that’s not dependent on existing supermarkets for their stock.
Its founder and CEO, Stephen, said, “We will be operating normally as we already have safety and process protection steps within the business. These were implemented over the past 2 weeks and we are upgrading these as we go along as well.”
“We are going to try and support as many people as we can although there are supply challenges that we are working to overcome.”
7. Mydin
Mydin is another staple Malaysian grocery store, and just yesterday they announced that their USJ1 outlet will be opening its doors half an hour earlier daily for senior citizens and OKUs to shop in an uncrowded environment.
They will also be creating dedicated payment lanes for them.
When we reached out to them on Facebook, they informed us that all of their outlets and services will be operating as usual.
8. HappyFresh
HappyFresh is another online grocery delivery service that claims to be able to deliver fresh food to you within 1 hour.
A representative told us that so far, people can still order albeit within the limited timeslots that they have.
They added, “We’ll try to have our business as usual unless there’s further announcement from the government.”
9. Jocom
Another player in the online grocery shopping and delivery scene, Jocom also informed Vulcan Post that they will be operating as normal.
They’ve implemented new SOPs for their delivery team, supplying them with industry-grade plastic mouth covers and gloves as they go about their jobs.
10. Doggy Bag Malaysia
This one’s for you to find food too, but for your dog. Doggy Bag Malaysia offers pet owners fresh and nutritious homecooked dog food.
Sara, its co-founder told us that they will still be operational, but currently have limited stocks. Their meat suppliers are facing issues as well, so they can only cook what they can get.
11. Petchef
Petchef is another online food delivery service for your furbabies, providing them with human-grade food.
They’ve updated us to let us know that they will be operating as usual.
12. PledgeCare
Also delivering human-grade food for your pets is PledgeCare, and they’ve told us that they’ll still be active after March 18.
They said, “We do take our precautions ensuring most of our employees are working from home only visiting the office if we’re shipping out parcels or doing production.”
“However, we can’t promise our customers the regular lead time for deliveries since many couriers/suppliers are facing a heavy demand.”
For You To Send/Receive Packages
13. GoGet
GoGet is an on-demand work app where trained part timers can be engaged to carry out various menial tasks like cheque deposits and food and shopping.
Its co-founder, Francesca, told Vulcan Post that GoGet will pursue to stay operational to ensure their GoGetters can get basic earnings, help their community posters with extra help for tasks around the city, or for when grocery businesses will need flexible part timers to stay open.
“We are also rolling out initiatives to capture if a poster is self quarantine/under forced quarantine/sick so that we do the job in a safe way,” she added.
14. EasyParcel
EasyParcel is a web based parcel consolidator and an e-commerce shipping solutions provider.
Clarence, its CEO, told us that EasyParcel will still be running its business as usual, and they’ve carried out the necessary safety measures like temperature checks on all drivers as well as briefing their drivers and riders on hygiene after contact with customers.
15. Mrspeedy
Mrspeedy is an express, same-day delivery service in KL with a standard rate starting at RM5. They let you deliver ASAP (within 90 minutes) or at a scheduled time.
They told Vulcan Post that their delivery service will be going on, but they’ll be monitoring it from time to time, so we can expect to see a lower supply.
16. ZeptoExpress
ZeptoExpress is an on-demand delivery platform that offers 24-hour same day delivery services.
They informed users in their app that they will be operating as usual until further announcement.
17. Lalamove
Lalamove also offers on-demand same day delivery services, and a representative told us that they will be operating as usual.
A representative told us, “We are not implementing any restrictions on our service for our users at present.”
“We have advised our drivers to take necessary precautions in-line with MOH, WHO and CDC guidelines,” they added.
For You To Get Cleaning/Home Services
18. Maideasy
Maideasy is a startup that lets you book trained maids for cleaning services.
Its co-founder Meriza shared that they’ll be operating as usual. They’ll also be giving leeway for booking cancellations made before March 17.
“Other bookings are as usual and agreed upon on the days after the restricted movement announcement was made,” she added.
19. Recommend.my
Recommend.my is known as an online platform for home improvement services.
Co-founder Jes Min told us, “We’re completely operational, and in fact doubling down on our home disinfecting and cleaning services, aircond, sofa and carpet cleaning.”
Interior design services will continue as usual too.
20. ServisHero
ServisHero lets users find local service providers like cleaners, electricians, plumbers, and more on its mobile app.
Karl, its CEO and co-founder told us that they’ve assessed the situation and have confirmed that they will be operational. On top of that, they are also offering a new service category called Professional Disinfection Services, in this time of need.
“In times like this, we know how important it is to keep our community spaces clean and safe. ServisHero will be providing Cleaning services, Professional Disinfection services, and Aircon Maintenance services as per usual via our app.”
For Students Preparing For University
21. EasyUni
EasyUni is Asia’s largest education portal where students and parents can find information about higher education by searching, comparing and applying to universities.
A representative told us that they’re still up and running, especially so in this time of need where education fairs and university open days have all been cancelled.
Students will need a new avenue to find information like what’s a suitable university for them, what course to take and how much it’ll cost—all of which they can find on EasyUni.
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These are just some of the Malaysian online services that we’ve managed to confirm are still operating at the moment of writing.
As they’ll all be doing their due diligence with safety and hygiene to ensure that they won’t be spreading COVID-19 to their customers, we as users should do the same.
In this 2-week period where we’ll be seeing changes to our daily lives, let’s look out for each other to the best of our abilities.
- You can read more about other Malaysian startups here.
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