IMMLA ICO – International MultiModal Logistics Application Tokens?

IMMLA, or International MultiModal Logistics Application, is a decentralized online service of multimodal transportation. Find out what that means today in our review.

What Is IMMLA?

IMMLA, found online at IMMLA.io, is a logistics platform that aims to make the global transport industry more efficient.

The company is developing a multimodal deliveries service with a decentralized control system in charge of transportation, document flow, and payments. Key features of the IMMLA ecosystem include:

• Dutch auction of carriers to offer the best possible prices
• Monitoring of cargo damage during transit and time of delivery, GPS cargo monitoring, and insurance in order to make deliveries safe and transparent

Basically, IMMLA – which stands for International MultiModal Logistics Application – is creating a platform that can optimize the logistics industry across multiple modes of transportation. That platform is built on blockchain technology for benefits like decentralization, security, and immutability. IMMLA will charge a 1% while replicating the services of traditional forwarders and brokers (which charge fees between 15 and 25%).

How Does IMMLA Work?

IMMLA is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses Ethereum smart contracts for all trust-sensitive parts of the platform.

The full platform is being actively developed by the team. When complete, the platform will offer Dutch auctions of carriers to offer the best possible prices across multiple shipping methods – like rail, road, or sea, for example. The second core part of the IMMLA system will be a cargo damage monitoring system that involves using the blockchain to track the time of delivery, monitor cargo, and insure cargo throughout transportation.

As of September 2017, the platform is available in proof of concept form in a working alpha.

IMMLA Features

Some of the key features of IMMLA, according to the official website, include:

Confidence and Reliability: The decentralized system guarantees payment to the carrier regardless of IMMLA’s financial condition. It’s a decentralized app built on Ethereum contracts. There’s no middleman involved or required. IMMLA users can have confidence in the platform’s ability to transfer payment, the same way they can have confidence in the platform’s ability to guarantee insurance payments to the cargo owner.

Track Shipments: The current position of the cargo, as well as its condition at the time of transfer of responsibility between carriers, is recorded on the blockchain. Once it’s on the blockchain, that data cannot be altered by any of the parties.

Saves Money: IMMLA plans to save money across the logistics industry by introducing the Dutch auction concept. The Dutch auction ensures the market can balance transportation costs.

Reduce Unnecessary Trips: The use of IMMLA will reduce the number of unnecessary trips – like empty shipments or idle trips.

Reputation System: A cargo owner with a high rating within the system “gets credit and saves its current assets” although it’s not totally clear what IMMLA means by this.

Easy to Use: IMMLA will have a mobile and desktop interface, both of which will be designed to be easy to use. It will have fully automated transportation and workflow with no need for third party services.

Use Cases For IMMLA

IMMLA.io outlines use cases like this one for cargo carriers:

• The carrier informs IMMLA about the location of an unloaded vehicle and its designated use
• IMMLA puts the vehicle in its transportation system, then offers to bid at a tender for a transportation contract
• The carrier successfully completes the freight transportation, then transfers the cargo to the owner or to the next carrier
• The consignee makes an electronic mark, accepting the responsibility for the cargo; once a mark (a signature) is received, the smart contract makes the payment to the cargo carrier
• The smart contract also provides documents with the electronic digital signature of the cargo owner

What Problems Does IMMLA Seek To Solve?

IMMLA seeks to solve serious problems within the logistics and transportation industry, including all of the following:

Problem of Trust: Crime in the logistics sector leads to billions of dollars of losses every year.

Lack of Insurance: 20% of cargo is completely uninsured.

Risk of Insolvency of Cargo Owner: The final payment for a shipment takes place when the cargo owner receives the delivery from the freighter. This puts the freighter in a risky position – if the cargo owner is insolvent, then the product has already been transported, which means the freighter has little leverage. This forces freighters to run due diligence on cargo owners, then charge a premium for the risk of default. Fees can be as high as 30%.

Risk of Hidden Damage: Freighters may damage cargo, then hide it before it gets passed onto the next carrier. This can make it difficult to determine at which point in the supply chain the cargo was damaged, which means the cargo owner struggles to receive compensation.

Tax Evasion Risk: If tax regulators suspect any shady activity at any point on the supply chain, cargo might get withdrawn or frozen.

Currency Risk: The logistics industry deals with a variety of currencies, and this can add up to plenty of hidden costs along the way.

Idle Runs: Many transportation companies make idle or empty runs. They might transport goods to one region, only to drive empty back to their home region because there are no goods worth transporting. The export/import balance is skewed in certain regions – which means some freighters just double their costs for these routes.

Lack of Information and Transparency: Logistics companies are forced to do their own due diligence on partners and other businesses. There’s no standard reputation system or information discovery platform.

Ultimately, IMMLA plans to solve all of these problems. They also plan to solve all of these problems while charging just a 1% fee (compared to 8-15% fees for conventional forwarders and 10 to 25% fees for brokers).

IMMLA Token Sale

IMMLA is selling 184,336,400 IMMLA tokens in two tiers, including a pre-ICO and an ICO.

100% of the IML tokens represent 100% ownership of the IMMLA platform. Tokens will be used on the platform as a payment tool. There’s a total supply of 226,736,000 IML tokens.

The pre-ICO took place between July 15 and 30, 2017. The ICO, meanwhile, is scheduled for September 15 to October 15.

Who’s Behind IMMLA?

IMMLA is led by Kirill Tulenev (Project Manager), who has 10+ years of experience in the container transport industry. Other key members of the team include Vyacheslav Neunyvakin (Information Director), who created the logistics and customs activity platform Logismart.

In September 2017, IMMLA unveiled its proof-of-concept and working alpha version.

IMMLA Conclusion

The global logistics industry could benefit from blockchain technology. IMMLA plans to be the company that introduces blockchain to the world of logistics. The company uses the Ethereum blockchain and Ethereum smart contracts to create a trustless ecosystem between cargo transporters and businesses who need to ship products worldwide. The platform offers similar features to today’s brokers and logistics companies, but charges a much lower rate (just a 1% fee compared to 15 to 25% fees charged by conventional forwarders and brokers).

The IMMLA ICO is taking place throughout September and October 2017.