Jul 22, 2020

Afraid To Travel Alone? Hire A Makcik

MakCik travels was the brainchild of Dr Sazlina Kamaralzaman and her daughter, Siti Sarah Anuar. The mother-daughter duo from Bangi, Selangor started the business in 2018 because there was a higher rate of sexual harassment and crime when women travelled alone.

MakCik Travels is a companionship service for women where they can hail a ride with a sense of security.

The service was soon extended to chaperone women who travelled at night or had to run errands at malls and hospitals. Eventually, their service was made to cater to people across vulnerable age groups including children, elderly and people with disabilities.

Siti Sarah explained that their chaperone services started when they received requests from clients to accompany children to school or their elderly parents to hospitals.

Dr Sazlina who is a lecturer with over 10 years of experience in teaching and community work, saw the opportunity to help those in need while starting their business.

What started out as a two women operation where they offered transportation services to other women who lived around them became a company with 100 drivers in other states beyond Klang Valley, including Johor, Perak, Melaka, Penang, and Kedah.

The platform offers two types of services: MakCik Drives and MakCik Chaperone where the ride hailing service is available 24/7 while the latter is only available on a booking basis from 8-5pm daily.

According to Sarah, the fees for their e-hailing services are competitive but chaperone services starts from RM60 for the first two hours.

As a women for women platform, Sarah ensures that 95% of their profits go to their drivers, chaperones, and administrative agents.

Plans for the future includes MakCik explorer, a women companionship service for women travelling alone abroad but as Sarah mentioned, their small company is still restricted by human resource. For now, they are focused on having the service available in every state.

With that, they are encouraging more women to join their company, especially for those looking for a flexi-job.

Luahan Wartawan: This is what women empowerment looks like.

To start a business with the safety of women in mind and creating jobs for women in a male dominated industry, that is a stroke of genius, because they managed to exploit a niche market.

There’s a feel-good vibe about the whole operation because it is essentially giving power back to the women who are vulnerable as well as empowering those with a certain skillset, in this case driving and the companionship that is needed by the target demographic, the elderly and the young ones.