Innovation
Boosting Innovation in Brazil’s Logistics Sector
At VLI, innovation and digital logistics are essential tools that help us accelerate our mission, allowing us to test and develop new models that will shape the future of logistics.
By empowering teams, refining processes, and adopting emerging technologies, we are building an ecosystem that redefines logistics—offering more competitive and sustainable solutions while positioning VLI at the forefront of industry transformation.
Building the future means acting in the present.
Integração de inovações aos ativos existentes, com foco em escalabilidade e novas oportunidades de processos, produtos, serviços e tecnologias.
Our Technology, Innovation, and Digital Transformation hub connects the present to the future VLI aims to build, driving progress and growth. The entire hub strategy is aligned with the key drivers of the company’s strategic map.
The hub concentrates its innovation and digital efforts on key transformation areas in the Logistics and Transportation sector, driven by new business models and technologies that rely heavily on connectivity.
We have developed an ambitious program, which includes a roap of 40 key projects focused on Industry 4.0 aspects, aimed at driving innovation across three stages. It aims to stabilize and optimize operations through process automation, data-driven decision-making, and the application of disruptive technologies in the company’s operational and maintenance routines. It also focuses on AI-assisted asset management, ed by powerful and adaptable simulation tools, while ensuring automated maintenance with better visibility and predictability. Additionally, it strengthens integrated and optimized operational planning and scheduling, enabling more accurate decision-making across the entire multimodal system.
Innovation is also at the core of our efforts to ensure a safer workplace for our people, optimize fuel consumption, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our operations, contributing to our ESG agenda.
Through innovation, technology, and a commitment to operational excellence and sustainability, we continuously reinvent our company to generate greater value for our business and clients. For all these reasons, we believe that shaping VLI’s future is about revolutionizing logistics in Brazil.
Inova VLI
Inspiring people. Connecting ideas.
Inova VLI is part of VLI’s Technology, Innovation, and Digital Transformation Hub. As the company’s innovation accelerator, it connects strategic business priorities with agile and efficient solutions to address both our challenges and those of our clients, connecting the present and the transformation we aim to achieve.
Innovation and Digital Transformation Initiatives
Inova VLI Entrepreneurs Program
Designed to promote intrapreneurship within the company, the program encourages a culture of innovation and helps our employees build their innovation skills. Through access to methodologies, tools, and mentorship, employees address business challenges and clients needs, aiming to develop innovative products and new business opportunities through efficient and sustainable solutions.
Since its first edition in 2019, the program has focused on solving challenges in areas like data, customer relations, new business, ESG, and operational efficiency.
In teams, employees submit their ideas, which are evaluated through a series of stages. The selected ideas undergo a process of deeper analysis of the problems and solution development, ed by the Innovation team and specialists. The most promising ones become VLI initiatives or new business ventures, with their progress tracked by the Innovation team and related departments.
Key Figures:
- 5 editions
- Over 1000 employee participants
- 12 incubated projects
- +80h of mentoring per edition
New Business Initiatives (Inova VLI Ventures & Inova VLI Seeds)
At VLI, disruption fuels our strategy, guiding our efforts to grow through innovative business models. To turn this vision into reality, VLI launched Inova VLI Ventures, a program designed to create, accelerate, and incubate innovative businesses that enhance the logistical competitiveness of both our clients and our company.
Inova VLI Ventures follows a well-defined framework, with solid governance and strategic direction that guide initiatives from concept creation to development and implementation. The program aims to generate disruptive new businesses that address our clients’ needs, expand VLI’s strategic focus with a market-driven perspective, and secure a significant share of revenue from new ventures.
Our Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) strategy also allows us to invest in startups and early-stage companies, with a focus on agritechs and logtechs.
Key Figures:
- 1 new scalable business (Trato)
- 5 new businesses in development (Brasil Agritest, Afretamento, Armazena, SemC, Cargoflex)
Inovação Aberta Program
Inovação Aberta Program plays a crucial role in our strategy, helping us collaborate with the innovation ecosystem, our clients, and external partners to solve critical challenges and create shared value.
To achieve this, we integrate VLI into the innovation ecosystem through the launch of challenges, active prospecting, participation in matchmaking sessions, presence in strategic hubs, and the organization of design sessions and mentorship programs between our leadership and external partners. This approach enables the generation and execution of ideas with varying levels of uncertainty, maximizing results for the company and our clients, with a particular focus on solutions that enhance operational and energy efficiency.
By collaborating with startups, universities, science and technology institutes, companies in the supply chain, clients, and other partners, we accelerate our goal of transforming the country’s logistics, while exploring solutions for the initiatives in our portfolio.
Key Figures:
- 40+ active contracts with startups in the company
- 700+ connections made with startups, universities, and science and technology institutes
- 200+ pitches submitted to VLI and companies in the sector
Innovation and Agility Culture
A key element to our success in innovation and digital transformation is creating an environment that encourages experimentation and co-creation. One of the behaviors that will guide us toward achieving our objectives is ‘we innovate with courage and simplicity’.
