Tx-Rails — Transport Pricing Sheet
The auditable underlay for Transport — aviation, maritime, rail, road, intermodal, urban mobility. Cryptographic continuous audit + chain-of-custody + counterparty co-attestation, sitting underneath your existing TMS, WMS, ACARS, AIS, ECDIS, telematics, fatigue-management, and customs-broker systems. We don’t replace any of them — we bind to them via a published integration mode and produce tamper-evident, jurisdiction-independent records of everything they emit. See transport.md for the 19 federations covering modes + cross-cutting commercial + governance.
What you get
Three integrated capabilities, one platform:
- Continuous cryptographic audit infrastructure
Every event, every change-of-custody, every safety-critical record committed to a Byzantine-fault-tolerant ledger and Merkle-anchored to the Hedera public DLT. Continuous evidence stream replaces the documentary-trust model that struggles under bill-of-lading fraud, container-weight misdeclaration, ELD tampering, maintenance-record falsification, and AIS spoofing.
Aligned with: SOLAS-VGM (container-weight verification), EASA / FAA / CASA maintenance record-keeping, ICAO Annex 13 accident-investigation evidence, MARPOL discharge records, Australian HVNL Chain of Responsibility, EU Driving Time Directive, US FMCSA HOS, IMO 2050 emissions trajectory, AHB and AMSA reporting obligations. - Cross-counterparty chain-of-custody with smart-contract-equivalents
Milestone-triggered freight payments, automated bill-of-lading endorsement, real-time multi-leg custody-transfer attestation, ESG / Scope-3 emissions evidence by default. Unlimited data capacity (database-backed, not on-chain). Your existing TMS / fleet-mgmt / port-systems feed events via change-data-capture or atomic dual-write; the underlay produces verifiable settlement and provenance without anyone changing their existing operational workflow. - Regulator, investigator & insurer-grade evidence pipeline
Live data access for the relevant regulator (CASA / EASA / FAA, AMSA / IMO MSC, AHB, NHVR); ATSB / NTSB / AAIB-grade evidence packs that survive decades and operator transitions; insurer-acceptable telemetry packs that hold up under loss-adjuster scrutiny.
What we sell — and what we don’t
What we don’t sell at any price: full transaction-front-end replacement. We don’t build your TMS, your WMS, your driver app, your customs-broker portal, your bridge-systems integration. Your operational screens stay put. If you need a new operator screen, your engineering team builds it against our published SDK with our reference connectors.
What we do sell falls into two groups:
A. Operator utilities (bundled — Items 2 + 4 in the pricing table)
- Evidence-retrieval portal — your compliance team pulls cryptographic proofs in response to accident-investigator, regulator, customs, insurer, or financier questions. Generates evidence packs in formats acceptable to ATSB / ICAO Annex 13, AMSA / IMO MSC, customs authorities, P&I clubs, and aircraft / vessel financiers.
- Compliance-officer dashboard — live view of fatigue-management compliance, maintenance-AD currency, dangerous-goods documentation, chain-of-responsibility evidence under HVNL, container-VGM declaration status.
- Trust-management UI — operator-side controls for your enterprise PKI: certificate issuance for crew / drivers / pilots / surveyors, revocation, partner-org onboarding (charterers, freight forwarders, customs brokers), kill-switch.
B. Counterparty attestation UI (optional — Item 5 in the pricing table)
Thin signature surface for external counterparties — shippers, consignees, port authorities, customs brokers, insurance surveyors, classification-society inspectors, accident investigators. This is explicitly in scope for us to develop, distinct from the “no TMS replacement” line above.
