Freight forwarder trade body FIATA has issued a paperless bill of lading (BL), which can be accessed via existing technology, for the use of all its members.

The new FIATA BL uses blockchain technology to authenticate the documents and provide an audit trail.

The freight forwarder association said the paperless FBL was designed to “answer the needs of the industry for improved access and exchange of trade documents.”

The issuer can decide on the document format to be shared, whether paper or PDF, and FIATA, based on its own eFBL data standard, has developed an API service. The service will be free to software providers, enabling them to connect with FIATA to create secured paperless documents.

Seven software providers have already signed an agreement with FIATA to implement the electronic BL, developed by Komgo. WiseTech Global, one of the seven, said customers on its CargoWise platform would be able to request a connection to the FIATA BL starting next month.

Aside from making the documentation process more transparent, the solution, approved by the International Chamber of Commerce, can be used for multimodal transport and door-to-door. “It is uniquely controlled in Geneva, with the cooperation of the national forwarder associations,” FIATA president Ivan Petrov told The Loadstar.