Every good company needs a logline. A descriptive sentence or two that ignites public interest, demonstrates the possible, and if you’re lucky, eventually earns the project a green-light. A logline for Fr8 Network, a new dApp using blockchain technology to revolutionize the freight industry, might read something like this: A set of decentralized applications that create trust in the freight industry: A smarter way to ship.

Jon Fox, CEO & Founder of Fr8 Network

CEO Jon Fox’s idea for Fr8 Network — a platform where shippers can contract carriers outright — emerged out of a recognizable need to increase efficiency at his own company, Lewisco Holdings, a food distributor for the secondary market. Lewisco is the perfect proving ground the test out Fr8 Network’s potential impact. By shipping directly through FedEx and Ward, Lewisco can dog-food the idea while Fr8 Network is still in early development. The transition hasn’t been entirely smooth — manually executing the job of a decentralized software application has its challenges — but it has proved out Fr8 Network’s future efficacy. The impact to their bottom line has been significant.

Jason LaMountain came to Lewisco Holdings about 6 months ago, when he was hired as a logistics coordinator. At the time, there were just two salespeople juggling both sales and shipping, so they worked with external freight brokers to find them carriers. But this method stretched the sales team’s focus, LaMountain explains, and made tracking the trucks and any issues that arose, difficult. Not all brokers have the same M.O. either, so if there was a problem, Lewisco would often hear about if from the customer, not the broker.

“It makes a lot of sense to go direct,” says LaMountain, adding that brokers will “mark it up as much as 20%.” He noticed the savings immediately, but says determining the exact percentage is tricky because not every shipment is the same and shipping lanes tend to change. Fox pegs the company’s savings by shipping direct at approximately 18%.

“FedEx alone has made a huge difference to our bottom line in terms of shipping,” says LaMountain. “They are super, super competitive” because their large fleet of trucks can pretty much “guarantee” capacity. “Basically, any business that they do with a company like ours is just free money.”

But Fr8 Network’s aim is not to eliminate brokers entirely, but to create an inclusive community, one in which brokers can still participate. For companies like Lewisco who are looking to ship direct in today’s market, shipping direct means more paperwork, a burden usually tasked to the brokers. For instance, Bills of Lading documents (BOLs) are required for a company to ensure blind shipping; if you’re not careful filling out the BOLs, a random pre-school may be the unhappy recipient of 30 pallets of socks intended for your customer. There’s definitely a learning curve, and LaMountain thinks companies wanting to avoid the paperwork may still prefer brokers. With Fr8 Network, brokers could easily obtain things like carrier quotes informed by Fr8 Ratings, the network’s proprietary rating algorithm that provides valuable transparency on a carriers’ historical performance. “In theory, this could make their job easier for them as well.”

Lewisco Holdings has shipped over a billion dollars of freight in the company’s lifetime. They make anywhere from 3 to 8 shipments a day, so the need for a user-friendly platform that further streamlines LaMountain’s process is key. Although Fr8 Network is in its early stages, it is poised to provide a solution to a mammoth problem — and save companies a lot of money in the process.