We promote an organizational culture where collaboration and creativity are valued. It creates an environment where our employees feel empowered to explore new ideas and take calculated risks, leading to the development of more innovative and impactful projects.
At VLI, several initiatives contribute to building this environment. One of them is the Digital and Innovation Roap, which is designed to share knowledge and concepts in the areas of products, agility, and innovation, contributing to our ability to deliver results. Focused on strengthening the business agility and entrepreneurial skills of our employees, the program has already involved more than 7,000 participants so far.
Additional Innovation Opportunities
Continuous Improvement Conventions
Still focusing on intrapreneurship, we annually organize the Continuous Improvement Conventions. A total of 230 projects were ed in 2024, aiming to improve VLI’s processes for increased efficiency and productivity. Additionally, this program engages more than a thousand participants, reinforcing the idea that integrated teams can tackle challenges and accelerate progress.
TRATO Platform
TRATO is a logistics optimization platform developed by VLI, designed to deliver business solutions by combining intelligence, technology, and management expertise. Its goal is to optimize and enhance efficiency across clients’ supply chains while adding value for logistics partners. With a strong focus on productivity and efficiency, TRATO offers end-to-end solutions for shippers, transport companies, and other logistics stakeholders.
With advanced technology and automation, our platform connects different players in the logistics chain, optimizing the entire journey—from planning and hiring services to execution and payment.
VLI has been offering multimodal services to its clients since 2019, when we launched TRATO to a broader and more complete logistics solution. Since then, we have achieved significant milestones, enhancing the partnership and the quality of service delivered by VLI.
By combining multimodality with an integrated ecosystem of products and services, we ensure a more agile transportation process, reducing idle periods and improving resource efficiency. With TRATO, clients, carriers, and logistics players have access to a solution that structures, optimizes, and enhances logistics flows—increasing productivity and profitability with every operation.
In the last 5 years, we have achieved significant results, such as:
+30 clients have contracted VLI’s multimodal services
13.3 million tons transported via road transport
2.7 million road transport operations scheduled and monitored via TRATO
98.9 million tons scheduled at VLI terminals and ports
1,4 million tons transported via TRATO’s road logistics network
Hundreds of millions of reais in revenue through TRATO
Learn more about other examples of VLI's innovation initiatives:
Chartering
Our goal is to expand VLI’s presence in the maritime sector, reinforcing our commitment to adding value in multimodal transportation. We provide vessels for export, import, and cabotage cargo, ensuring a more integrated logistics solution for our clients.
Brasil Agritest
To meet the growing national grain production, especially soybeans—one of the crops with the highest global expansion potential, with Brazil as its leading producer and exporter—VLI made a financial investment in the startup Brasil Agritest in 2023. This partnership aims to develop an automated and innovative process that uses national technology to optimize soybean quality classification.
Fuelytics
This initiative is implemented across all our logistics network, and, aside from being innovative, it is aligned with our decarbonization and energy efficiency strategy. Fuelytics helps reduce fuel consumption by prioritizing operational actions identified through mathematical modeling. As a result, the company saved over 3 million liters of diesel in three years, preventing the emission of 7,000 tons of CO² into the atmosphere.
Ship Loading and Unloading Planning System (Speed)
The Ship Loading and Unloading Planning System, also known as Speed, uses naval calculations and Artificial Intelligence to simulate operational scenarios and develop optimized cargo handling plans.
The tool balances the company’s ports’ maximum operational capacity with vessel stability limits, optimizing resource utilization while ensuring compliance with stability requirements. This allows for the best use of each vessel type, ultimately driving greater productivity in our operations, ultimately improving client satisfaction.
Speed has achieved significant results in of efficiency improvements. In specific operations, the system reduced equipment idle time by up to 62% during operational hours, significantly improving operational agility. The tool also helped increase the commercial rate by 2%. This rate is a key performance indicator that measures the average volume of cargo loaded during the entire duration of the vessel’s stay at the port. These advancements were made while also reducing operational costs, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Speed solution in optimizing operational processes and enhancing the profitability of port operations.
SemC
Through SemC, VLI helps its clients neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions of their transport operations by using carbon credits associated with each operation.
The initiative emerged from the company’s intrapreneurship program, designed to ensure resource optimization for our clients and provide full traceability and auditability of the greenhouse gas offsetting process.
While rail transport is more sustainable compared to road transport due to lower greenhouse gas emissions, it still has some impact due to the combustion of fossil fuels. In this context, VLI is a pioneer in the rail sector, addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas offsetting.
The process involves VLI’s direct integration of carbon credits with its rail operations, making VLI an indispensable link in this chain. This integration helps our clients and society reduce the carbon footprint of transportation by offsetting greenhouse gas emissions generated by the rail transport operations.
As a result of the company's commitment to innovation and its collaboration with various external partners, the recognitions below highlight the success the company has achieved on its chosen path, such as:
