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FedEx Sees Blockchain as 'Next Frontier' For Logistics (bloomberg.com)
Convinced that blockchain is on the brink of transforming the package-delivery business, FedEx is testing the technology to track large, higher-value cargo. From a report: "We're quite confident that it has big, big implications in supply chain, transportation and logistics," Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said at a blockchain conference in New York. "It's the next frontier that's going to completely change worldwide supply chains." Blockchain uses computer code to record every step of a transaction and delivery in a permanent digital ledger, providing transparency. The ledger can't be changed unless all involved agree, reducing common disputes over issues like time stamps, payments and damages. FedEx's interest in blockchain and the Internet of Things are part of the company's strategy to improve customer service and fend off competition, Smith said.
is if you don't trust FedEx's information to not change and the ledger is made public with enough nodes so FedEx can't do a 51% attack. With that said, we've had several packages where FedEx changed history on tracking so they created this trust problem in the first place.
is getting purchased by amazon or driven into obscurity because the people sending the packages will own the transmission system
vertical integration bitches
The stock reportedly rose 4000% on the news of Blockchain!
They looked out on the horizon and saw IBM coming for them.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I don't care what tracking they do internally. I care if I receive the package.
If FedEx has a problem with its internal shipping guys, blockchain isn't going to make Fred the Package Stealer suddenly behave - he can scan the blockchain bar code just as easily as he scans the centralized bar code.
This MIGHT allow them to use say, Billy's UberX to make some local deliveries / do intermediate steps, but it comes down to trust. Someone is liable if it goes missing. FedEx is still liable to me. FedEx knows it handed the package to Billy.
of Iceland because we don't trust Fed Ex and can't find another company we can trust.
Brilliant. freak'n brilliant.
If FedEx needs blockchain verification of package delivery, they're fucked.
The packages are either delivered or they're not. If the package is delivered, no one cares. If it isn't, having a blockchain-verified "It wasn't my fault!" from FedEx doesn't matter. It just means the shipper uses UPS the next time - exactly the same as not having a blockchain-verified transcript
Any company that says "blockchain" is a BUY!
In terms of handling the packages, a block chain can be used to identify every location, every time frame, every employee, every vehicle involved in the delivery. That is a PRO.
If FedEx even attempts to require some form of Crypto currency be used as payment, then as many have said already: "They will be subject to a military attack".
Crypto currencies are a far bigger threat than climate change, and A.I. combined.
Because FedEx gives a discount to NRA members. Total pointless gesture by overpaid bureaucrats. FedEX sucks ass though, so I'm not mad.
This is about having a valid chain of trust. If all parties agree on a public ledger of transactions on the package logistics then the issues on disputes / lost items etc will go down.
The blockchains brought us bitcoin and similar "currencies", however they also brought a way to have a public eye on transactions. Like financial markets, package logistics is a complex business and having all parties agree upon terms and actions might really be useful.
(btw i think I might have some fedex stock, so a disclosure here is probably necessary).
you don't pay fedex for shit
if you had customers you'd sure as hell be paying for tracking
they don'tknow or care how to login to a webzone and would rather hassle a cs rep
Blockchain uses computer code to record every step of a transaction and delivery in a permanent digital ledger, providing transparency
Strange - I've been familiar with how blockchain technology works since 2012, and that doesn't sound like blockchain technology to me. Maybe they mean that they have developed some sort of custom enhancement? Couldn't they just record all this in their own database? Being light on specifics it's hard to see how blockchain technology is helping them at all here, unless it's to raise their stock price by throwing around the latest technology buzzwords without knowing what they mean.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I find it interesting when healthcare and logistics gigacorps announce they will be using blockchain for seemingly one of the things it's actually good for. Interesting because they would never in a million years actually use it the way required to gain the benefit touted.
Since TFA is about logistics, let's dig into that. The main benefits of blockchain for logistics is having every node along a supply chain use it. Thus, when ACME meats does a query to get data about BigHay Feedco's shipment #1234 of feed, they get the data from bale #425 which is part of that, which came from farmer #4867, field #6, on 2018/05/12 and the water quality/environmental testing data of AssuranceCo for field #6 on that date can also be pulled. Each node along the way can use the data they are interested in how they want, and it's all on the chain so no one is marshaling queries and you have integrity assurance.
If only ACME meats publishes data on the finished product, and it's on a chain only used by ACME meats and no other meatco, all of those nifty benefits go away. It's useless.
