A collaboration platform allowing airlines to bring together all parties involved in the cargo chain by sharing information in a decentralized manner, while simplifying and digitizing processes.
Many organizations in the logistics industry are going through their digital transformation journeys and are exploring technologies to automate their processes and increase visibility and efficiency along their value chain. Currently, the logistics industry follows complicated traditional processes to process documents and settlements. Mindtree has built an innovative solution to address the industry's problems and improve efficiency of processes in a cargo airline environment using blockchain technology.
Our solution, Cargo MindHub, brings all the parties in the cargo chain on a platform powered by blockchain and IPFS (Inter Planetary File system). Through this platform, an airline will be able to onboard partners on the platform and establish contacts with the partners. The platform provides a means to negotiate the terms (revenue sharing, incentives, penalties, etc.). On finalizing the contract, a wallet is created for the partner, which gets linked to a virtual account to enable quick payments.
While the broader solution covers the booking flows, every booking made on the platform will establish the parties that will fulfill the shipment based on contracts. Any documents uploaded as part of the shipment details are stored in IPFS for sharing with the partners involved in the shipment. The airline makes payments to the wallets of its partners (freight forwarders, ground handlers, trucking agencies, etc.) as soon as their shipment stage gets completed using the proof of delivery. Transactions on the wallet will be stored on the blockchain for all partners to view the transaction history. The solution can also be extended to generate invoices or integrate with the partners' accounting/invoicing systems for payments and settlements.
Benefits to Cargo Airlines:
- Improved efficiency by digitization and automation of processes
- Decentralized data will enable complete tracking of shipments
- Access control will ensure only authorized parties can modify the specifics of a shipment
- Payment cycles reduced from weeks to hours by eliminating manual reconciliation
- Integration with airline accounting systems or other new platforms
- Eliminate paper wastage by getting approvals from customs using digital documents
- With all cargo details on the blockchain, claims processes can be automated by onboarding insurers on the platform
- Robust solution, which can be extended to group airlines or an alliance
