Right now the market is decentralized to a decent degree. The core business of Maersk is operating ships, and managing their equipment (containers). Their core

Right now the market is decentralized to a decent degree. The core business of Maersk is operating ships, and managing their equipment (containers). Their core business traditionally was NOT the hinterland transports from and to the ports. So traditionally shippers had to arrange this themselves. Around the world the terminology is different, but this is known as merchant haulage, a CY-CY booking, or a port-port transportation. Lots of communication needs to happen from shipping companies like Maersk to the party the shipper has contracted to pick up the container from the port (trucking companies, barge operators, train operators). One solution to this would have been a shared digital platform where the shipper could've granted access to the hinterland transporter to get updates about the container arrival, and to be able to cryptographically prove they are authorized to pick up the container. Whether this is an actual blockchain or something different also leveraging cryptography and distribution, I personally don't really care about. For the non-tech savvy people in the business, I'd call this 'blockchain' just to get it on the radar. The other solution to this handover problem is trying to force shippers to book the hinterland transport included in the sea transport, so Maersk would arrange that bit. This is called carrier haulage, CFS-CFS, or door-door transportation. This approach seems to be what they have settled on, and all the major shipping companies are investing aggressively into the hinterland parts of their business. Now imagine you're running a trucking company focused on ports (I think in the US this is called drayage). You've gone from 50 customers down to 3. At the same time major carriers are making record profits and have been explicitly exempted from the antitrust laws based on an argument of economies of scale in ocean shipping. Looking at it through this lens (pun intended), yeah, I'm a bit worried. If you were a shipping company, would you go with the technical solution, or would you try to get more of the entire process under your control so you can just strong-arm the hinterland parties into doing "the correct thing" ?