TradeLens news and analysis. Get the latest news about TradeLens and the technology industry.

TradeLens is an open and neutral supply chain platform underpinned by blockchain technology. Built by IBM and Maersk, its goal is to enable true information-sharing and collaboration across supply chains, thereby increasing industry innovation, reducing trade friction and—ultimately—promoting more global trade.

By embracing open standards and interoperability, fostering trust across the ecosystem, and encouraging broad-based participation, TradeLens hopes to user in an age of global supply chains, in which all parties can collaborate, share data, and realize the benefits of digitization.

TradeLens brings together all parties in the supply chain—including beneficial cargo owners, freight forwarders, inland transportation providers including rail and trucking, ports and terminals, ocean carriers, customs and other government authorities—onto a single, secure data-sharing and collaboration platform. Across all of these parties, TradeLens provides seamless, secure sharing of real-time, actionable supply chain information, encompassing shipping milestones, cargo details, trade documents, and sensor readings so that all stakeholders can mitigate problems through predictability and exception handling.

The TradeLens platform has been developed in a collaboration between Maersk and IBM and is supported by major players across the industry. Currently, the platform handles 10 million events and more than 100,000 documents every week.

The TradeLens ecosystem is comprised of over 100 diverse organizations including carriers, ports, terminal operators, 3PLs, freight forwarders and shippers. Together, participants publish and subscribe to data under a shipper-determined digital permissioning model.

The TradeLens ecosystem provides these benefits for the various kinds of organizations that belong to it:

-- Beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) at the heart of the supply chain are looking for new ways to work with their supply chain partners and manage their shipments from booking to delivery.

-- Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) handling their customers’ cargo want more visibility up and down the supply chain so they can act faster and lower the cost of every shipment.

-- Train, truck and barge operators use the ecosystem to find trustworthy data that helps them to predict and optimize equipment utilization, speed up pick-ups and drop-offs and reduce queueing times.

-- Customs authorities and other agents in charge of the import and export of goods want powerful new tools to help them simply and clearly identify risks and efficiently process huge volumes of trade that cross their borders.

-- Port communities and terminal operators are seeking ways to reduce the cost of connecting partners in the supply chain in order to increase stack placement efficiency and optimize truck and vessel service times.

-- Ocean carriers around the world are looking to improve their asset utilization in order to maximize their profit margins, minimize their losses, and offer competitive rates on every shipment.

-- Financial service providers, including insurance companies, are looking to eliminate discrepancies on policies and letters of credit, and to reduce claims-adjustment costs with a verifiable and agreed source of truth.

-- Specialists in digital supply-chain software solutions are looking to develop apps for global BCOs, carriers and government authorities on a single, open platform with a dedicated marketplace.