The biggest benefit of a blockchain in such a complex market chain, is to bring information parity to the consumer, where right now, there is usually a singular player with assymmetric market information, the gigacorp. And that's exactly how they became a gigacorp, exploiting information asymmetry in the market. So for one to claim they will be using blockchain to do something that would have them start playing fair and give up their big capitalist cheat code is absurd.
Maybe they can also teach you the difference between 'there' and 'their'.
http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-01-07
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I'm thinking about putting my ween on the blockchain! It would be decentralized, so more of the ladies would have access to it!!
Then comes the Lambo's!!!!
And the fall of the entire banking system!!!!
Buttcoin!
Maybe they can also teach you the difference between 'there' and 'their'.
I doubt it.
A decade of elementary school didn't.
"Work done" can be confirmation from both client and driver that delivery was made rather than mining.
This is actually an interesting idea. Transparency within the system is one of the key weak points in logistical tracking today.
Ass-backwards IT bullshit. But it beats doing real work eh guys?
Blockchain is a dead technology. First off, it started as a scam to make someone very, very rich. Put an Anarchist manifesto behind it to attract gullible rubes. Then once it takes off, let thousands of people make their own blockchains in hopes of becoming rich. Pump and dump. Pump and dump. Wash, rinse, repeat.
To top it all off, make sure to drain power grids by mining what's only exists in the imagination. California and Nevada can't supply enough electricity to cool buildings, while these crypto Bozos are using enough electricity to power Iceland.
An honest review from someone who has never bought into the system and likely will never do so.
They cannot even agree on a standard exchange of status reports. Ignoring all other standards (like X12, RosettaNet, UBL, ...), just looking at the logistics companies who use UN/EDIFACT IFTSTA messages to report a status. They all use it differently, in some cases even not even adhering to the standards as defined by the format.
So.. is this just some cynical ploy to get their customers to foot the bill for server costs rather than pay to have someone maintain a traditional database with redundancy? I fail to see how this helps with 'transparency' when they would be the ones actually inputting all the transactions, so they can still put garbage in.
Do you mine block chains? Or are you confusing mining crypto currency?
you don't pay fedex for shit
if you had customers you'd sure as hell be paying for tracking
they don'tknow or care how to login to a webzone and would rather hassle a cs rep
So, hypothetically, if they delivered the package that's supposed to go to your Boise branch office to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, with a fully digitally signed tracking ledger... would you pay them?
You're not paying for tracking. You're paying for delivery. Tracking is just live status of your delivery. It's not the product.
Yes. The chain of custody of evidence. Few are self authenticating.
As stated high value assets. You donâ(TM)t know what that is with your cheap 5k purchase.
Aaaand blockchain helps, how, exactly?
No sig today...
Fedex Freight fails to send EDI on roughly 2% of what we ship with them. Apparently this is due to mis-keying information off the shipping documents. Who cares about blockchain when they're still using manual keying of shipping reference data?
Instead of looking into Blockchain, how about FedEx look into why they can't get parcels to people reliably?
In my experience they are the absolute worst. I've had them deliver packages to the wrong address (should be impossible since GPS location won't match the delivery address), claim attempted deliveries that never occurred and not allow me to pick my package up at a FedEx location.
"(Blockchain will)....completely change worldwide supply chains"
So we're going to have a code that essentially encapsulates a record of everything that happens during a shipment? Wow I'm so excited.
While blockchain may be slightly* more convenient and concise....this is ALREADY how logistics works.
There is a clear chain of documentation, signatures, and custody from the origin to the destination. For international ocean shipments that may go by truck, then train, then truck again, then ship, then truck, then train, then truck to final delivery this can be a fairly laborious set of documents but I can assure it's absolutely concise - indicating PRECISELY from whom, to whom, and when each of those transfers takes place. Likewise on these documents are tracked the seal numbers which prevent opening/tampering enroute.
Yes, when most of these documents became electronic, life became a lot easier (I started in the business when basically it was all faxes); likewise sure, I believe blockchain will have significant limitations in what it can encode* meaning we're STILL going to have to have an old-fashioned documentary trail to capture completely all the possible variable. So now we have 2 systems where there was one: blockchain tracking optimally 95% of shipments but 5% still requiring the documentary infrastructure. Is that "better"? I'm not sure.
