The national postal operator of Russia sets out plans to deploy a parcel tracking system that will rely on blockchain technology, as a way of digital transformation strategy and improve the efficiency of its logistics, Pochta Rossii and also expected to bring down the number of lost shipments. The introduction of this blockchain-based tracking system will start by 2023 with about almost $525 million worth of investment pouring in by the end of 2025.
Russian Post intends to introduce its blockchain-based tracking system as early as 2023. The new service will be market-oriented, Director of Digital Products Vladimir Urbansky noted. He further explained that Russian Post is part of a logistics chain, emphasizing that the system will allow it to provide other companies with end-to-end tracking information.
Vedomosti quotes a source from the IT industry who commented that the blockchain project aims to limit the number of lost parcels. The expert believes that the new platform can replace Russian Post’s existing tracking mechanism and save time and effort in the search for lost items. That also means that fewer people will be involved in the process.
Russian Post deputy director announced the integration of the blockchain technology into its service of parcel tracking. Doing this, the company hopes to restore the trust of the clients.
Russian Post aims at integrating new technologies to stay in the market despite it has already lost its monopoly of data transfer from one point to another, claimed Rodion Shishkov, deputy director of Russian Post while speaking today on the conference at Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) – business-accelerator for promising Russian startups.
The aim of the company was to create a service that would be useful for a new type of consumer – Internet seller and Internet buyer. The platform to improve businesses with sellers was launches “one of the recent days”, told Shishkov.
Russian Post is not the first postal service in the world that shows its interest towards the blockchain technology. As CoinFox reported earlier, the US federal postal agency wants to integrate blockchain to create its own cryptocurrency platform Postcoin. In October 2015 Monetas payment platform signed an agreement with the State Post of Tunisia concerning the development of an electronic payment system in the country.
Door-to-door deliveries of packages from abroad by postal services or courier companies are difficult to perform and may heavily add to the cost of delivery, which ultimately drives up prices for consumers. All of these companies use their own fragmented system. All of these fragmented internal systems – which are centralized in their own way – work well within the country the shipment is coming from. Yet communication between postal services and courier companies around the world is pretty much non-existent (unless you use more expensive options!!). This creates a problem for the customer who wants to get up-to-date information about a shipment.
What may blockchain bring?
Given its characteristics of being decentralised, transparent, efficient, cost saving, secure etc. blockchain can solve a number of the existing problems for postal services and courier companies. There are a number of interesting use cases identified outside financial transactions such as identity verification, logistics and keeping track of mail/parcels.
• Identify Verification
First of all it could help postal services and courier companies help identify identities on blockchain. Corporates already do this, since they deliver your mail to you and not to someone else. But by connecting to a blockchain, the postal services and courier companies could help you manage your offline identity as well as your digital one by storing it on an immutable ledger.
Identity verification through using blockchain technology could ease transparent and safe transactions for both postal services and courier companies. Identities could be verified by the postal service in-person by means of identification card such as driver’s licence or biometric Id. The verified virtual Identity will be further linked by the postal service to work within the blockchain system with customer’s mailing address. The user could then use these identities to sign into secure websites or taking part in smart contracts.
Logistics: managing devices
Blockchain could also help the postal service’s logistics management. As more number of devices purchase online, blockchain’s decentralised verification and control system may also enable devices to safely secure and transfer data. Device management using blockchain could increase the ability of devices to deal with information they collect and minimise the maintenance costs of controlling the overall system and increase its efficiency.
IBM is exploring using blockchain to more accurately track and share information, and even transact between IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Postal vehicles and sorting equipment could thereby manage their own tracking, monitoring, and maintenance. While databases can do this now, it’s still a manual and human-intensive process. Blockchain could help all of this happen automatically, making it faster and cheaper.
Keeping track of mail/package
Blockchain can be used to help the postal services and couriers companies identify packages and mail in the same way individuals can be identified. If each parcel had a small sensor, blockchains could be used to manage the chain of custody between different partners. Tracking parcels on a blockchain would also expedite customs clearance and integrate payments, logistics, and shipping into one cohesive platform.
Russian Publish has been eyeing blockchain applied sciences for a while, the file notes. In October 2017, its director normal Nikolai Podguzov published plans to put in force blockchain answers to higher keep an eye on the corporate’s monetary transactions.
“We’ve 9 billion rubles in transactions on a daily basis. In an effort to be sure that the safety of those transactions, it’s reasonably imaginable that we use blockchain generation, and we’re operating on it,” the chief said, quoted by means of Tass. All through the Russia Calling discussion board, Podguzov stated he anticipated this may have the impact of making improvements to the standard of postal services and products.