Freight Companies Want Faster Blockchain Adoption, New-Nafta Approval, Purolator President Says

If anything is important in the world of supply chain and logistics, it’s data. Give someone access to your data, and you give them a key to the kingdom, in a sense. 

As you add trading partners, data privacy and security become paramount.

Enter blockchain, a technology that proponents say resists modification of data except by authorized parties. Security is baked in from the beginning, advocates say, and continues throughout a transaction. That’s one of the reasons why Purolator International, an American freight forwarder providing logistics services between the United States and Canada, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance, a multinational organization dedicated to driving adoption of the technology in freight, transportation, logistics and affiliated industries.

“Blockchain is a much more secure way to identify where a shipment is moving through the supply chain,” says John Costanzo, president of Purolator International. “Is it leaving the manufacturer or distributor or has it left the Port of Shanghai or is it on a ship or on its way from L.A. to Minneapolis? Today, you’re dependent on systems of various companies for supply chain tracking data. These systems are good; ours is, certainly. We built it to serve our customers and for their security. We have a rate of less than one percent in loss or damage, but it’s not as granular as this will be with blockchain. So, I think this will be a huge change.” 

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