*the real-life variability is...high: I've known of shipments that didn't deliver because the truck driver diverted enroute to commit himself into a mental institution. Or another shipment where the container couldn't be returned empty to the depot because it had become a crime scene where two stowaways from Italy had frozen to death in the nose of a container going to Minneapolis in January. TBH they probably starved to death before they froze, their little backpack of sandwiches and couple jugs of water = not enough for a 4-5 week transit time. I doubt blockchain will have a comprehensive code for those.
Just my $0.02. Been in international logistics nearly 30 years.
-Styopa
when people in a (former) tech news site don't know that there is difference between blockchain and bitcoin, and not all blockchain ledgers need Proof of Work (aka mining) for consensus.
1) blockchain buzzword
2) ???
3) profit
yo go mail a letter at the post office try to track it
then realize you have to buy the upsell to any other mail class to track because that shits a value add service
note how ur paying for tracking
when bestbuy sells you insurance on a blueray no fucking shit its not the product
And you don't know what an apostrophe is with your overpriced iOS device.
Jove640k makes a correct observation. Blockchain technology won't do bupkis for FedEx because FedEx's problems won't be solved by a ledger. A blockchain is simply a ledger.
in any sufficiently big system there are wholes which may make your records go missing, not lost just not being identifiable is enough. On my last encounter with KLM they did it to me - claiming I was not on outbound flight which due to no show up policy cost me dearly on return. Situations like this are not common but can be tragic to persons affected. In my case these were just few hundred of my hard earned money. What about systems that claim you did something that you did not do or vice versa? Smaller the chances bigger the loss because nobody will believe that super duper secure system has had a whole big enough for a human to slip through. Yet it eventually happens. There is no completely secure and completely transparent system that is completely accurate. It is not really a problem with the technology. It is a problem with human mind that says black swans do not exist and cannot process statistical data.
A blockchain is only as good as the information put in it. The problem with disputes Is often what places like fedex employees enter is outright lies. having those lies stamped and recorded forever in a blockchain doesn't suddenly make them trustworthy
Blockchain cures cancer and ends world hunger...
I wish FedEx would teach their drivers how to read!
I've been ordering online since the beginning, and ordering by mail or phone before that. The only problems I've ever had with deliveries have been because of FedEx. Right street, wrong house number. Right house number, wrong street. Right street and right house number, wrong city.
UPS and USPS can read the street signs and my house number. Why can't FedEx? All the new technology in the universe won't help if the drivers can't read.
I don't think they're anywhere NEAR qualified to comment on what's the 'Next Frontier' of anything.
Captcha: stresses . . . Indeed
You can do it all with public key encryption and signing. Then you don't have to worry about the transaction being undone, either.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
This MIGHT allow them to use say, Billy's UberX to make some local deliveries / do intermediate steps, but it comes down to trust. Someone is liable if it goes missing. FedEx is still liable to me. FedEx knows it handed the package to Billy.
We already have a scan for that. I don't know the STAT code because I'm a driver. (hence the AC) but it's "Transferred to outside service provider for delivery". It's in our handhelds.
Au contraire.
Logistics is the next frontier for blockchain.
If fedex blockchains it's blockchain to the blockchain, perhaps blockchain will blockchain the return on their blockchain and improve the blockchain blockchaining blockchain.
BLOCKCHAIN BLOCKCHAIN BLOCKCHAIN!!!
A blockchain is simply a ledger.
...a ledger that needs a large enough number of independent people working on it that nobody can get together enough computing power to falsify it.
With Bitcoin you get a reward for "mining". What will Fedex give people to make them bother donating their CPU to the FedEx cause?
No sig today...
That's a distributed, public blockchain.
I didn't RTFA, but my guess is FedEx's blockchain will be private and controlled entirely by FedEx. (Actually, my guess is that they aren't going to do anything at all with blockchain beyond get their name in the news.)
Actually block chain in logistics can be a benefit because if implemented correctly you should be able to produce a non-refutable chain of custody for any packages that are handled. Now you'll be able to prove to Omaha Steaks or Sherry's Berries that the boxes sat in a FedEx warehouse over a weekend and the cooling packs thawed out and that's why they were ruined when you got them and need replacements.
On second thought, maybe FedEx should rethink that.
Maybe every visitor to their site will have a copy that updates on them revisiting the site. There is probably enough around-the-clock tracking visitors to make it work.
It's what plants crave.