TORONTO, ON – Blockchain technology is coming to trucking, and Canadian telematics company Fleet Complete is helping to usher it in.

The company joined the recently formed consortium Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA) as a service charter member. The group formed to promote the adoption, education, and development of a standard framework for blockchain in the trucking industry.

Blockchain technology keeps all records of a transaction – called blocks – together, storing them across a network of personal computers. As records get added to the transaction, they are linked one to the other in the network, forming a chain. All the records in a transaction would be encrypted, but immediately viewable to each of the parties involved in the transaction, making them transparent and available to everyone in the network, while also making them tamper-proof.

Fleet Complete’s CEO Tony Lourakis says there are several benefits to blockchain-capable transactions for the trucking industry, such as immediate payments to drivers upon delivery, self-directing fuel and maintenance payments, complete automated settlements, and infinite recording of carrier history and safety.

Since blockchain transactions would require every part of the transaction to be digital, the Blockchain in Trucking Alliance members are working together to help bridge the gap between current analog practices and newer digital technology.

Blockchain has been a hot topic recently, with issues around the new technology buzzing at the 2017 In.Sight user conference and expo in Nashville, Tennessee last week. Presenter and futurist Simon Anderson of Venture Foresight told conference audiences it wouldn’t be long before the idea was standard business practice.