Information security and reliability play a critical role in all transport operations, especially in the waste management sector. Companies face significant challenges such as the lack of transparent and accurate data, which increase overall transportation costs. Reliance on paper transactions also increases processing and administration costs. Furthermore, matching shippers (the demand) with carriers (the supply) is another issue that companies need to face. The challenges above result in partial or empty truckloads. To address these challenges, a solution is needed to provide complete supply chain visibility to improve transportation security and reliability through updated, secure and reliable data for efficient decision making.
The need for such solution particularly arises in the Circular Economy where the track and trace information concerning the use and reuse of material is important for regulatory compliance.
To address such needs of companies in the CE, the EFPF project has developed a complete information management solution based on “blockchain technology”. The solution particularly focuses on the needs of manufacturing and waste management companies in the CE domain, to ensure reliable data exchange across the transportation operations. The main components of the solution are:
Blockchain-based mobile app available to the stakeholders of the transportation (i.e. drivers etc.)
Web application based on blockchain enables adding permissions to drivers, vehicles etc., that participate in a transportation process. Both mobile and web apps share a common blockchain back end in logging transportation information in the same blockchain instance
Smart Contracts are used as a back-end part of the two DApps (web and mobile). Identity Smart Contracts, Supply Chain Smart Contracts, Logging Smart Contracts and Notification Smart Contracts are used
EFPF Data Spine/Security and SSO are used for the delivery of the solution. After the registration through the EFPF SSO system, the users acquire a valid identity to interact with the BC system. For this to happen, an API resides at the Blockchain-as-a-Service platform from CERTH and communicates through the data spine with the EFPF
EFPF Portal is used as well. The web application is accessible through the portal interfaces by the various stakeholders of the CE scenario. SSO is used here as well, alongside the role management services available to EFPF
The 3 Circular Economy pilot partners in the EFPF project (KLE, ELD and MIL) have been testing and evaluating the developed solution for more than six months. A sample process used in the testing and validation activities is depicted in the adjecent figure.
The information about the sender and receiver of every supply chain level, the involved drivers and trucks, as well as the type and details (pick up site, destination, driver, truck, times/dates etc.) about of the exchanged asset are logged as immutable transaction thus providing complete visibility.
During the testing and validations, the solution has satisfied the three pilot partners by offering clear transportation security and reliability functionalities. Overall, the solution provides accurate transportation information for every supply chain stage.
The Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) solution is available through the EFPF platform.
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