Tell us a bit about how your journey in logistics began – was it something you always planned, or did it take you by surprise?
Logistics has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My family’s company, Transber, began operations in 1983, chartering freighter aircraft to a remote city in Peru to support projects that were underway there. Over the years, we kept adding business units, each one covering a different stage of the logistics chain, with the goal of offering a complete, integrated service.
My own journey started even earlier than my career did. As a child, I used to travel with my father as he worked out new routes to reach oil and gas projects deep in the Peruvian rainforest, and that experience is what really drew me into this world. Even so, I didn’t join Transber right away. After university, I chose to work in other industries first to build my own experience before coming into the family business. I have been working at Transber since 2011.
How have recent global developments, such as geopolitical tensions, changing trade lanes, or supply chain disruptions, affected your business?
The past couple of years have reshaped many of the assumptions we used to plan around. The most direct impact for us has been the opening of the Chancay megaport here in Peru. It has given us direct sailings to Asia, significantly reducing transit times. That has opened real opportunities, but it has also meant rethinking routings and client expectations almost in real time as new services come online.
At the same time, we are navigating the effects of disruptions further away from home. Wars and geopolitical conflicts have tightened global vessel capacity and pushed freight rates up worldwide. Peru is not insulated from that. The Panama Canal has also tightened draft restrictions again this year because of lower water levels, which affects cost and scheduling for anything still routing that way.
Tariffs are another factor. Peru has been relatively shielded compared with some of our neighbors. We sit at the US baseline reciprocal rate thanks to our trade agreement, while countries such as Brazil have faced tariffs as high as 25%. But “shielded” does not mean unaffected. Clients are more cautious, sourcing decisions are being reconsidered case by case, and the uncertainty itself changes how far ahead people are willing to commit volume.
Put together, it means flexibility has stopped being a nice-to-have and has become part of how we plan every shipment. We are constantly re-evaluating routing options rather than assuming the lane that worked last quarter will still be the best one this quarter.
What skills do you believe the next generation of logistics professionals will need most?
Technical knowledge of the industry will always matter, but I think the skill that will set people apart is adaptability: the ability to make good decisions with incomplete information, because that is increasingly the normal state of this business rather than the exception. Alongside that, digital fluency is no longer optional. The next generation needs to be comfortable working with data and the platforms that are reshaping how cargo is tracked, priced, and routed, even if they are not the ones building those tools.
Logistics often involves unexpected challenges. How does your team stay flexible when plans change quickly?
A lot of it comes down to how we’re structured. Because Transber covers different stages of the logistics chain, our teams understand how other areas and services work and can anticipate situations. Internal coordination, dynamism, and a culture of organizational adaptability are what allow us to move fast when we need to. It’s really a mindset we try to build into the team: we treat a changed plan as a normal part of the job, not an emergency. Everyone close to an operation is empowered to make a call and adjust without waiting for it to go up several levels first.
Can you describe a challenging moment in your career that shaped the way you work today?
The pandemic was, without question, one of the toughest moments of my career. Peru had one of the highest mortality rates in the world and was among the last countries to return to normal life, so this wasn’t just a business challenge; it was deeply personal for everyone on our team. We survived as a company by making tough decisions fast. One of the clearest examples was shifting part of our operation from transporting industrial gases to medical oxygen and setting up 24/7 distribution to hospitals when it mattered most.
Alongside that, we accelerated technology that we would normally have rolled out over years and renegotiated contracts that no longer reflected the reality we were operating in. That period left a mark on all of us, and for our company specifically, it changed how seriously we take strategic planning. We now give real weight to identifying these kinds of risks in advance and defining mitigation plans that can be triggered quickly, rather than improvised from zero when the moment comes.
Is there a specific achievement, project, or milestone in your career you are especially proud of?
There are many projects and milestones I could point to, but what I’m most proud of is something bigger than any single shipment: building a Peruvian company that has now lasted more than 40 years, grown around a strong purpose and a clear set of core values. That has given us a reputation and credibility that took decades to earn, a team with real commitment to what we do, and customers who stay loyal for many years rather than moving to whoever offers the lowest rate that month.
I’m also especially proud of the jobs we’ve created along the way. We employ more than 300 people formally, in a country where 80% of the economy is informal. Being able to offer that stability and formality to so many families, for this long, is something that really makes me proud.
Since joining, what has been the most useful or valuable part of the network for your company?
Since joining, what has stood out most is how close the members are. There’s a genuine sense of cooperation and a willingness to build trustworthy, long-term business together, with everyone acting with a real sense of urgency and always looking for ways to improve what we can offer our customers.
We felt like part of the family from day one, and that’s something special. Working as part of a team rather than operating independently makes a real difference, both in the quality of what we can offer and in how much more enjoyable the work becomes.
What’s one thing you think makes this network different from other professional associations or logistics groups?
If I had to name one thing, it would be the closeness, the cooperation, and the genuine commitment members have to each other’s objectives. It’s not just a group of companies that happen to be in the same directory. There is real investment in each other’s success, and that’s what sets it apart from other associations I’ve come across.
What is one small thing that always makes your workday better?
How people treat each other. We might never know what someone else is going through personally, but I believe we can always make their day a little better simply by being kind and polite. It’s a small thing, but it’s something we give real importance to at Transber.
Thank you, Antonio, for sharing your story, experience, and perspective with us. It was a pleasure featuring you in The Voice of Atlas
