As we increasingly rely on international economies, the logistics industry has grown. Its market size is on pace to eclipse $12 billion by 2027.
Even so, shipping companies and retailers are losing out on a significant percentage of the profits due to inefficient practices, unnecessary middlemen costs, theft, cyber attacks and food spoilage. Mislabeled, mis-shipped and stolen cargo alone accounts for at least $50 billion in losses every year.
Fortunately, blockchain can help.
Blockchain Logistics
Distributed and decentralized ledgers reduce bottlenecks and clerical errors. Using smart contracts, retailers no longer need brokerages, lawyers or other third parties to complete tasks. Smart contracts enable retailers and logistics companies to enter binding agreements that will immediately dissolve if all agreed-upon stipulations aren’t met. These ledger-based contracts increase transparency and profits while decreasing delivery time and costly errors.
The logistic field is primed for a technological upgrade, and a distributed ledger is the next big thing thanks to its transparent recordings, reduced costs and efficient route information. Coupled with emerging technologies like big data and artificial intelligence, blockchain could even increase the global GDP by $1.76 trillion from 2020 to 2030.
Here are 22 examples of companies using blockchain’s logistics capabilities.
Blockchain in Logistics Examples
Blockchain in Logistics Examples
- Accenture
- Microsoft
- IBM
- Oracle
- Slync.io
- Chronicled
- Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA)
- Sweetbridge, Inc.
- Guardtime
- Blockfreight
Founded: 1989
Location: New York, New York
Accenture partners with companies like Mastercard and Amazon Web Services to execute its Circular supply chain program. Businesses can verify identities with facial recognition features, complete quicker payments and trace transactions along supply chains with blockchain technology. It then becomes easier for logistics organizations to deliver more consistent and uninterrupted service.
Founded: 1975
Location: Redmond, Washington
Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure simplifies logistics tasks with blockchain technology. Azure’s blockchain features can track items along supply chains, which helps groups like pharmaceutical and perishable food companies follow compliance standards. The platform also builds decentralized networks between financial institutions, facilitating faster transactions.
Founded: 1911
Location: Armonk, New York
To instill more confidence in supply chain data, IBM equips supply chain networks with blockchain technology. The IBM Blockchain initiative applies distributed ledgers to define company-specific rules, create smart contracts and develop immutable records of data. As a result, organizations can secure their information while providing approved individuals with a holistic picture of their data.
Founded: 1977
Location: Austin, Texas
Oracle offers a streamlined blockchain experience with its SaaS solution Intelligent Track and Trace. The supply chain application records data from multiple sources and tracks shipments from start to finish, providing a comprehensive view of logistics processes. With the ability to check the status of products at any point, businesses can find ways to speed up their operations and reduce costs.
Founded: 2017
Location: Dallas, Texas
Slync.io combines blockchain and AI to give retailers, manufacturers and suppliers real-time insights into all of their local and global shipments. The platform allows shippers to automate monotonous workflows, predict bottlenecks or challenges in a logistics process and even get a real-time overview of shipment activity.
Founded: 2014
Location: San Francisco, California
Chronicled combines blockchain with AI and IoT devices to automate traceability and instantaneously approve financial transactions in the shipping industry. Chronicled’s blockchain-enabled IoT devices give logistics companies better insights into environmental conditions and transfer-of-custody processes. As a result, businesses can securely and efficiently move their products all over the world.
Founded: 2017
Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee
The Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) was created as a forum for the logistics industry to discuss and develop plans for implementing ledger technology in shipping. The alliance works on common standards and practices for the industry while attempting to educate professionals on the benefits of blockchain. Logistics behemoths like UPS, FedEx, Uber Freight, Union Pacific Railroad and project44 are just a handful of BiTA’s member companies.
Founded: 2016
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Sweetbridge focuses on liquidity and flexibility in the supply chain. The company uses blockchain to help free up billions of dollars that are currently in limbo over payment disputes. With real-time auditing ledgers, smart contracts and Sweetbridge’s own crypto, Sweetcoin, payment disputes can be settled in seconds rather than days or weeks.
