By Sebastián Betancourt
Logistics in Chile is advancing towards progress and efficiency with development supported by the strengthening of different modes of transport, infrastructure, and technology. However, in that third element, there is a gap in the use of data to facilitate decision-making and optimize processes in the chain, according to what was stated by Mabel Leva, executive director of Conecta Logística.
The professional explained to PortalPortuario that “our role is to enhance the logistical development of Chile so that we can become top ten worldwide in logistical performance and for that, the components that these countries have addressed with much development have to do with infrastructure, technology and one of the elements, perhaps, most important has to do with human capital, which also starts from being able to promote the existence of prepared human capital with the conditions required for today’s challenges.”
Along the same lines, Leva added that “within these components, we have proposed some goals as a country. Among these, one has to do with intermodality, so when we talk about infrastructure we refer not only to the existence of facilities, but to an efficient movement of cargo. That means moving truck – train, train – ship. So, the railway and cabotage are also fundamental to making a more efficient movement of cargo within Chile.”
Strengthening the railway
The executive director of Conecta Logística pointed to the need to strengthen the railway in Chile, mainly in the southern network, and to the challenges that this objective entails, focusing on the intermodality of the modes.
In this regard, the industrial civil engineer stated that “in the northern network, the freight railway is well strengthened, because it is very linked to mining, so the railway companies are working hard on it. The main challenge is to develop the southern zone, but with cargo different from what is traditionally moved by train.”
“There is a whole challenge on the part of the Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE) to strengthen cargo, to be able to double it in the short term and for that, we must focus not only on this cargo that has always been transported, but also enable more movement of containers or mass consumption cargo from Santiago to the south,” indicated the professional.
Regarding the challenges to boost the sector, Leva detailed that one “had to do with providing new conditions for the operation of railways within the network.
EFE managed, very recently, to modify the contracts with the railway operators, which have been in place for many years, and therefore, that will enable better conditions and more incentives to mobilize cargo, which was one of the things we were missing.”
“The other thing is that the Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado has just created a logistics subsidiary, so that is fantastic news for the country, in terms of it showing there is a strategic focus linked to Chile’s logistic development by train, in combination with the other modes, because for the train to work, it has to work collaboratively with the other means,” she added.
Use of data to optimize logistics
Mabel Leva emphasized that Chile has made great advances in the use of technology to boost logistics performance, highlighting its position at a regional level, although there are still areas for improvement.
“I believe that in technology it is quite advanced and the gap where we have to get more in line as a country has to do with data management for decision-making. Let’s not forget that behind artificial intelligence and all these models, you also need to have quality information and the management at a business level, at a public sector level, of how we consolidate data, extract good indicators and use them for decision-making,” pointed out the director.
“Chile was leading the development in the region, in fact, I think it anticipated a lot of that and it is good news. The other countries are also advancing, mainly in infrastructure issues, but Chile, also in technology conditions and technology integration, I would dare to say it is the most advanced, without a doubt,” highlighted Leva.
In that sense, the engineer expressed that “we have the Ventanilla Única Marítima; the Sistema Integrado de Comercio Exterior which, without a doubt, helps to facilitate everything related to foreign trade in terms of documentary processing, which is the key to being able to streamline and reduce waiting times in the different facilities.”
On environmental matters, Mabel highlighted the importance of promoting intermodality and electromobility to reduce the polluting emissions of the industry, in line with global ecological objectives.
“On the environmental side, we must always remember that logistic efficiency is synonymous with environmental improvement. All the initiatives we can do to improve logistic efficiency will have an impact on the country’s sustainability and we have other challenges to push: intermodality is one of the things that will help reduce emissions; there is also a whole line of electromobility development for different types of cargo,” she stated.
“I believe we are working on that. The goals are coming up fast, we also have an objective for 2040, which is to have 100% of emissions at zero for anything carbon. The most important thing is that this is coordinated and that collaboration between the public and private sectors is worked on,” emphasized the executive director of Conecta Logística.
