Born in a modest family in sub-urban town of Klang, Dato’ Khor Kok Seng (DKKS) has transformed a traditional customs brokerage firm to a multi-million technology-based total logistics company within 10 years. The company that specialised in temperaturecontrolled logistics has now served many major retailers and fresh / frozen food & beverages (F&B) wholesalers and importers in Malaysia.

Having seen the mother working on multiple part time jobs while taking care of the siblings and DKKS himself, it made him understood the value and importance of money in life during the early years. Throughout DKKS’s schooling years, he was constantly one of the top students, as DKKS is a firm believer that education can change life and alleviate the family to live comfortably for the future. Upon secondary studies, DKKS has obtained full scholarship from Yayasan Telekom Malaysia to further his tertiary studies at Multimedia University, which he has graduated with First Class Honour in Bachelor of Electronics Engineering after 5 years.

Like every young man with a graduate degree, DKKS has big dreams and huge plans for his future. After spending years working with several MNCs, although the working experience prove invaluable for the future undertaking, DKKS came to realise two things; ‘you are hired to do a very specific and routine job’ and ‘it will take 10 or 20 years to climb to the top of the corporate ladder’. Knowing that he is not moving forward at the expected pace, DKKS decided to venture into business.

‘Faith has taken its course’, claimed DKKS. After a failed electronic-based business venture, DKKS eventually joined up the young customs brokerage business started by his father. Having no prior experience in the logistics business, DKKS has taken a year or two to fully understand the trade. By then, DKKS has realised there are huge potential in the business amidst large number of competitors in an ultra-competitive, traditional business sphere.

‘For every business to thrive, there must be a stand-out specialty. Something we have that the competitor don’t. Something we can do better than any of our competitor. And for us, our company stand out for the hands-on experience, the ability, the efficiency in handling F&B cargo and temperature-controlled food cargo’, said DKKS. ‘To enhance our ability and increase efficiency, there is a need to embrace technology’, add DKKS. Thus, a new customized monitoring and tracking logistics software for company internal usage has been mooted by DKKS. Understandably, with the huge investment cost for software and hardware (server), it wasn’t an easy decision for the considerable small company at that point of time. However, with the software / hardware remain an integral part of the company as it continues to expand, it can only be money well spent.

Soon, DKKS started one of his proudest projects to date, haulage division of the EL Group – EL Carriers Sdn Bhd. The company has started with operating 2 trucks back at 2011. It continues to grow and stand at 50 trucks in operation at present. Though fulfilling, the journey thus far did have its fair share of downs, late nights, stresses and disappointments. One moment that stands out is when the company was just 2 months old. As a startup, managing cost remain the top priority back in 2011. Thus, the first 2 trucks were bought with cash, and thirdparty insurance coverage to save on bank interest and insurance premium. This turns out to be a costly mistake. One of the trucks was involved in a major accident within the first month or so and company must bear the heavy repair cost. On the subsequent week, the other truck was caught on fire while ferrying customer’s cargo from port to customer premise. These incidents have hit the new start-up right on its head. Not only they losses the burnt truck out right (with no insurance coverage), the company must pay for the damaged container box and cargo. The start-up has just losses about RM300k with just 2 months on business.