Rodney Larsen, is a legendary Western Australian truckie. He’s pictured above, in a photo for Farm Weekly, after celebrating more than 30 years on the road. Rod’s carted cattle from Albany to Alice Springs.
Without the Rodneys of the world, forgot about your steak, forget about your roast.
Barry Crimson is the bloke below. He proudly posed for this photo in the Illawarra Mercury after being nominated for the Australian Trucking Association’s, National Professional Driver of the Year award! Micky.com.au can confirm Barry was eventually crowned ‘NSW Professional Driver of the Year’.
The 2nd generation truckie, drives tankers across the country.
Without the Barrys of the world, forget about your fuel, forget about your gas.
These men probably never expected to appear on a cryptocurrency and blockchain website (hello if you’re reading lads!) and they probably never expected the honourable title we’re about the bestow upon them.
Mr. Rondey Larsen and Mr. Barry Crimson, you are…
‘The Unlikely Aussies on the Frontline of the Blockchain Revolution’
Now, let us explain.
A major technological shift is occurring right now in the freight and logistics industries in Australia and the South East Asian region.
Logistics and Freight companies have forever grappled with issues of supply chain productivity, transparency, theft and product authentication.
You can understand why. Think about a single shipment into Australia.
The products could travel from a factory in China, to a wholesaler, to a Chinese port, across the ocean, to a warehouse at Fremantle, by road train to a distributor, then by courier to your house in Sydney! An item could go missing at any time and in most cases there’s little accountability.
Enter Blockchain – A distributed ledger makes it possible to securely track and archive movements, because every transaction is recorded on a block and across multiple copies of the ledger that are distributed over many nodes. In the past this sort of transperancy hasn’t been possible – companies have relied on a long paper trail of invoices and dispatch notices, that can be easily doctored.
Smart Contracts delivered and authenticated on a blockchain are also expediting the freight and delivery process.
Sydney-based TBs3 recently completed one of the largest and most comprehensive trials of blockchain integration into a global supply chain.
The company’s military grade blockchain platform was used to track a wine shipment on a 8,100 kilometre global road and sea journey from the Coonawarra wine region in rural South Australia, to the port of Qingdao in north-eastern China.
TBSx3 was able to verify the integrity of the product at each handover on the 8,100 kilometre trip.
At the end of the supply chain the final customer was able to validate the product and detect if their wine was a counterfeit product.
Following the trial, The Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Arthur Sinodinos, said:
“Blockchain is an exciting technology with great potential for Australian businesses and SME’s. It promises to reduce costs, create new market opportunities and transform industries.
“Importantly, the technology provides a new opportunity for Australian exporters and their customers to verify the authenticity of their products, protecting the reputations and brands of both Australia and Australian business.”
Another Australian company on a mission to tackle the problems within the freight and logistics industries is ASX-listed company Yojee Limited (ASX:YOJ).
Yojee has employed an in-house team of blockchain experts to integrate blockchain technology into its existing supply chain management platform.
Ed Clarke, Managing Director of Yojee says,
“It has always been a focus of Yojee to have an operational blockchain and not just a transactional one. This means the benefits can be much simpler to access as it is straight out-of-the-box and available on simple to use applications.
“We know that the global majors along with the rest of the market are all looking at ways to add efficiency and value with blockchain, and we feel this is an incredible offering to instantly add value, not just in shipping but all the way down to the last mile.”
The company has successfully completed live testings of its blockchain solutions and last week entered into a blockchain pilot services agreement with the world’s largest package delivery company, UPS.
Commenting on the agreement with Yojee, Rob Houck, Vice President of Strategy at UPS Asia Pacific, said:
“Deploying technology-enabled operations for maximum efficiencies remains a priority for UPS. We look forward to working with Yojee to identify the application of new technologies to our business.”
Yojee Limited is one of the few ASX-listed blockchain developers with current growing revenues. In the half-year to 31 December 2017, the company generated $222,907 in revenue from ordinary activities, up from just $22,195 in the corresponding period.
The company expects to commercially release a number of supply chain blockchain software products by the end of the year.
Finally, if the Rods and Barrys of Australia aren’t convinced – Blockchain is coming to Trucking Australia 2018.
The keynote speaker at the event in Canberra next month, will be Blockchain Expert, Tim Leonard. It’s the first time blockchain technology will take centre stage at the Australian trucking industry’s premier event.
Australian Trucking Association CEO Ben Maguire says that delegates at Trucking Australia 2017 told organisers they wanted to learn more about this new technology.
“Tim will uncover what blockchain is and its application to the transport industry. He’ll walk through a live demonstration of blockchain solutions that businesses can and are implementing right now,” Mr Maguire said.
“For businesses, blockchain offers major advantages such as greater transparency, security and transaction speed.
“But building a blockchain system requires extensive planning and design.” he said.
It could be truckies, train drivers, sailors and couriers teaching the rest of us a few things about blockchain in years to come.
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