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In this episode of LatAm Unboxed, Diego Rodríguez speaks with Santiago Saviñón, CGO of 99minutos, a company named after 99-minute delivery. Today, less than 1% of its shipments arrive that fast—and that’s not a failure. It’s a reflection of how Latin American e-commerce has changed. After years of chasing ever-faster delivery promises, merchants and consumers have largely decided that reliability matters more than speed.
That shift forced 99minutos to rethink its business. What began as a last-mile delivery startup evolved into an integrated supply chain operator spanning fulfillment, freight, cross-border logistics, and tailor-made operations across the region.
Along the way, Santiago learned lessons that rarely appear in business school case studies: how infrastructure gaps shape growth, why informality remains a competitive reality, how Shein and Temu accelerated e-commerce adoption while local logistics players disappeared, and why the industry’s biggest bottleneck may not be the last mile at all. In fact, he argues the real constraint sits upstream, where freight capacity, customs congestion, and a shortage of truck drivers are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Click on the audio player above to learn:
- How 99minutos evolved from a 99-minute delivery company into an integrated supply chain operator
- Why merchants moved away from quick commerce and back to 2–3 day delivery promises
- Why freight—not last mile—may be the biggest logistics bottleneck in Latin America
Hear why speed no longer defines how logistics works in Latin America.
Hosted by Diego Rodríguez Paez, director of AMI’s logistics practice, LatAm Unboxed delivers you a quick, direct dive into logistics and industrial developments from an expert perspective. Diego’s work in overseeing over 150 market studies of all aspects of LatAm logistics has given him a deep understanding of market forces, industry challenges, regulatory changes and other currents producing constant change—as well as the strategic shifts companies can make in navigating those currents.
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