Electronic bill of lading (eBL) adoption has reached 51.1%, according to the FIT Alliance’s 2026 global survey, up from 49.2% in 2024 and 33% in 2022.
BIMCO is a founding member of the alliance.
The findings indicate that eBL use is becoming more established: 11.2% of respondents now use eBLs exclusively, compared with 7.5% in 2024.
As adoption grows, the industry’s focus is shifting from legal acceptance towards practical implementation. Interoperability and platform fragmentation were the concerns cited most frequently by respondents, followed by legal effectiveness and authenticity verification, and implementation and onboarding at scale.
The survey confirms that interoperability is now a central concern for scaling eBL adoption. The industry has made important progress, but the next phase must enable electronic trade documents and trusted data to move securely and efficiently across different platforms, jurisdictions and participants. (....)