You are Natalia Rojas Quintero, logistics manager of Maquinaria Industrial in Bogotá. A crated textile spinner worth COP 500 million must be at a customer's plant in Quito by Sunday, April 19, four days from now, and nothing has been booked. The freight forwarder needs your answer before five this afternoon.
The situation
Maquinaria Industrial, 95 people, designs and builds machinery to order and sells 60% of it in Latin America. On export orders like this one it pays for the transport and carries the cargo risk until delivery. The customer, Hilanova Andina, has built its production schedule around the new spinner. The contract sets delivery at its Quito plant by April 19 and liquidated damages of COP 100 million for each day of delay. The order carries a margin of about COP 100 million before logistics: every peso of freight, insurance, fees, penalties or uninsured loss comes out of it.
The machine is a difficult load: 8,500 kilograms, precision bearings and an optical alignment that a hard jolt can ruin, electronic controls that corrode if water gets in, and enough value to attract thieves on parts of the road south. April is the rainy season in the Cauca Valley, and customs at the Ipiales crossing has been running enhanced inspections for weeks.
Two quotes are on your screen. Truck-only: one specialised trailer with relay drivers, four days door to door, COP 50 million; the forwarder puts the combined risk of shock damage and theft at 7% to 10%. Multimodal: truck to a rail terminal, rail into Cali and truck again to Quito, COP 35 million and a risk of 3% to 4%, but it takes six days, two more than the contract allows. You could also call Hilanova Andina before dispatch and ask them to accept six days. Your general manager calls this "the order of the quarter". At 11:15 he put his head round the door: "Truck or train? And does Quito know?"