PETALING JAYA: He is an industrious Malaysian youth who strives to excel by going the extra mile.
Even during the fasting month of Ramadan and the Covid-19 pandemic challenges, Muhammad Alif Aqil Jeffri Zein has no qualms riding his motorcycle daily, 70km to and from his house in Hulu Langat, Selangor to work at the Sunway Industrial Park.
More interestingly Muhammad Alif, who will turn 24 on May 18, had taken the challenge to rise from scratch to being groomed as an assistant manager with pandamart in less than a year.
He is a fine example of a Malaysian youth who is willing to work towards achieving success, rather than waste the hours away unproductively.
In fact Muhammad Alif is thankful that he had landed a reasonably good job with the company, first as a junior picker before moving up to become a warehouse assistant in nine months.
The outlet is termed a cloud or dark store which provides exclusive online orders for foodpanda riders to deliver to customers.
"Following the Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order, many businesses had folded up.
"Hence, I am fortunate to have obtained the job in July last year, after spotting an advertisement on Facebook.
"Initially, I began as a junior picker at pandamart's newly-opened outlet at Taman Shamelin Perkasa in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur.
"I learnt a lot as a pioneer picker there.
"My training involved inbound stock purchasing and replenishment, computer system inventory and customer's orders via the Pelican device (that facilitates orders from the pandamart to customers via motorcycle despatchers)," said Muhammad Alif.
Items ordered by customers are usually delivered within 30 minutes, he said.
Muhammad Alif added that two months into his job, he was promoted to picker and transferred to the Sunway Industrial Park outlet.
He was further upgraded to warehouse assistant earlier this year, and is now being trained as an assistant manager.
Asked how he was coping with his task, Muhammad Alif said that the experience he had gained in his previous job as a telemarketer for a year, came in handy.
"My daily routine begins at 7am over nine hours.
"As the lead-man at the outlet, I begin by checking on the quality of products, the expiry date, assist junior pickers to handle orders, replenish stocks, monitor operations and do some administrative work," said Muhammad Alif, who finished his Form Five at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Abdul Jalil, Hulu Langat.
He was grateful to his former store manager Mohd Arrazi Ibrahim, who has been promoted to an area manager, and current manager Ashokumar Chandran for grooming him to where he is today.
"I have learnt a lot from them and other fellow staff and look forward towards a rewarding career.
"My duties become hectic when new promotions and supplies come into play.
"It is a constant challenge to improve and if one is industrious, the rewards are there," he said.
Muhammad Alif garners a monthly income of about RM2,000 and enjoys medical insurance, paid annual leave, a wellness and lifestyle allowance, weekly food allowance and other perks.
Meanwhile, pandamart director Ashutosh Gandhi said the company to date has a total of 40 pandamarts in the country.
pandamart, he said, also created thousands of job opportunities for foodpanda riders, suppliers and others.
He added there were more than 4,600 stock-keeping units (SKU) at their pandamarts.
The SKU, is composed of an alphanumeric combination of eight-or-so characters, and is a bar code printed on product labels in retail stores.
The label allows vendors to automatically track the movement of inventory.
"Among our top selling items are bread, buns and rolls, mineral water, beverages and snacks," said Ashutosh.
He added that despite many food and beverage outlets opening up with the easing of the MCO, he believed online delivery facilities would continue to thrive.
"The trend today is towards online purchases, where patrons have become accustomed to the new normal way.
"Prices of items are very competitive, purchasing is convenient with hassle-free delivery at customer's doorsteps," said Ashutosh.