Founded: 2007
Location: Palo Alto, California
Guardtime’s blockchain for maritime logistics aims to correct industry issues stemming from inefficiency as well as lack of trust and transparency. The company’s ledger uses smart encrypted contracts and decentralized shipping tracking to quickly verify data in a way that protects it from cyber attacks and manipulation.
Founded: 2017
Location: San Francisco, California
Blockfreight develops blockchain-based technologies that eliminate wasteful payments throughout the traditional shipping process. The company’s software platform currently runs on the Bitcoin blockchain to facilitate easier payments and safer transactions between parties in a supply chain.
Founded: 2017
Location: Newport Beach, California
MuleChain is a decentralized P2P personal delivery network. Using blockchain-based smart contracts, shippers enter into agreements with “mules” who are headed to the same destination. Once the parties hash out a price, mules personally deliver the shippers’ items. All involved put up MCX tokens as collateral. Once shipping is complete, mules receive the tokens as payment.
Founded: 2017
Location: Sunrise, Florida
The dexFreight platform features an industry-first, blockchain-backed P2P marketplace for shipping and hauling. It includes everything from encrypted identity management to smart contracts and tokenized payments, all of which help to reduce friction and increase transparency in the P2P supply chain market.
Founded: 2016
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
OpenPort’s blockchain is designed to modernize cash flow issues that often arise in the traditional logistics process. The company’s digital ePOD (electronic proof-of-delivery) provides indisputable evidence of cash flow as well as a digital contract that enforces payments to all parties involved in the shipping process.
Founded: 2014
Location: Mountain View, California
Skuchain creates a variety of ledger technologies for the logistics industry. The company’s Popcodes (Proof-of-Provenance codes) provide track-and-trace technology for valuable items in a shipment. The Zero Knowledge Collaboration tool gives companies permissioned access to data and details about other supply chain parties in order to increase the overall level of trust.
Founded: 2013
Location: San Leandro, California
SyncFab focuses on the manufacturing supply chain. Its platform lets users access real-time product manufacturing quotes, lock into detail-oriented deals with factories and shippers via smart contracts and even track the product creation process. The company’s services have been used by Amazon, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Google, among many others.
Founded: 2017
Location: Greenville, South Carolina
ShipChain built a blockchain-backed logistics platform to support the shipping process from end-to-end. The platform allows all parties on the chain to receive updated information on a container’s whereabouts, as well as estimated arrival times, via encrypted public ledgers.
Founded: 2017
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
CargoLedger builds blockchain-based software for the logistics industry. Primarily focused on reducing physical and time waste, the company has implemented personalized blockchain technologies into all aspects of the logistics process.
Founded: 2016
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Pharma-focused Modum offers blockchain-enabled products that manage the production and shipment of medicines. The company’s temperature monitors, en-route tracking and smart contracts all work to ensure that medicines arrive safely and on time.
Founded: 2017
Location: Hong Kong, China
300cubits’ tokens are cryptocurrency for the logistics world. By locking into smart contracts and using the company’s TEU tokens, retailers ensure that they will provide a certain quantity of products to ship, and shipping companies set deadlines and quality standards for their shipping processes. The TEU tokens bring an element of trust to a sometimes trust-less process.
Founded: 2013
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
SkyCell’s shipping containers are designed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry, made of recycled materials and contain temperature barriers to protect the most sensitive medicines. SkyCell is placing its entire infrastructure on a decentralized blockchain platform.
Founded: 2014
Location: London, England
Provenance uses blockchain to increase transparency in the retail industry. In order to give consumers a better idea of its business practices, Provenance encourages retailers to document the origination of their products and showcase their supply chains on a ledger. Provenance’s goal in using blockchain is to hold retailers accountable while helping members make higher-quality, more trustable products.
Founded: 1923
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Koopman Logistics is an automotive transportation company that uses blockchain to ship cars all over the world. By employing the ledger technology, it reduces paper supply, quickens the payment process and makes the shipping process more secure. In April 2018, Koopman became the world’s first automotive logistics company to deliver a vehicle via a completely paperless blockchain process.