Blockchain report highlights opportunities for future transport

Technology and innovation researchers, Transport Systems Catapult, have launched a new report considering the opportunities Blockchain offers for transport providers.

Technology and innovation researchers, Transport Systems Catapult, have launched a new report considering the opportunities Blockchain offers for transport providers.

As the report explains, although blockchain is often associated with bitcoin, the technology itself has applications beyond crypto currency. Despite being the buzzword for storing, sharing and utilising digital information for several years now, this report argues the opportunities blockchain offers for intelligent mobility and multi-modal transport have not yet been fully realised.

The Transport Systems Catapult report sets out a series of recommendations for businesses looking to use blockchain, including:

• Increased collaboration – sharing information and processes between businesses and customers;
• Increased sharing of trusted information – enabling consensus-based validation of information, via a distributed, replicated database, to ensure data integrity;
• Increased efficiency – removing duplicated effort by maintaining a common ledger which can be used to manage smart contracts and dramatically streamline processes;
• Reduced costs – removing the need for third-party intermediaries as well as the duplicated effort that is required for maintaining separate databases which contain the same information;
• Reduced risk – minimising errors and the risk of malicious tampering, with traceable transactions that can show who did what and when to both tangible and intangible assets;
• New business models – creating new commercial opportunities and revenue streams, as a result of decentralisation and disintermediation (cutting out the middlemen).

There are some interesting applications for blockchain within the vehicle rental and leasing industry and potentially within the wider field of connected vehicles. The full report can be read on the Transport Systems Catapult website.

The BVRLA are interested in hearing members views on this topic. Please contact [email protected] if you have any thoughts on Transport Systems Catapult’s report or the wider use of blockchain as a tool for the sector.

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