Case Study — Connected Contracting: Smart Fuel Surcharges

Over the past eight months, we’ve been working with BakerHostetler, a leading U.S. law firm, to deliver pragmatic solutions to enterprises built on the Clause Platform for smart legal contracts. The first result of our partnership is a smart transportation agreement. We’re pleased to share a case study about this work and what it means for industry.

The case study explains the operations and benefits of a “connected contract” with a fuel surcharge Smart Clause® template that performs pricing calculations from within the agreement in response to external weekly fuel prices. The smart fuel surcharge clause also integrates with accounting software to automate payment and invoicing operations.

Not only does the connected contract bring operational and financial improvements, it also offers a strategic benefit in the form of improved relationships. Because key contract events are recorded on a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain to create a single, shared source of truth for auditing that all parties in the network with permission can access, parties are less likely to challenge the fuel surcharge Smart Clause® Template and associated calculations.

This is a first in a series of implementation-ready smart legal contracts to be co-developed with BakerHostetler.

The full case study is available here.