Canadian Pacific announces its entry into TradeLens

Calgary, Alberta-based Class I railroad carrier Canadian Pacific (CP) said today it has formally joined TradeLens, a blockchain-based collaboration between IBM and Maersk focused on providing shippers with augmented supply chain transparency and visibility for shipment status and also enabling the secure and transparent transfer of container-shipping documents.

CP officials said that this open-API platform will provide CP’s intermodal shippers with the ability to create, amend and share documents with other supply chain participants, including consignees, beneficial cargo owners, customs agencies, dray operators and steamship lines.

“CP is pleased to join TradeLens as part of its efforts to improve the customer experience through technological innovation,” said CP Vice-President and Chief Information Officer Mike Redeker, in a statement. “Global shipping is a profoundly complex business and TradeLens is improving the information-sharing processes that support the industry. CP is always innovating for the benefit of its customers, and joining TradeLens is an example of that innovation.”

CP said that TradeLens now handles more than 700 million events and 6 million documents on an annual basis.

With a focus on providing more efficient and secure methods for conducting global trade through the usage of blockchain technology, A.P. Moller-Maersk and IBM rolled out plans in January 2018 for the TradeLens joint venture. IBM and Maersk said that the objective of this JV was to provide a jointly developed global trade digitization platform that is built on open standards and designed for use by the entire global shipping ecosystem, adding that it will address the need to provide more transparency and simplicity in the movement of goods across borders and trading zones.

The blockchain relationship between Maersk and IBM dates back to June 2016, when they initially teamed up to build new blockchain- and cloud-based technologies, which have subsequently been piloted by various concerns, including DuPont, Dow Chemical, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, among others.