The electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) was facilitated by the blockchain underpinned TradeLens platform
Safeline Freight and Fortuna DMCC became early adopters of the TradeLens eBL in the UAE, thereby accessing digital issuance, transfer, and surrender of original bills of lading using blockchain technology. Combined, the two companies move more than 7,500 containers annually in and out of the UAE, the Maersk Group announced in a press communique.
TradeLens is a carrier-neutral, blockchain-enabled digital supply chain platform jointly developed by Maersk and IBM. The solutions offered by TradeLens are accelerating the digitisation agenda of the supply chain industry around the world by transforming manual, paper-based and time-consuming administrative processes into digital ones.
TradeLens allows an original bill of lading to be digitally issued directly from a carrier and moved electronically through its journey with all the stakeholders. This reduces the hassles of sending physical papers from one stakeholder to the other through a courier process, eliminates the costly possibility of documents getting lost or forged, and removes inefficiencies from manual processes.
Greater acceptability
“With the eBL now being accepted by major ocean carriers, ports, customs and a list that keeps growing, life has become easier for freight forwarders and our customers,” asserted Ahmed Beyi, CEO, Safeline Freight.
The eBL technology developed by TradeLens provides a solution available to all shippers regardless of size or use case. The elimination of physical hand-off of documentation accelerated during the pandemic, and the modernisation of supply chain infrastructure with the use of technology became even more critical.
The TradeLens ecosystem consists of more than 1000 organisations, including major ocean carriers representing over two-thirds of the global market, and integrated with leading trade finance banks operating in multiple countries with a shared vision to help modernise the trade finance industry. The platform has already tracked more than 55 million container shipments, 4.7 billion events, and more than 25 million published documents.
Document collaboration
“TradeLens eBL is our latest addition to our portfolio of products in the UAE which also include visibility and document collaboration making the TradeLens platform a very compelling proposition for any company’s journey to digitise the supply chain,” emphasized Varun Kulshreshtha, Regional Head of TradeLens, Maersk West & Central Asia.
TradeLens is an open and neutral industry platform underpinned by blockchain technology, supported by major players across the global shipping industry. The platform promotes the efficient, transparent, and secure exchange of information in order to foster greater collaboration and trust across the global supply chain.
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