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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.
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
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).
every location, every time frame, every employee can slow things down at big hubs or pass though points there it stays in a big crate till detestation.
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.
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Will blockchain stop them from lying about "We went to your house and you weren't there" whenever they can't meet their 48-hour delivery garantee?
If not then what does this actually help? Are they going to make their ledger public domain and pay tens of thousands of non-Fedex miners to work 24/7 on the signatures to make sure there's too much external computing power for a Fedex employee to be able to falsify any information.
Because if not ... "blockchain" is just another buzzword that a manager is using to get himself a new office.
No sig today...
"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.
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.
They already can do that. If they aren't already, it's because they've chosen not to.
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?
Unless they are planning to compete with Registered Mail for the tiny market segment of shipping material whose provenance must be traceable, I have some trouble seeing why Fedex would bother with blockchain.
Might be useful for airline small package services which are a traditional and time tested tool for losing objects one never wants to see again. Rumor has it that Jimmy Hoffa's body was shipped hoem by an airline small package service.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
"(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.
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.
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.
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."
Maybe... No reason why you couldn't mount something on your front door that digitally signs for stuff using your private key. Then they can sign a timestamp to prove they were there, and it can send you a notification in real time.
It could also record if they actually rang the doorbell and how many seconds later you opened the door. They could double sign to prove they waited at least 30 seconds.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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Blockchain doesn't mean public. Hyperledger for example is mainly focused on private distributed ledgers.
But it could really help if different companies and agents are involved in the shipping of a package.
You don't need super computer power either to add new blocks to the chain. That's just how it's done with crypto-currencies, but you can use different consensus algorithms that do no need a bit-crunching operation.
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.)