Blockchain-enabled capabilities in transport operations: an overview of the literature

Abstract

The blockchain was initially developed for use in the banking sector. However, over time, different areas of knowledge have adopted these technologies, including transportation operations. This use of blockchain in the transport sector is mainly due to the ability of this technology to enable the data generated by these activities to be reliable. In addition to aspects related to data immutability, blockchain enables greater data privacy, as well as making it possible for the data control process to be decentralized. In this sense, it was carried out a systematic literature review (RSL) to identify the general publications panorama on the topic, and to identify the capabilities enabled by the blockchain in the context of transportation operations. RSL has great potential to make it possible to deepen the literature on a given topic. The analysis of the RSL results included the realization of two stages. The first step consisted of a quantitative analysis of data from a sample of 50 articles, to identify this research field about the distribution by journal, year, and author. This first step enabled a general analysis of the field of study on the use of blockchain in transportation. The second stage consisted of a qualitative analysis of the ten most relevant articles in this field of study. In this way, it was possible to understand more about the use of blockchain in transport operations, as well as to identify seven capabilities enabled by the blockchain. These capabilities represent abilities that blockchain technology allows the transport sector today, demonstrating the importance of its use, as well as of study.