Continuing from its historic sales performance result last year, Volvo Trucks has recently delivered 10 units of Volvo FM440 truck to Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd (Multimodal), marking its first truck delivery to a key customer this year. These units are in addition to the 40 units of Volvo trucks which Multimodal had taken delivery last year, bringing to a total of 50 trucks. As of now, Multimodal owns a total of 200 trucks in its fleet that only consists of one brand, which is Volvo.
Multimodal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB), was first established in 1989 as a forwarding company to handle KTMB’s locomotive or rolling stock import shipments, and to serve railway cargo customers that required forwarding services.
The company then grew and obtained its haulage licence in 1991 to capitalise on the growing containerisation industry back then. In 1995, Multimodal became a first time customer of Volvo Trucks by buying 30 units of the Volvo FL10 model to support its business. Over the years, it continues to add more Volvo trucks to its fleet and is today a key customer of the Swedish truck manufacturer.
A vehicle handover ceremony was held recently at Volvo Trucks’ Port Klang dealership to officially mark the delivery. The event was attended by Mohd Hasdey Bin Yaakob, CEO of Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd and Mitch Peden, Managing Director of Volvo Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and together with their respective management team. A limited edition truck scale model was presented to Multimodal to mark the occasion.
Mitch Peden, Managing Director, Volvo Malaysia Sdn Bhd commented, “We would like to thank Multimodal for their steadfast support and trust given to the Volvo brand. Our customer’s success is our success too, and we make it our responsibility to ensure that our products and services are providing the best outcome and return on investment to our customers such as Multimodal. Volvo FM is an ideal all-round player in our range of trucks, and its first-class driving features and properties will provide Multimodal with many levels of flexibility and transport efficiency.”
During the handover, Multimodal also signed up for Volvo’s Gold Service Agreement for all the 50 units of trucks, which will cover preventive maintenance and repairs. As part of this service agreement, Multimodal also gets to enjoy an added feature called Volvo Uptime Promise, which was first introduced to the Malaysian market last year. This unique benefit will provide monetary compensation to Volvo Trucks’ Gold Service Agreement customers if their truck experience a breakdown time that exceeds Volvo Trucks’ 12 hours of committed time to put the truck back on the road.
Mohd Hasdey Bin Yaakob, CEO of Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd said, ”Multimodal is a logistic company with vast capacity and capabilities not just to support the rail freight volume from our parent company; but also to meet the transportation requirements of other local and overseas customers. As such, we require strong performing trucks and reliable aftersales support from our truck partner to help us maintain our service quality to our customers.”
“We have been using Volvo Trucks for over 20 years now and we have been very pleased with the performance, safety features and fuel efficiency. The trucks’ comfortability, power and great maneuverability have also helped us to retain good drivers and attract new recruits. I am very comfortable to have Volvo Trucks maintain the fleet for us. After all, our focus is to grow our transport business. The Volvo Gold Service Agreement assures me that our trucks are in the good hands of the experts, who can help to ensure the best possible truck uptime,” he added.
Peden further shared, “The signing of the Gold Service Agreement by Multimodal also symbolises a strong relationship that we have managed to earn and build with our customer over the years. With great product features and benefits such as Volvo Uptime Promise, high productivity, lower fuel costs and driver training, we know that we can help our customers make a difference to their business bottom line.”