What it does:
– DID / username-password authentication
– Per-tenant queue of pending attestations (bill-of-lading endorsements, container-VGM acknowledgements, draft-survey signoffs, customs-clearance confirmations, accident-investigation evidence handovers)
– Sign + submit with cryptographic proof landing in the BFT mesh
– Multi-tenant via entnum — each counterparty sees only their own queue
What it explicitly is NOT:
– A TMS / WMS / freight-forwarding platform replacement
– A customs-broker workflow tool
– A shipper-side ERP
When you’d buy this: your existing counterparty-portal stack can’t carry M-of-N cryptographic co-signature, or you have multimodal counterparties (rail-then-road, sea-then-customs-then-3PL) where no single portal exists today.
Pricing — five line items, four budget homes (Item 5 optional)
| # | Item | Type | Indicative price (AUD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One-off integration & onboarding — integration-mode selection (hash-only / atomic dual-write / CDC observer), wiring against your TMS + WMS + telematics + fatigue-management + maintenance-management platforms, certificate-authority setup, UAT, launch | One-off CapEx — capitalisable over 3–5 years | A$120,000 – A$280,000 |
| 2 | One-off operator-UI configuration — evidence-retrieval portal skinned to your brand; regulator-export templates (CASA / AMSA / NHVR / ATSB evidence packs, SOLAS-VGM records, MARPOL evidence, ICAO Annex 13 handover packs); compliance-officer dashboard customised; SSO with your IdP | One-off CapEx — capitalisable over 3–5 years | A$60,000 – A$130,000 |
| 3 | Annual support & maintenance (security patches, OS/library upgrades, 24×7 help desk for safety-critical operations, 99.9% uptime SLA, integration-mode adjustments, operator-UI updates for new regulator templates) | OpEx — renewable annually | A$95,000 / year |
| 4 | Tx-Rails platform access — BFT infrastructure, audit attestation, Hedera anchoring, dual-DC redundancy, regulator pipeline. Includes the three operator utilities. Tiered by pyramid count — see range governance below. | OpEx — annual platform subscription, pyramid-tiered | A$100,000 – A$1,500,000 / year |
| 5 | Counterparty attestation UI (optional) — thin signature surface for shippers / consignees / port authorities / customs brokers / surveyors / investigators. NOT a TMS replacement; see scope above. | One-off CapEx — capitalisable over 3–5 years | A$80,000 – A$200,000 |
| Year 1 total (Tier-3 example: 2–3 pyramids, Items 1+2 mid-points, Item 5 excluded) | A$580,000 | ||
| Year 1 total with Item 5 mid-point | A$720,000 | ||
| Year 2+ ongoing (Tier-3 example) | A$335,000 / year |
Item 4 — pyramid-tier pricing:
| Tier | Customer profile | Pyramid count | Annual platform fee (Item 4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 4 | Single-modal small operator (regional MRO, mid-tier 3PL) — Shape 3 single pyramid or pilot | 1 | A$100,000 |
| Tier 3 | Single-modal Tier-2 operator or focused multi-modal (regional airline + maintenance; mid-tier shipping operator with ports) | 2–3 | A$240,000 |
| Tier 2 | Multi-modal Tier-1 operator (heavy-vehicle prime + telematics + customs; integrated rail-and-port operator) — Shape 2 grouped | 4–7 | A$600,000 |
| Tier 1 | Multi-modal multi-jurisdiction primary (national carrier + ground-handling + cargo + freight-forwarding) — Shape 1 sovereign or Shape 2 full | 8+ | A$1,500,000+ |
Item 1 — what governs the range:
– A$120k floor — hash-only attestation (Mode A): your TMS commits as normal; we receive only content hashes. Lowest integration cost.
– A$280k ceiling — atomic dual-write (Mode B): your TMS and Tx-Rails commit in the same transaction. Highest integrity guarantee.
– Most operators land mid-range with change-data-capture observation (Mode C) at ~A$170–220k.
Item 5 — what governs the range:
– A$80k floor — single-flow attestation kiosk (e.g. just container-VGM declaration co-sign), single counterparty role.
– A$200k ceiling — multi-flow hub (bill-of-lading endorsement + custody transfer + customs clearance + survey signoff + accident-evidence handover), multiple role tiers, DID auth, deep brand alignment.
