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Whitepaper

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Executive Summary

  • The global supply chain consists of a complex network of stakeholders across variable contexts, geographies, and functions. At present, this network suffers from inefficient coordination, pricing, and incentivization resulting in higher costs, slower deliveries, and frequent errors.

  • The Fr8 Network Protocol and product offering highlighted in this whitepaper aims to modernize logistics with a vastly improved solution for the logistics industry as a whole, leveraging blockchain technology at its core.

 

Introduction

  • Primary risks

    • Delivering the right product in the correct quantity on time and on budget

    • Escalating pricing pressures due to rising freight costs, higher demands and evolving regulations

    • Keeping pace with new technologies and global demands

    • Increasing competition

    • Replenishing an aging workforce

 

The state of global supply chain ecosystem

  • Every year, millions of competing entities across the supply chain rely on an intricate fleet of trucks, ships, planes and trains to transport approximately 92 billion tons of physical goods. By 2023, the global logistics industry will be valued at $15.5 trillion.

  • These inefficiencies cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars each year due to failed deliveries and damaged goods.

  • They also put significant stress on the the industry’s high-dollar hard assets which includes more than 160 million trucks, 92,000 cargo ships and 700 million miles of railway.

  • Carriers mistrust brokers because they offer no transparency into load data or pricing. Shippers treat carriers as commodities, working only with those offering the lowest prices. Brokers and carriers dispute responsibility of damage claims.

 

Key stakeholders in the global logistics ecosystem

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  • Carriers

    • There are 15 million trucks on U.S. highways, owned by 1.5 million registered trucking companies , but carriers also include rail, air, and container transportation providers.

  • Suppliers

    • There are over 550,000 manufacturers or distributors operating in the U.S. alone, with 98% of them considered small businesses.

  • Intermediaries

    • There are more than 15,000 registered freight brokers in the U.S., with the top firms generating revenues in excess of $66B.

  • Freight Factors

    • Factors charge up to 5% of invoice totals for their services.

  • Insurers

    • For example, truckers are required to have a minimum $100,000 policy covering any goods in transit.

  • Regulators

    • Globally, organizations like the International Chamber of Commerce regulate commercial terms in the sale of goods through Incoterms and trade finance rules.

 

Challenges Facing Global Logistics

  • Redundancy & Reconciliation

    • Paperwork citing the same data is unnecessarily recreated as items travel between stakeholders, increasing the potential for error.

  • Low Standards Adoption

  • Limited Data Transparency

    • Critical data, such as reputational carrier information, is not widely available or shared.

    • Reputational data, (such as proof of insurance), and other important information remains, for the most part, encased in large brokerage databases.

  • Poor Incentive Alignment

    • More often than not, brokers simply connect shippers to the cheapest carrier.

    • The current process fails to incentivize best practices on the part of carriers or shippers.

  • Price Manipulation

    • Large brokerages control deal-flow, which has removed market economics between supply and demand and created an industry where price discovery is manufactured by an intermediary that charges a 20% arbitrage fee.

  • Complex, Inefficient Tracking & Coordination

    • Typically, five parties must verify and validate delivery: suppliers, carriers, receivers, brokers and factors.

  • High Risk of Theft & Fraud

    • On average, more than 220 U.S. freight loads are stolen each quarter, accounting for more than $105 million lost each year to theft.

  • Environmental Impact

    • According to the Environmental Defense Fund, as many as 25% of trucks driving on U.S. highways are empty, and for non-empty miles, trailers are 36% underutilized.

 

A Better Way: The Fr8 Protocol

  • Data Standards

    • Because Fr8 has strict privacy and data governance standards woven into the solution, stakeholders have greater clarity and confidence in data security and privacy across the network.

  • Payment Standards

    • The Fr8 Protocol for settlement includes enforceable payment terms objectively mediated by a smart contract.

    • In the Fr8 Protocol, a final-mile shipment stipulates payment immediately upon acceptance of delivery by the end customer.

  • Regulatory Standards

    • Fr8 Network will enable the creation of fully-compliant shipment contracts, reflecting all local regulatory requirements and ensuring the shipper has all the necessary data to pass through customs with ease.

