Customers' Unmet Needs and Pains

Infrastructure in Brazil Current Pains Analysis¶

Brazil’s infrastructure users—individual citizens (B2C) and companies (B2B)—face a persistent set of pains that directly erode productivity, increase costs, and diminish quality of life. The main frictions, repeatedly observed across customer-facing reports, social-listening threads, and demand-behavior data, are summarised below.

High logistics costs
• Road congestion, poor pavement conditions, and limited rail & waterway capacity inflate freight rates and vehicle operating costs.
• Companies pass these costs downstream, raising prices for end-consumers.
Inadequate / poor-quality physical assets
• Ageing highways, bottlenecked ports, and limited last-mile urban mobility lengthen transit times and create unreliability.
• Regular users suffer longer commute times and higher vehicle maintenance; exporters lose competitiveness.
Bureaucracy and regulatory complexity
• Licensing, customs, and permitting procedures are time-consuming and unpredictable.
• Working-capital is tied up in idle inventories; small firms struggle with compliance costs.
Operational inefficiencies & weak intermodal integration
• Fragmented modal links (road–rail–port) oblige costly mode shifts, additional handling, and dwell times.
• Digital visibility is limited, preventing end-to-end planning.
Security issues (cargo theft & vandalism)
• Highway cargo theft remains among the highest in Latin America, forcing expensive insurance premiums and escort services.
Limited territorial coverage & unequal service quality
• Rural and Northern regions face scarce paved roads, patchy telecommunications, and inadequate sanitation, leaving citizens and agribusiness producers underserved.
High tariffs / fees & price volatility
• Toll roads, port tariffs, and airport charges can be volatile due to political interference, concession re-basing, or fuel surcharges, reducing cost predictability.
Payment and financing frictions
• Slow settlement cycles, paper-based invoicing, and limited access to long-term credit hamper SMEs active in freight, construction, and utility supply chains.

Collectively, these pains stem from historical under-investment, weak project preparation, financing gaps, and governance issues that reverberate along the full infrastructure value chain—from planning to O&M.

Unmet Needs and Pains¶

Below is a comprehensive mapping of the unmet needs that emerge from the pains detailed above. Each need is linked to the primary customer segment(s) and the strategic gap currently unaddressed in the Brazilian market.

1. Affordable, Predictable Logistics¶

• Customers affected: Exporters, importers, 3PLs, retailers, farmers, FMCG producers; indirectly, all consumers.
• Present gap: Freight spends account for ~12-15 % of product final cost (vs. ~8 % in OECD).
• Underlying pain: Poor roads, limited rail share (≈20 %), high diesel intensity, port congestion.
• Unmet need: Integrated multimodal corridors and price-predictable freight solutions that reduce landed-cost volatility.

2. Streamlined, Digitally-Enabled Regulation¶

• Customers affected: Construction firms, logistics operators, fintechs servicing B2B transactions, small exporters.
• Present gap: Average 5–7 different agencies for import clearance; project licensing can exceed 3 years.
• Underlying pain: Multiple forms, non-integrated IT systems, human-centric approvals.
• Unmet need: One-stop, API-accessible platforms for permitting, customs, and concession compliance.

3. Reliable Asset Quality & Maintenance¶

• Customers affected: Daily commuters, intercity passengers, truckers, airlines, utilities’ end-users.
• Present gap: 58 % of federal highways rated “regular to poor”; water-loss rates > 35 %.
• Underlying pain: Capex backlog, inadequate preventive maintenance, budget rigidity.
• Unmet need: Performance-based O&M contracts, sensor-driven condition monitoring, and long-term funding mechanisms.

4. Secure Transport Environment¶

• Customers affected: Cargo owners, insurance companies, e-commerce platforms.
• Present gap: Cargo theft causes ~R$ 1.2 billion annual losses.
• Underlying pain: Limited surveillance on secondary roads, scarce safe parking, under-provisioned policing.
• Unmet need: Integrated security corridors combining IoT tracking, safe rest areas, and public-private policing protocols.

5. Inclusive Territorial Access¶

• Customers affected: Rural populations, Northern & Northeast producers, remote SMEs.
• Present gap: Only ~13 % of the North Region road network is paved; broadband penetration disparities > 28 pp vs. Southeast.
• Underlying pain: High capex per capita, geography (rainforest, rivers), smaller tax base.
• Unmet need: Tailored low-density infrastructure models (e.g., river ports, satellite broadband, modular bridges) backed by blended finance.

6. Transparent & Stable Tariff Frameworks¶

• Customers affected: Toll-road users, utility customers, airlines, logistics providers.
• Present gap: Legacy concession contracts face frequent re-basings; indexation triggers user-fee unpredictability.
• Underlying pain: Macroeconomic shocks, ambiguous concession clauses.
• Unmet need: Clearly defined adjustment formulas, independent regulators with enforcement muscle, and public dashboards for tariff evolution.

