• 6 min de lectura
• 6 min de lectura
Moving cargo between Bolivia and Chile involves much more than just covering kilometers. A delay in document management or payments can be as critical, or even more so, than changing a tire on the road or waiting in line at a border crossing.
Behind every container, there are coordinations, documents, payments, and procedures that must be executed correctly for the operation to continue. Therefore, it's not enough to just arrive on time; it's also crucial not to lose speed on the bureaucratic highway.
A pending payment to return a container. A procedure subject to office hours. The need to exchange currency or find an alternative to pay in Chile. A receipt sent via WhatsApp. An invoice that must later be retrieved and linked to the operation.
These are daily situations for many companies and transporters involved in foreign trade between Bolivia and the ports of northern Chile.
From Arica, Vectum Solutions decided to start precisely there: facilitating from Bolivia those operations that necessarily must be resolved in Chile.
Vectum is an Arica-based company that, with the support of Corfo, began developing solutions aimed at simplifying the processes associated with Bolivian cargo in transit through Chile.
Its first stage has focused on payments and local logistics services, but with a significant difference: the platform does not seek to be merely a means to make a transfer, but to connect a digital request with an operation that must be physically executed in Chilean territory.
Through the system, a company can request a service related to its cargo in Chile from Bolivia, provide the necessary background information, and know the status of the request. Based on that request, Vectum coordinates the execution in Arica or Iquique and keeps the documentation linked to the process available.
Among the services covered are payments associated with Gate-In, deconsolidation, releases, storage, and other logistics services necessary to continue an operation.
In this way, a Bolivian company can resolve from its own country procedures that until now might have required calls, messages, coordination with different actors, cash availability, or the intervention of third parties.
"We started with payments because we detected a very specific and frequent difficulty. For a Bolivian company, it can be relatively simple to know how much it owes in Chile, but executing that payment, obtaining the support, and quickly continuing with the operation can be much more complex," explains Alejandro Venegas, general manager of Vectum Solutions.
The value of Vectum lies precisely in combining a digital tool with local execution capability.
The platform allows users to enter requests, associate them with a company and a specific operation, register background information such as container or BL number, control corresponding charges, and retain documentation linked to the service.
However, behind that interface, there is a team that is responsible for coordinating in Chile what the client requests from Bolivia.
Thus, the user does not need to resolve each of the stages involved in a local procedure separately. Vectum receives the requirement, organizes its execution, monitors it, and provides the corresponding support.
The proposal seeks to bring together in one place processes that are often dispersed among emails, phone calls, messaging applications, and physical documents, incorporating greater traceability and order into each operation.
In simple terms, Vectum aims for a Bolivian company to be able to resolve from Bolivia what it needs to do in Chile.
The decision to start with payments was not accidental.
For a company that moves cargo through the ports of northern Chile, a procedure that may seem merely administrative can become a waiting point for an entire operation.
A disbursement that is not made on time can delay a release. A document that is not available can prevent a procedure from continuing. Coordination that depends on different office hours can generate additional time.
Vectum seeks to intervene precisely at these points, anticipating and organizing processes that until now could develop in a fragmented manner.
"Every hour that cargo remains stopped due to a management that could have been anticipated, digitized, or better coordinated is an opportunity for improvement. Our intention is to contribute, through technology and from Arica, to making these processes increasingly fluid," says Venegas.
The proposal thus aims to provide greater traceability, documentary support, predictability, and simplicity to those who need to carry out operations in Chile from Bolivia.
This proposal also responds to the strategic position of northern Chile.
Arica and Iquique concentrate operations linked to Bolivian foreign trade and bring together transporters, terminals, container depots, agencies, logistics operators, shipping companies, and various service providers.
For Vectum, this permanent interaction makes the region a natural space to develop and validate new tools applied to logistics.
The proximity to the operation also allows solutions to be developed based on concrete problems that the different actors in the Chile-Bolivia corridor face daily.
In recent months, the team has developed different versions of its platform and has carried out real operations with companies involved in foreign trade.
This experience allowed the model to be adjusted based on the needs detected directly in the field.
The next step is to expand the number of companies using the system and progressively extend the type of services that can be channeled through it.
Fleet management, cargo visibility, coordination of procedures, documentation, and new integrations are among the areas that Vectum contemplates to expand its proposal within the logistics corridor between both countries.
"We don't want to develop technology from a desk imagining what the industry's problems are. We want to talk to operators, transporters, importers, exporters, and Bolivian companies, understand where the main frictions are, and build solutions to real problems," adds Venegas.
The logic is for the platform to evolve together with its users: start by solving a specific need and, from that experience, incorporate new tools to facilitate other stages of the logistics chain.
As part of this new stage, Vectum Solutions will hold an online launch of its platform next Wednesday, September 23rd, aimed especially at companies and professionals involved in foreign trade, transport, and logistics between Bolivia and Chile.
The activity will begin at 1:00 PM Chile time and 12:00 PM Bolivia time.
More than just presenting a platform, the company seeks to open a conversation with the Bolivian logistics ecosystem, show how it is currently addressing local payments and services in Chile, and present the development vision it projects for the coming years.
Logistics operators, transport companies, importers, exporters, agencies, and professionals linked to foreign trade can register in advance to participate.
Vectum will subsequently send the access link to the activity to registered individuals.
From Arica, Vectum Solutions seeks to intervene in one of the least visible, but everyday, points of foreign trade between both countries: the operations that must be resolved in Chile for Bolivian cargo to continue moving forward.
Its commitment combines technology and local execution capability with a concrete objective: to make managing in Chile from Bolivia simpler, more traceable, and more efficient.