  • Cybersecurity Standards

    • The Fr8 Protocol for cybersecurity standards defines the ways information systems interact with the blockchain securely, for example, by establishing minimum levels of encryption for messages passed to a smart contract.

 

Fr8 Marketplace

  • FR8 Board

    • Fr8 Board is a decentralized application (dApp) for carriers and shippers to coordinate freight transactions through customizable smart contracts.

    • Fr8 Board gives users full visibility into available capacity as well as pricing data.

    • Fr8 Board combines publicly available data, peer reviews, and historical performance to match carrier to the user’s preferences.

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  • FR8 Cockpit

    • Fr8 Cockpit enables users to input details about their shipment and track its status once booked through Fr8 Board.

    • Users log into the Marketplace to manage payments, search for carriers, and access modules essential in managing shipments.

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  • FR8 Browser Extension

    • Fr8 Browser Extension is a powerful tool that enables companies who have existing systems a means for interacting with the Fr8 Marketplace.

    • The Fr8 Browser Extension is intended to give shippers and brokers who have their own software tools a simple interface to manage shipments they book through the Fr8 Coordination Platform.

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  • FR8 Carrier App

    • Drivers can update their current status directly from their mobile devices.

    • Consignees can accept deliveries through a quick-pin entry into the Carrier App and be on their way.

  • FR8 Marketplace Benefits

    • Fr8 Ratings

      • Fr8’s proprietary user-rating system combines public data, historical performance data, and peer reviews to deliver unparallelled transparency and incentivize best behavior.

      • Drivers who deliver on time and communicate effectively will be identified by their peers. Shippers who work effectively with drivers are recognized.

    • Fr8 Price Discovery

      • Fr8 Network also enables easy price discovery. Historical information about the price of a lane will be available for all to review.

    • Fr8 Settlement Services

      • The settlement services offer tools for constructing payment terms that gives contract participants the ability to settle financial obligations in the currency and credit terms of their choice.

  • FR8 Network Value-Add Features

    • Fr8 Developer Tools

      • At present Fr8 is an IOS integration partner with SalesForce, allowing active users to plug directly into the Fr8 Marketplace.

    • Fr8 Factoring

      • Fr8 Factoring offers a solution for actors needing to increase their cash flow via a peer-to-peer trade finance vehicle .

      • Fr8’s peer-to-peer marketplace instead of predatory lenders, participants will be able to access credit at a fraction of current market costs.

    • Fr8 Rewards

      • Fr8 Rewards establishes strategic partnerships with complementary product and service providers leveraging the network to negotiate group discounts on fuel, lodging, personal benefits, and insurance, allowing independent operators the advantage of aggregated purchasing power.

 

Fr8 Token Ecosystem

  • Usage

    • Fr8 tokens are consumed, staked and used for remittance across the Fr8 Protocol.

    • Fr8 tokens are used to interact with the persistent data housed within the Fr8 blockchain.

    • Fr8 Network has the notion of ‘privacy’ within its blockchain to ensure commercial data stays private for competitive reasons, while enjoying the benefits of being able to instantly assess the quality, availability and specialties of the entire ecosystem.

    • Fr8 tokens flow across the Fr8 Marketplace and to the key players in global logistics subject to the mechanics described below.

  • First Applications

    • Fraud and Spam Prevention

    • Building the Network

    • Escrow

    • Software Licenses

    • Disputes and Arbitration

    • Governance

 

Roadmap

 

Team

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Jon Fox – Founder and Chairman

  • Member of Blockchain in Trucking Alliance – Current

    • BiTA was formed by experienced tech and transportation executives to create a forum for the development of blockchain standards and education for the freight industry. Thousands of companies have applied for membership.

