FIATA has released a paperless bill of lading (B/L), which uses blockchain to authenticate documents and provide an audit trail. The solution answers the needs of the industry for improved access and exchange of trade documents.
The electronic B/L designed for the use of its members is approved by the International Chamber of Commerce and can be accessed with existing technology.
The document issuer can decide on the format to be shared, either as paper or a PDF and FIATA, based on its eB/L data standard, has developed an API service, free to software providers, allowing them to connect with FIATA to create secured paperless B/Ls.
“This solution makes the process transparent. It is uniquely controlled in Geneva, with the cooperation of the national forwarder associations. It is multimodal, and can be used door-to-door.”
Ivan Petrov, President, FIATA
“During the pandemic, we realized you can’t always interact with authorities, and you need to transfer data in a digital format. Digital is important for several reasons: it’s green-friendly; you control the data; the data is safe, and you protect ownership of the data.”
Turgut Erkeskin, SVP at FIATA
He said there were three steps to be taken by the industry: to digitize daily processes; to digitize processes with authorities; and develop digital forwarding platforms.
“We have digitized the B/L and created a worldwide standard. We invite all TMS providers to use our standards and protect the integrity of the industry.”
Seven software providers have already signed up to implement the eB/L, designed by Komgo. It will reduce fraud, and can be scanned via a QR code or directly uploaded as a pdf to FIATA’s verification page.
“Documents are the bedrock of international trade, but they don’t operate as we need them to, and they’re susceptible to fraud and forgery, which happens quite often. Trakk is the digital ecosystem of trust for trade documents. I am thrilled to see FIATA joining all companies, financial institutions, warehouses, and others using Trakk to protect their documents against fraud.”
Souleïma Baddi, CEO of Komgo
WideTech Global said CargoWise customers would be able to request a connection to FIATA’s eB/L from next month.
“FIATA is very excited to embark on this important milestone of its digital journey which paved the way for great opportunities for the future of freight forwarders,” said director general Stéphane Graber.
FIATA last year developed Freight Pay in a bid to reduce banking charges for small payments, as part of its push into digitization.
