At the heart of the global economy, logistics operates as a circulatory system that keeps goods, data, and value flowing. However, more and more companies are facing a silent phenomenon that directly undermines their efficiency and competitiveness: ghost infrastructure.
This refers to the part of the logistics system—warehouses, fleets, equipment, or technological capacity—that remains underused or inactive. Empty spaces, parked trucks, digital systems not leveraged to their full potential. A hidden cost that drains resources, distorts profitability, and weakens adaptability.
The Invisible Cost of Inefficiency
The logistics sector, historically asset-intensive, has for decades been a symbol of scale and operational power. The more warehouses, square meters, or vehicles, the stronger the perception of business solidity. But in a context shaped by digitalization, volatile demand, and the transition toward flexible models, the equation has changed: idle capacity has become a liability.
Maintaining a half-empty warehouse or an inactive fleet not only involves maintenance, insurance, and depreciation costs; it also represents a loss of strategic agility. Companies that cannot dynamically adjust their logistics capacity become slower to react to demand peaks, supply chain disruptions, or market shifts.
In other words, oversized infrastructure is not a sign of strength, but of rigidity.
A report by the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) already warned that efficiency in managing logistics assets is one of the key determinants of national competitiveness. Countries that maintain a healthy correlation between installed capacity and real demand tend to show higher operating margins and better service levels. The problem is that, in many organizations, this correlation isn’t even measured accurately.
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Underutilization: A Structural Problem
The root of “ghost infrastructure” is complex and multifactorial. In some cases, it stems from strategic planning errors, investments based on growth forecasts that never materialized. In others, it results from technological or cultural limitations that prevent full use of existing potential.
- Outdated forecasting models:
In a world of shifting demand, basing capacity decisions on historical averages is a recipe for inefficiency. Many companies still size their infrastructure as if operating in a static economy, when elasticity is now the standard. - Lack of digital integration:
Disconnected systems, dispersed data, and a lack of real-time visibility cause part of the available capacity to remain literally “invisible” to planners. Without a holistic view of assets, routes, occupancy, or downtimes, optimization becomes impossible. - Rigid ownership structures:
Owning assets—rather than using shared or rental models—makes it harder to adapt to activity cycles. What once seemed a strategic investment in growth periods becomes a financial burden during downturns. - Organizational misalignment:
When operations, finance, and technology teams work with unsynchronized goals, contradictory decisions arise: reducing costs while maintaining capacity “just in case,” often due to missing cross-information.
Direct Impact on Competitiveness
Underused capacity not only erodes profitability; it also compromises the competitive position of logistics companies at three key levels:
- Economic:
Every empty square meter or idle fleet kilometer represents immobilized capital. In an environment of high interest rates and tight margins, the financial cost of maintaining unproductive assets can be decisive. - Operational:
Inefficiency limits responsiveness. An oversized but poorly utilized network tends to produce slower processes, redundant routes, and higher unit costs per shipment or pallet handled. - Sustainability:
Maintaining unused infrastructure entails unnecessary energy consumption and emissions. In a green-transition context, the carbon footprint of ghost assets becomes a reputational risk as well.
The result is a paradox: companies invest in digital innovation or new logistics platforms, yet continue dragging physical or technological structures that no longer create value.
From Excess to Optimization: A Matter of Intelligence
The good news is that the tools to reverse this situation already exist. Digitalization, when correctly applied, can transform ghost infrastructure into operational intelligence.
Advances in predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and data-driven management systems now make it possible to visualize real capacity in real time and anticipate demand peaks and valleys with notable accuracy. The challenge is not technological but cultural: integrating information and using it to make decisions.
Some action lines include:
- Digital Twins:
Virtually modeling logistics operations makes it possible to simulate usage scenarios, detect inefficiencies, and adjust resources without affecting real-world activity. - Collaborative platforms and sharing models:
Initiatives such as warehouse sharing or fleet pooling enable companies with excess capacity to share it with those who need it—turning a fixed cost into variable income. - Dynamic utilization KPIs:
Replacing static metrics (average occupancy) with real-time indicators (rotation rate, effective usage hours, asset intensity). What gets measured gets improved. - Strategic review of the asset portfolio:
Not all infrastructure should be preserved. Sometimes selective divestment—closing, selling, or repurposing spaces—is the smartest way to regain liquidity and agility.
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A Culture of Efficiency: The New Competitive Standard
Addressing ghost infrastructure requires more than tool, it demands cultural transformation.
Organizations must move beyond the “just in case” logic of maintaining assets for hypothetical scenarios and adopt a “data-driven” mindset, where every decision is backed by updated information and a clear purpose.
This requires reinforcing cross-department collaboration, promoting transparency in information flows, and understanding that efficiency is not just an operational metric but a strategic competitiveness factor.
The most successful companies in the sector, from global logistics operators to last-mile startups, share one trait: they turn efficiency into culture. They analyze, adjust, and optimize continuously.
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From Shadow to Opportunity
Ghost infrastructure does not need to be an inevitable fate. In fact, it represents a strategic opportunity for those who can recognize and act on it.
An empty warehouse can become a flexible consolidation center; an idle fleet, a shared service; an underused digital system, an analytical advantage.
The key is reconfiguring capacity to transform it into value.
In an environment where resilience and adaptability are the new success indicators, reducing inefficiency is not just a matter of costs, it is a matter of competitive survival.
The future of logistics will not belong to those with more infrastructure, but to those who use it better.
The next frontier of logistics competitiveness will not be measured in network kilometers or warehouse square meters, but in the ability to optimize what already exists.
Eliminating ghost infrastructure does not just free resources; it fuels innovation, sustainability, and agility. In an age marked by uncertainty and digital demand, companies that achieve this will transform an invisible burden into a tangible strategic advantage.
