Delivery start-up helps hawker food go high-tech

SINGAPORE — Carrot cake, mee goreng, yong tau foo, prawn noodles. Now you can have your pick of mouth-watering local hawker favourites without stepping out of your office building. What’s more, the food is served piping hot and you do not even have to queue.

Local food delivery start-up Fastbee.sg aims to change the way hawker food is delivered to customers and transform the industry with quick, fuss-free solutions.

Fastbee.sg’s founder Khoo Kar Kiat, 33, used to hear his colleagues complain about the lack of food choices at work. Last October, he decided to quit his job at the Economic Development Board where he had worked for eight years to start his own business and get a “feel of the ground” after sitting in the “ivory tower” for so long.

“At the government level, things are very big and they don’t move as fast. Learning all these methodologies at work, I felt that I just wanted to come out and try something (new),” said Mr Khoo. 

Convinced that there was a niche in catering to office workers, he set about exploring technology solutions to serve what he felt were decentralised and underserved business parks. 

He was drawn to the idea of making hawker food available at new office hubs, which he saw as “gold mines”. 

“I chose hawker food because on a price point, regular Singaporeans can afford them on a daily basis. Also, I want to help hawkers improve their margins. The hawker business changes very slowly.”

Looking for a sustainable model to lower operation costs, he turned to technology to save on manpower and keep prices low. Instead of the usual delivery business which requires a high volume of drivers, Mr Khoo decided to use an online order system with bulk delivery and self-collection. He visited trade shows to find the best machine and customised it to keep food hot and enable self-collection.

Customers order food in advance on the website before 10.45am each day, and orders are placed with the hawkers through their mobile phones. Hawkers start preparing the food before the lunch crowd comes in, and Fastbee drivers pick up the orders by 11.20am before delivering them to the self-collection kiosks by noon. Users enter their mobile codes to pick the orders up from the machine.

Fastbee updates its menu daily from hawker centres at Bukit Timah, Clementi, Yuhua, Ghim Moh and Pasir Panjang. The stalls are located not more than a 20-minute drive away to ensure that the food is kept fresh and deliveries are on time, said Mr Khoo.

“The way Singaporeans obtain their food will change in five to 10 years,” he noted. “If my technology allows more hawkers to earn more money, the second-generation hawkers will come in and that will allow me to do my part in preserving the hawker heritage.”

With four self-collection machines at JTC CleanTech Park, Science Park 1 and 2 and Mediapolis, Fastbee sells about 160 packs of food a day on average. Hygiene is critical and the machines are cleaned daily.

Fastbee only orders from vendors licensed by the National Environment Agency.

Mr Khoo has big plans. He is currently selecting new locations and aims to have 10 machines in the next few months. With a goal of 100 machines by the end of next year, Fastbee is also looking to go into dinner services and tying up with other food options. Office workers who have used the service say it adds variety and makes it easy for them to get quality cooked food without having to queue.

Mediapolis customer Ms Chan, 50, finds the service convenient. “I have ordered meals almost every day in the last few weeks. It saves me a lot of time. I also like the variety, the menu is refreshed every day while the pricing is competitive. It is very easy to order and everything is cashless.”

A researcher at Nanyang Technological University Goh Kunli has been frequenting the machine at CleanTech Park as there is only one cafe at his workplace. “I now have more food choices,” said Mr Goh, whose favourite food on the menu is yong tau foo.

Ms Jean Ong works in an office close to one of the machines and although she has not tried it she thinks it is a good idea: “It’s another option, it will not be my top option for lunch but it helps to have more variety.”

Some hawkers who have teamed up with Fastbee said the tie-up has helped increase their bottom line.

Hawker Constance Chan, 49, has been selling Penang char kway teow and prawn noodles at Bukit Timah Food Centre for over seven years. “We want to sell more but we are unable to reach many people because we are just small hawkers. We don’t have the logistics and delivery people. (The orders) may not be a lot because it goes by the demand of the customers, but every little bit counts,” Ms Chan said.

Ms Oom, 50, who operates a Thai food hawker outlet, said the delivery business has helped. “Every week with them I sell about 40 to 50 packets more. Because they come before lunch hour, it is easy for me to pack the food up for them.”