Major Korean Logistics Firm Lotte Joins Blockchain in Transport Alliance

South Korea’s Lotte Global Logistics, a major Seoul-headquartered logistics and shipping firm, has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), FreightWaves reported Monday, July 9.

The BiTA trade association was formed in 2017 to popularize and develop blockchain applications in the transport and logistics industries, as well as to establish industry standards for adoption of the technology. The alliance uses OriginTrail, a purpose-built protocol for supply chains based on blockchain, and counts around 400 participants as members.

Lotte Global, for its part, is a full-service logistics provider, overseeing warehouse management, intermodal import/export terminals and customs clearance, parcel delivery, and moving freight by air, rail, and truckload. According to the company site, its transportation resources for parcel delivery form “the largest network in [South] Korea.”

Lotte’s Korean delivery services are reportedly structured around 15 mega terminals, 90 branch offices and over a thousand local offices, with further overseas logistics points across the Americas, Asia and Europe.

FreightWaves notes that in advance of its interest in blockchain technology, Lotte Global has already been offering a smartphone application for its services, as well as conducting research into drone-operated delivery services.

BiTA’s managing director, Craig Fuller, said the alliance was “excited” to benefit from Lotte Global’s veteran experience in “many segments of the supply chain,” which will help the organization in its ambitions to develop blockchain data standards that are “truly end-to-end.”

To date, BiTA has been joined by major industry players such as FedEx, Uber, shipping giant UPS, and GE Transportation, a global supplier of railroad, mining, marine, drilling, and energy generation equipment. In May, Cointelegraph reported on the affiliation of yet another transport industry giant, the U.S.’s Norfolk Southern Corp.

Also in May, the Korean Customs Service (KSC) signed an MoU with the Korean operator of Malltail - the leading consumer parcel forwarding service in the country - to develop a “full-scale” blockchain-based customs platform for the e-commerce industry.