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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.
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).
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.
Ah, trust problems and FedEx....
A few years ago I sold a car part online. Shipped it off and a couple weeks later I got an stressed-out email from the buyer asking where his purchase was.
Checked tracking... it had gotten to a FedEx facility in Ohio and within a few days of my shipping it and was never seen or heard from again.
FedEx made me wait (what seemed like forever to the buyer) so they could investigate before they'd pay the insurance claim on a lost package.
Waited, waited, waited. Finally they got back to me saying it had been delivered in July. Trouble is, I shipped my package in August (and the date I generated the label and all the tracking before it disappeared indicated this).
It was a shockingly long and tedious argument with their agent saying it was delivered and me trying to figure out whether they used a souped up Delorean or a Tardis or what to deliver it a month before I shipped it.
In the end they finally paid out the insurance claim on the lost package, but they made the experience so completely terrible that I've never shipped with FedEx since.
http://dilbert.com/strip/2011-01-07
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
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.