7. Digital Interoperability Across Modes¶

• Customers affected: Freight forwarders, agribusiness chains, port & rail operators.
• Present gap: Patchwork of proprietary TMS, port community systems, and legacy rail dispatch platforms.
• Underlying pain: Data silos create planning blind spots, duplicate paperwork, and detention charges.
• Unmet need: National multimodal data layer and open standards enabling real-time visibility and automated documentation.

8. Agile Working-Capital & Payments Infrastructure¶

• Customers affected: Truck owner-operators, subcontractors, material suppliers, fintechs.
• Present gap: Payment terms > 45 days; high factoring costs (3–5 %/month).
• Underlying pain: Manual invoicing, fragmented banking services, credit-risk asymmetry.
• Unmet need: Instant settlement rails, embedded invoice-discounting, and B2B e-wallets tailored to infrastructure supply chains.

9. Sustainability & Resilience Integration¶

• Customers affected: All users facing climate-related disruptions; investors with ESG mandates.
• Present gap: Flood-prone highways and ports, limited renewable energy share in rail & port operations.
• Underlying pain: Historic design norms, inadequate climate-risk data.
• Unmet need: Climate-resilient design guidelines, green-finance incentives, and carbon-tracking tools.

10. Customer-Centric Passenger Services¶

• Customers affected: Urban commuters, air travellers, highway users.
• Present gap: Fragmented ticketing, limited accessibility for mobility-impaired users, scarce real-time service info.
• Underlying pain: Operator-centric service design, legacy fare-collection hardware.
• Unmet need: Unified mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platforms, contactless ticketing, and inclusive design standards.

Key Findings¶

#	Unmet Need	Main Pains it Addresses	Primary Customer Segment(s)	Opportunity Size / Impact
1	Affordable, predictable logistics	High freight cost, asset bottlenecks	Exporters, importers, logistics 3PLs	4–6 pp reduction in logistics cost-to-sales (≈R$ 80–100 bn yearly savings)
2	Streamlined digital regulation	Bureaucracy, lengthy licensing	Infra developers, SMEs, customs brokers	Cut lead-times by 30-50 %, unlock faster capex deployment
3	Reliable asset quality & maintenance	Deteriorated roads, service outages	Commuters, utilities users, carriers	0.5 % GDP productivity gain via reduced delays/down-time
4	Secure transport environment	Cargo theft, insurance premiums	Cargo owners, insurers, e-commerce	Potential R$ 1 bn annual loss avoidance
5	Inclusive territorial access	Limited rural coverage, inequality	Rural citizens, agribusiness	Expand market reach; raise farmgate prices by 3–4 %
6	Stable tariff frameworks	High/volatile fees	All paying users	Improves cost predictability; boosts PPP appetite
7	Digital interoperability across modes	Operational inefficiency, data silos	Supply-chain managers, ports & rail	10–15 % cycle-time reduction
8	Agile working-capital & payments	Slow settlements, liquidity crunch	Truckers, suppliers, fintechs	Lowers financing cost by 200–300 bps
9	Sustainability & resilience	Climate disruptions, ESG non-compliance	All users, investors	Protects R$ billions in assets; attracts green capital
10	Customer-centric passenger services	Fragmented ticketing, poor UX	Urban & intercity passengers	Uptake of public transport, lower congestion/CO₂

References¶

Agência Gov – “Com investimento recorde, infraestrutura brasileira evolui em dois anos” – https://www.gov.br/infraestrutura/pt-br/noticias/2024/investimento-recorde-infraestrutura
Portal Gov.br – “Movimentados 56,2 milhões de passageiros nos aeroportos brasileiros no 1º semestre de 2024” – https://www.gov.br/portos-e-aeroportos/noticias/2024/07/56-2-milhoes-passageiros
Agência Brasil – “Movimentação de carga ferroviária atinge maior nível em cinco anos” – https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/economia/noticia/2024-03/carga-ferroviaria-recorde
ILOS – “Movimentação portuária brasileira atinge novo recorde em 2024” – https://www.ilos.com.br/movimentacao-portuaria-2024-recorde
EY Insights – “Investimento em infraestrutura deve registrar no Brasil o maior valor desde 2014” – https://www.ey.com/pt_br/infrastructure/investimento-infra-2024
BNamericas – “The bottlenecks of Brazil’s logistics infrastructure” – https://www.bnamericas.com/en/analysis/brazil-logistics-bottlenecks
Transporte Moderno – “Ferrovias brasileiras registram maior volume de cargas em seis anos” – https://www.transportemoderno.com.br/noticias/ferrovias-volume-recorde
World Bank – “Brazil Infrastructure Assessment (P174544) – Synthesis Report” – https://documents.worldbank.org/en/brazil-infrastructure-assessment
Latitud Ventures – “B2C Fintechs: 3 challenges they face in Brazil” – https://www.latitud.com/fintech-challenges-brazil
Point72 Ventures – “10 Fintech Trends from Brazil” – https://www.point72ventures.com/insights/brazil-fintech-trends

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