How will Blockchain technology impact the logistics industry?

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• February 17, 2018

The blockchain is gaining momentum with every passing day. Whether it is about financial transactions or logistics management, this technology is finding application in all the domains. We will be focusing here on logistic industry and how blockchain can bring a revolutionary transformation in this industry. Owing to a multitude of features and versatility, many entrepreneurs are now eyeing at this technology to transform the industry and way of doing business.

The need for creating a transparent system and ensuring security has made Blockchain so popular. As the popularity of this technology grows, there is always a need for more information regarding blockchain for better and efficient implementation of this technology.

Port of Rotterdam is testing blockchain logistics to enhance the level of transparency in the logistics industry.

Why Blockchain?

The next question that might pop up in your mind would be why so much stress on this technology when there are other developments taking place. The reason behind this is the proposed list of benefits which it offers. From transparency to immutability to security, blockchain has all the benefits enlisted under its umbrella making it so popular.

Any business including the logistic industry runs on few basic requirements, the likes of which include:

• Transparency
• Safety
• Accessibility
• Security

The blockchain is one technology which offers all these benefits along with many others. Thus, with the help of just one technology, the logistics companies can solve multiple purposes, and thus it becomes a hot selling cake.

The blockchain is a distributed database which has all the information stored in chronological order. The information is stored in the form of blocks and is visible to all the people in the network.

How Can Blockchain Technology revolutionize the logistics industry?

I have already mentioned about the key features about blockchain which are highly beneficial for any industry. Logistic industry involves many players, the customer, manufacturers, supplier, auditor, etc. With the help of blockchain technology, the aim is to benefit every player in the chain. Here I will be highlighting how blockchain can prove beneficial for the logistics industry.

Let’s get started:

• Transparency for the customer- The ultimate goal of any business to ensure transparency with the customers. With blockchain technology coming into the picture, the customer can easily track the journey of the product before it reaches their hand. The entire chain of product manufacturing, packaging, supply, and delivery can be easily traced with the help of this technology. The idea is to sync Blockchain with IoT like RFID, Tags, QR Codes, etc. Once the information gets stored in the blockchain, it cannot be deleted. The customer can scan the QR codes, RFID and they can see all the information related to the product on their smartphone. Although it may sound a bit astounding to you as of now, with the kind of developments taking place in this domain, we can soon see its practical application in our daily lives.
• Transparency for Auditor- Since all the history of transactions is sealed in the blocks and gets stored in the ledger, the auditors can easily verify and check it. They can easily understand where each product and items have gone.
• Security- Security is yet another important which blockchain has to offer. Since all the information present in blockchain is immutable and unalterable, there is the least probability for anyone to make any changes in the same. In case someone tries to do it, it will become easily visible to everyone in the network, owing to the public ledger feature of the same.

As mentioned above  Port of Rotterdam is planning to undertake a two-year project to understand the scope and use of blockchain in the logistics division.

Benefits of blockchain in  Nutshell

• Better transparency
• Enhanced security
• Greater Scalability

Takeaways-

We are living in a world where every new change lays the foundation for a better tomorrow. Despite being at a nascent stage, blockchain is like an active volcano which is erupting new wave of change in all business domain. Logistic industry can derive huge efforts out of it if the technology. It will not only create an efficient system, but at the same time with the help of this technology, we can establish customer trust and loyalty which is the ultimate business goal for any company.