  • Member of National Retail Association – Current

    • The National Retail Association (NRA) is Australia's largest and most representative retail industry organisation. For almost 100 years, the NRA has represented the interests of the retail, fast food and broader service sector, delivering critical information and advice to thousands of businesses nationally. 1K twitter followers

  • Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College – 53% Acceptance Rate

Sloane Brakeville – Founder and CEO

  • Blockchain Specialist for IBM Cloud – 1 year 10 months

  • Assistant Tennis Teaching Pro for The Georgia Club – 7 months

    • Fancy golf club, 2.2K twitter followers

  • Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems from The University of Georgia – 53% Acceptance Rate

James Regenor – CIO

Ling Qing Meng – CTO

Vishal Sapra – Advisor

  • Vice President at MRY – 6 years 8 months

  • Business Strategist and Analyst for Bank of America Securities – 3 years 2 months

  • Bachelors in Business Administration from Washington and Lee University – 24% Acceptance Rate

Barry Glasco – Director of Engineering

  • CIO for ITC2 – 7 years

  • SME Salesforce at CenterPoint Energy – 2 years

  • Senior Consultant for Sybase – 2 years 10 months

    • Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; SAP ceased using the Sybase name in 2014.

  • Bachelors from University of Houston – 60% Acceptance Rate

Yevgeniy Spektor – Lead Engineer

Michael Zargham – Advisor

Matthew Barlin – Data Scientist

  • Naval Architect for CDI Corporation

  • Bachelors in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at Webb Institute – 36% Acceptance Rate

Tom Bollich – Advisor

 

Partners & Backers

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Connect Capital

  • Investment Firm, only 3 team members, can’t prove any connection to Fr8, one of the team members advises APEX, the other team member worked for google however he doesn’t claim to be a partner in the firm

Arcadia Capital Partners

  • ACP professionals have closed in aggregate more than 50 M&A, capital raise and financial advisory transactions over the past ten years ranging in size from $20 million to more than $1.0 billion. Can’t find connection to Fr8

Genesis Block Holdings

  • Trying to spread awareness of crypto, site is dangerous, only 2 team members, cant find anything on the team members, no connection to Fr8

Lewisco Holdings

  • We service a buying group of over 400 independent, deep salvage, mom and pop stores across the united states. No team, no connection to Fr8

STBI

  • We are a family run business that started in 1983, our number one goal being to provide honest, no non-sense service to the food industry. No team, no connection to Fr8

Murphy

  • We are one of the Upper Midwest’s largest third party logistics firms, serving more than 250 customers that range from Fortune 500 to start-up companies.

Ward

  • 600 trucks, 5K shipments a day, 10K customers

Blockdaemon

  • Blockdaemon offers a multi-chain multi-cloud network management tool that can deploy nodes and connect them to blockchains within minutes.

BiTA

 

Articles

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https://cryptoslate.com/many-industries-now-integrating-blockchain/

The Fr8 Network centralizes the transactional data associated with every leg of a shipment journey – making this data transparent and accessible to everyone ranging from delivery logistics coordinators to brokers and drivers.

 

http://bitcoinist.com/blockchain-technology-shaping-future-shipping/

Fr8 Board is a decentralized marketplace for carriers and shippers to coordinate freight transactions through customizable smart contracts. Open to all carriers, suppliers, and brokers, Fr8 Board gives users full visibility into available capacity and pricing data. Smart matching and curation technology presents users with the best options to optimize capacity.

 

Videos

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https://youtu.be/0dUpUCPug_Y

Video by Fr8 Network

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3igi3-2xFpA

Video by Fr8 Network

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHU5K0ytS3w

Founder speaking at d10e in Cayman Islands

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYOjvFf9w3A

Video by Fr8 Network

 

CoinCheckUp  

 

Conclusion

I would give fr8 Network an C+ rating. Fr8 Network is working on logistics mainly in the trucking industry. They are creating a blockchain for distributers, and truckers. They want to prevent fraud, and faster shipping. The idea is smart and is tackling a 700 billion dollar industry, however there are a few red flags. They do not have a roadmap, so hard telling when the coin will come out or when anything will happen. There team is small and inexperienced for a project of this size. They have a lot of errors on their website and whitepaper. The advisors are all over the place and more then half do not claim to be advisors. There is a lot to worry about, even if this project is not a scam they lack experience to make a good whitepaper and website. The sentiment in the crypto space for this project is negative and they do not have a strong following. I would like to wait and see a lot more before touching this project in general.

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