Blockchain Technology – Innovation for Better Collaboration and Increased Efficiency. The U.S. Logistics and Trucking Industry Case

Abstract

The U.S. logistics and transportation industry have undergone substantial technological advancements over the last two decades. Simultaneously, customers’ demand for same-day shipment has also increased dramatically, as has the amount of online transactions resulting in accelerated delivery. Latest technological changes have enabled commercial transportation businesses to efficiently service an all-time high demand while also adapting to shifting consumer tastes and expectations. According to American Trucking Associations (ATA), commercial trucks moved around 72.5% of the country’s freight in 2020 which accounted for 732.3 billion USD in the same year. The industry employed 7.65 million people in total and nearly half of them were truck drivers. 1 Despite all these success and positive changes, the U.S. transportation industry has yet to overcome many core issues out of which most important one is the collaboration between parties within the industry. There is a huge gap in terms of communication between the shipper and the carrier because of the freight brokers’ intervention. Moreover, there are other fundamental issues as well such as inefficiency, traceability of the loads, transparency of the transactions and overall reliability that the industry is in need for sole control tower which contains all the unbiased data. Blockchain technology has emerged as a potential solution to address these challenges and this new technology is spurring a great interest in the U.S. logistics sphere. However, the question still remains the same if the companies and their management are prepared and capable enough to deploy this new technology.