TEU Token: Fixing "No Show" Bookings in the Shipping Container Industry

“TEU is a cryptocurrency designed as a booking deposit to fix the industry pain points of No Show Bookings”

Dry goods containers can be moved by trains, ships and trucks. Most commonly used container sizes are standard 20-foot and 40-foot lengths that are used to load, transport, and unload goods or objects.

North America is the biggest user of global container shipping. This is due to the transportation infrastructure and services in the U.S. and Canada. The main users of shipping containers in Europe include Germany, Spain, Italy, France and the U.K. China is expected to undergo high growth rates in the next decade and increased manufacturing companies will result in an increased demand for containers.

The combined capacity of container ships worldwide is expected to be around 22 million twenty-foot equivalent units through the year 2020.

Alix Partners containers Container Shipping Outlook 2016 stated that the container shipping industry faces extreme market pressures and appears to be undergoing large-scale consolidation. To survive carriers are taking vital measures to reduce liabilities and costs.

The U.S. freight transportation system reported moving more than 17.6 billion tons of goods valued at $16.8 trillion in the U.S., remembering that this is the biggest market for shipping container usage (as reported for in 2011 but numbers for other years are similar), according to estimates derived from the Federal Highway Administration’s Freight Analysis Framework.

Currently, customers that don’t show up with cargo for confirmed bookings leave the shipping container owners with a loss in revenue as unused shipping capacity. These “no show” bookings cost the shipping container industry approximately $23 billion a year.

300cubits is a project founded in Hong Kong by Johnson Leung and Jonathan Lee in late 2016 to address this problem of no show bookings in the shipping industry. The TEU platform will provide a solution for shipping companies to avoid lost revenues by using TEU Tokens as a form of booking deposit.

TEU tokens use as a trustless deposit system is based on Ethereum smart contracts.

Co-founder Johnson Leung said, “much of the no-show or rolling happens because the counterparties (carriers and shippers) handle bookings casually. The application of booking deposit will force both sides to seriously evaluate the likelihood of making their obligations in a booking.”

Customers booking container shipping do not bear any consequence or lose money for not showing up for bookings. There is a lack of trust between liners and customers as a result of ongoing no shows.

The trust-free nature of Ethereum smart contracts provides an ideal solution for container shipping bookings. A TEU Ecosystem will be developed to help seamlessly implement TEU tokens into the daily operation of the industry. To entice growth of the TEU platform and its use TEU Tokens will be distributed initially for free to industry users who will be able to use the tokens on the TEU ecosystem.

As part of the platform 300cubits is developing a booking deposit system based on blockchain technology, due to be launched sometime mid-2018. The development team of TEU token believe that, “TEU tokens could become the de facto crypto currency for the container shipping industry.”

The TEU token and ICO

The Pre-ICO was held in September, 2017 and 2 million TEU tokens were sold. The TEU ICO is scheduled to begin on April 12, 2018. There are a total of 100 million TEU tokens and 18 million TEU tokens are available for sale during the ICO period. The ICO will accept both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) as payment for TEU tokens. The price of TEU tokens is equal to: 1 ETH = 400 TEU.

Summary

TEU token using smart contracts tackles an ongoing problem in the shipping container industry of cancelled and no show bookings which cost the shippers time and money. The creation of a TEU ecosystem brings a structured approach to “trustless” booking allowing both sides compensation if the booking contract is not fulfilled. 300cubits and TEU token is an innovative solution that solves a shipping container industry-wide inefficiency. Due to the pervasive need for an improved booking system the future of TEU token and its uptake by shippers and contractors looks promising.

TEU token website: https://www.300cubits.tech/

Written by: g.m.tyshenk
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