Good day my good friend.

Distinctly non-transport related this, but I very much enjoyed this article on the BBC about signature sporting moves. Got to say its a hard agree from me on the Cryuff Turn, having put numerous defenders on their backsides with this skill over the years. But no love for the Alistair Cook cover drive? Auntie, you disappoint me.

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

You should also join a lot of like-minded people at Mobility Camp in Bristol in September. Get your tickets now. Sponsorship slots are also available.

James

Blockchain may be finding its use, as a ledger

Ah, blockchain. Remember that? The UK Government published a report in it once. And some guy called Nakamoto wrote something about it. Well, when its not underpinning a speculative asset that is boiling the world, some very clever people in the world have been investigating what actual use it could be. And shockingly, as a distributed ledger technology, it may be finding uses as a ledger, making it very good (potentially) for logistics and supply chains.

Very simply, in its early trials the technology has been found to be useful in overcoming issues like multiple data entry, impacts of delays, monitoring goods being damaged, and errors. When augmenting with predictive technologies, it can reduce uncertainties in costs and energy. The challenge with implementation is practical. When ports globally still rely on paper systems, its hard to adopt such a technology. But it may start scaling sooner than we might think.

Preparing for Payment Strikes

It’s hard to not pay attention to the world around us. But as this article in Naked Capitalism indicates, we could soon be living in a world where payment strikes become a regular thing. And as transport is both a significant and rising part of the cost of living, and is highly dependant on fossil fuels, it would be wrong of us to assume that this would not be a thing for the transport sector.

This is not uncommon either. Fare strikes have happened occasionally, and I think everyone knows of Japanese bus drivers striking by not collecting fares. Outside of transport, non-payment of Poll Tax was very effective. Needless to say that in an industry which has a high capital cost base such as transport and in an environment where public transport operators are struggling, extended disruption from the non-payment of fares could be very serious for companies. I hope that many operators are drawing up plans in the event of Payment Strikes, otherwise they may not survive the winter.

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.

• Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them (Yahoo News)

• Here is what a black hole in space sounds like (Evening Standard)

• Indonesia says Tesla strikes $5 billion deal to buy nickel products (Reuters)

• UPS Drivers Say ‘Brutal’ Heat Is Endangering Their Lives (Yahoo News)

• Mount Kilimanjaro climbers can share slope selfies in real-time thanks to new Wi-Fi (NPR)

Something interesting

111 million people live inside that blue banana. It is the most densley populated area of Europe, running from North Wales to North Italy. My bit of England is slap in the middle of it. I wonder what Kevin thinks of it.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

This is an excellent post by Duncan Weldon on the different policy options facing government in the UK (and also globally) to deal with the energy crisis. Much of which have direct impacts on the transport sector. Its worthwhile delving into.