Challenge 9: delays caused by criminal activities
The LPI data reviewed in Section 3 showed that delays due to criminal activities,
particularly the making of informal payments such as “speed money,” are an important
impediment to trade logistics performance in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, such delays
not only affect timeliness, they also add to the direct and indirect costs borne by logistics
operators. There is also an element of uncertainty – a lack of reliability – involved in
speed money payments, because there is an aspect of negotiation involved in each
payment. Delays due to criminal activities of this type therefore affect supply chain
performance in its three key dimensions of time, cost, and reliability