Panalpina, a leading provider of supply chain solutions, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) — a forum of leading tech and transportation companies looking to develop blockchain standards in the freight industry.
Panalpina has over 10 years of experience in freight forwarding and hopes to leverage their knowledge to develop blockchain into a true disruptor in the industry.
BiTA features a large member base of technology and transportation companies that collaborate to develop and push the implementation of standard practices in blockchain, while education market-wide operators on its benefits.
BiTA president, Chris Burruss, said: “Our goal is to bring together leading companies in the freight and technology industries that have a vested interest in the development of blockchain technology.
“As an asset-light company with a very long history in the freight forwarding and logistics industry, Panalpina’s contribution will be very valuable.”
While blockchain adoption in the freight forwarding and logistics is not widespread, vendors and customers have already begun showing interest in Panalpina and their solutions.
Panalpina sees blockchain as holding many advantages for the industry, including better tracking or orders and an increase in transparency leading to improved customer trust.
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The company has highlighted the major benefit for this in the perishables market, where products can be reliably tracked from farms to grocery stores — allowing for precise reports and quick recalls.
Chief information officer at Panalpina, Ralf Morawietz, commented: “It is likely that many blockchain clusters will emerge, for example centered around ports and customs authorities, carrier groupings, as well as third-party logistics providers and regional logistics networks.
“When it comes to using blockchain applications and managing and interacting with all these different clusters, we have chosen a twofold approach that will be coordinated by a new digital innovation unit.”
Panalpina’s head of digital innovation, Luca Graf, said: “On the one hand, we will look at ways to integrate blockchain technology in complex core systems in the long run.
“Here the focus is clearly on reliability, standardization and partnerships with bigger, established companies.
“We will also take part in the wider industry discussion in this context.
“On the other hand, we will run pilots and trials using blockchain, likely together with start-ups. The focus here lies on exploration and specific market and customer needs.”
