Across the world, businesses in many industries are gaining interest in the latest cutting-edge technology: blockchain. Around 66% of global organizations have some level of interest in blockchain, with almost 10% currently experimenting with or deploying it.
Blockchain, a decentralized and indestructible ledger, has multiple benefits in most industries — including fleet management. While modern fleet management software provides businesses with a better way to organize and monitor their operations, blockchain adds additional benefits to payment systems, transparency, efficiency, accuracy, and revenue.
Read on to discover the top 5 benefits of blockchain and how they can revolutionize your fleet management.
Streamlined Payment Systems
In the business world, payments can take a long time to process. Often, they have to go through a central clearing authority, which takes an unnecessarily long amount of time.
With blockchain, payments can be made in near real-time. Blockchain technology can facilitate digital payment routes that instantaneously transfer funds if triggered. If a trucking company sets up smart contracts with drivers, payments can be made as soon as a delivery is completed.
A blockchain-backed payment system can modernize fleet payments, which are often slow and difficult for trucking businesses to track. Quick and trackable payments will improve company-employee relationships while ensuring that all funds are accounted for.
Improved Transparency
The amount of driver, fleet, and miscellaneous records that trucking companies create each day is astonishing. However, it isn’t always easy to access and analyze.
Because blockchain allows businesses to create unchangeable, detailed records that are easily accessible, fleets can maintain records of every truck in their care. These records can be highly detailed, including photos alongside documents about maintenance, damage, and other historical details that can be critical when a company wants to purchase, sell, or fix a vehicle.
For example, knowing every oil change, warranty repair, or other service that a truck has been through can empower trucking companies to tailor fleet maintenance to a truck’s past history.
Smoother Administration Workflow
Blockchain is well-known to provide transparency into a business’s assets, but it isn’t transparent to everyone. Businesses can choose exactly who has access to their critical information.
By moving away from the traditional multi-ledger system and embracing a centralized system backed by blockchain, trucking business partners can create an efficient, transparent ecosystem that provides strong security. Blockchain authentication also enables every participant in the ecosystem to confirm that participants offer legitimate services or products.
Giving varying levels of access to owners, managers, operators, employees, and vendors empower trucking businesses to forego unnecessary paperwork and approvals. This streamlines relationships and improves the administrative operations of each business involved.
Increased Accuracy
In traditional administrative systems, in which paperwork has to pass through countless approval channels, a lot can go wrong. Errors are common in paperwork, as only one person can see the paperwork at a time and there is always the chance of loss or even fraud.
With blockchain, fleets can implement smart contracts. Because they can be reviewed and verified by all members in the blockchain ecosystem, these contracts have far less chance of being subject to fraud. Any mistakes can be quickly identified and addressed. Because the documents exist in a single system, an edit to a document will be permanent and not need to be repeated multiple times.
In fleets, this can be particularly helpful with process management. Administrators can review blockchain-backed documents to ensure that key tasks have been completed and contract requirements met.
Cut Costs
Blockchain technology can lower a trucking business’s costs.
By reducing redundancies and mistakes on the administrative end, blockchain technology eliminates unnecessary time wasted by teams, allowing them to reduce overtime and shift their focus to higher-level projects that directly contribute to building revenue.
Reducing the amount of paperwork, like run tickets and paper contracts, also cuts costs dramatically for trucking companies; 20% of transportation’s overall costs come from processing and administrative departments due to their reliance on paper. Without paperwork, these extra costs are eliminated.
For fleet management, blockchain technology can vastly improve key aspects of business operations, ranging from payment systems to workflow.
Ready to reap the benefits of blockchain? Vertrax has partnered with IBM to bring a blockchain solution to market. You can read more here or contact us to learn more.