Payback and ROI
For a Tier-3 multi-modal mid-tier operator with ~A$200M annual revenue and ~A$60M directly in operational counterparty handovers (freight payments, port charges, maintenance contracts, regulator-evidence administration). Numbers scale roughly linearly with operator size.
| Annual benefit | Conservative | Realistic |
|---|---|---|
| Audit IT-controls displacement (external auditor IT-control work reduction; financier-mandated annual audits) | A$80,000 | A$200,000 |
| Freight-payment reconciliation & dispute overhead reduction (multi-leg handovers, demurrage/detention disputes, customs-broker queries) | A$250,000 | A$700,000 |
| Reduced leakage to bill-of-lading disputes, container-weight misdeclaration penalties, chain-of-responsibility fines under HVNL, customs penalties | A$200,000 | A$1,200,000 |
| Insurance-premium reduction tied to telemetry-backed risk evidence (P&I clubs, hull & machinery, fleet liability) | A$150,000 | A$600,000 |
| Regulatory compliance evidence (SOLAS-VGM, MARPOL, EASA/CASA maintenance records, AD compliance, HVNL CoR evidence) | A$100,000 | A$400,000 |
| Accident-investigation cost reduction (cryptographic evidence packs that survive operator-transition, reducing ATSB / AAIB evidence-reconstruction billable hours) | A$50,000 | A$250,000 |
| Total annual value delivered | A$830,000 | A$3,350,000 |
| Tx-Rails Year 2+ cost (Tier-3 example) | A$335,000 | A$335,000 |
| Net annual return | A$495,000 | A$3,015,000 |
| ROI multiple | 2.5× | 10.0× |
Pilot terms — non-binding, parallel-run, zero operational risk
- 3 months running Tx-Rails alongside your existing systems. No production switchover.
- Mode A (hash-only) integration with one chosen federation (typically
tx-rails-transport-shipping,tx-rails-transport-trucking-logistics, ortx-rails-transport-aviation) for the pilot. - Walk-away clause: if at month 3 the metrics don’t meet agreed targets, the engagement ends.
- Regulator pre-validation: before signing, we’ll meet with your domain regulator (CASA, AMSA, NHVR, ATSB-equivalent) to confirm evidence-pack acceptability.
- Data ownership: cryptographic exports are open-format, re-readable indefinitely.
Why now
- SOLAS-VGM enforcement tightening — container-weight misdeclaration penalties rising, terminal-of-loading liability now bites.
- EASA Part-IS + FAA NPRM 22-04 cyber-supply-chain rules require auditable firmware-version-deployed evidence.
- Australian HVNL Chain of Responsibility — director-criminal-liability for fatigue / mass / load-restraint failures across the chain; spreadsheet evidence isn’t passing.
- ICAO Annex 13 evidence durability — accident-investigation records must survive decades and operator transitions; conventional records don’t.
- IMO 2050 + EU FuelEU Maritime — emissions evidence must be cryptographically verifiable for compliance assurance.
- Insurance market tightening — P&I clubs and hull & machinery insurers increasingly require auditable telemetry, not claimant assertion.
Next steps
- 30-minute discovery call with your COO + General Counsel + safety / compliance lead.
- Letter of Intent — non-binding, signals pilot interest.
- Pilot kick-off within 8 weeks of LOI.
Contact: John Olsen · john@itotchaincloud.com.au · +61 490 114 879
Reference data sources: SOLAS-VGM compliance benchmarks; IATA / ICAO maintenance-record retention requirements; AMSA Annual Reports; NHVR Chain of Responsibility compliance data; ATSB / NTSB / AAIB accident-investigation methodology; P&I-club premium-trend data (International Group of P&I Clubs); EU MRV maritime emissions data; ICCT vehicle-emissions audit-trail research. Full citations available on request.
Tx-Rails — Built by IT/OT Chain & Cloud Australia (ITOTCCA). Sydney · London.