Description 

Hagen Logistics (HL) proposes innovative use of blockchain and distributed ledger technology as a solution to track, trace and efficiently certify liquid food grade and dairy transportation (known as liquid freight) to ensure food safety and security. Foods may be certified to ensure they are free of contaminants) and/or to assure if food items are Kosher or if they have been exposed to known allergens. This innovative solution will transform how tank washes and commodity tracking occurs in this specialized segment of the nation’s food supply. While the immediate solution will be designed for safe and secure transport of liquid freight, once developed, this platform approach has the functional ability to serve other industry sectors.

The origin of this innovation stems from identification of customer needs through HL’s direct involvement in the liquid freight transportation market as a brokerage, a milk transfer station, a tank wash, and two trucking companies specializing in liquid freight transportation. The innovation is a distributed ledger or blockchain style solution that will trace both the wash and commodity hauling history of tankers used to haul liquid freight. Data resulting from the project will describe presence of allergens, potential for cross contamination, quality assurance, and verification that trailer certifications (e.g. Kosher certification, Halal certification, etc.) have been maintained through the chain of custody by accurately and securely recording commodities transported and trailer wash history.

Additional Information

In the current market, there are no accurate, secure means to document trailer wash or track commodity transport history for operators, carriers or shipper/receivers. Currently, tracking and tracing is done manually, which is subject to human error or, and in the worst cases, alteration or falsification. Based on HL’s experience, improperly cleaned trailers and inaccurate or inaccessible documentation can lead to severe illness or death if allergens or contaminants are not properly cleaned and documented and end up in processing plants or in consumer foodstuffs.

Learning Objectives

Expected Outcome

• For this Phase I work, the HL team will limit authentication to a pair of IDs, (e.g. a trailer ID and a bill of lading). Other user/driver authentication requirements will be evaluated and integrated during later phases.

• ●  The HL team will track the following events with described minimal information:

  • ○  Trailer has been loaded and sealed

    • ID to record: Loaded - Trailer, Facility, Date, Time, Commodity

    • ID to record: Sealed - Trailer, Facility, Date, Time

  • ○  Trailer is unloaded

■ Will record: Trailer, Facility, Date, Time, Commodity ○ Trailer is washed and sealed

• Will record: Washed - Trailer, Wash Type, Facility, Date, Time

• Will record: Sealed - Trailer, Facility, Date, Time

Relation to Hyperledger 

The first version of Hyperledger Sawtooth is simply a decentralized network. Any information written on a node will be replicated on another node at a peer location. This model is essential, for example, for data mining in the financial industry. However, this approach will not work for the transportation industry. This is because the success of transportation companies depends on their rates, network, and customers, and carriers historically will do anything to protect that information. Fortunately, the second version of Hyperledger Sawtooth  offers channels

that support private transactions and confidential contracts.

Education Level

NA

Skills

Java, Database, - Python

Future plans

The Market Opportunity

Over-the-road transportation of cargo is provided by motor vehicles over short and medium distances. According to the American Trucking Association (ATA), trucking revenues were $700 billion in 2017. That year, trucks moved almost 11 billion tons of freight over short and medium distances (2). A crucial part of securing the country’s food supply moved by semi-tractor trailer is the washing and decontamination of the trucking equipment. According to Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) Magazine in 2017, citing Clean Fleet USA, truck washing was a $12B industry in 2017. At that time, truck washing was growing at 40% annually, driven in part by growth of in-home delivery (5). According to the same article, it takes about 22 gallons of water and cleansing chemicals to wash a tractor-trailer. Soiled water cannot be allowed to run off a site, so is contained and reclaimed.

Documentation of truck washing is of particular interest for certain loads, especially for foods certified as Kosher or foods that contain identified allergens. For nearly fifty years, the demand for kosher-certified products has increased dramatically. Currently one of the hottest food trends, Kosher certified food sales is a $12.5B industry (1). Steady annual growth in demand for Kosher foods over the past two decades has led to an exponential rise in the numbers of products now available to those 12.35 Kosher food consumers in the U.S., 1.3M of which are year-round Jewish consumers of Kosher foods. There are over 195,000 Kosher certified products sold. Nearly 80% of all kosher food sold is to those outside the traditional Jewish market, according to the Orthodox Union (O.U.), New York, with more than 12M American consumers choosing kosher food products for reasons related to health, food safety, taste, vegetarianism, lactose intolerance and

Preferred Hours and Length of Internship

20 hrs week for 8 weeks

Mentor(s) Names and Contact Info

Timothy Leonard, SVP tleonardw56@gmail.com 469 525 5784