my @columns = (
      [ 0 , 9 ], # position,width
      [ 13, 14],
      # ...
);
while( <$the_file> ){
   chomp;
   my @data = ();
   for my $spec ( @columns ){
      push @data , substr($_,@$spec)
   }
   print join('|',@data),"\n";
}