BNSF Railway Co, a unit of the billionaire's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (>> Berkshire Hathaway), on Monday said it has become the first major U.S. railroad to join the Blockchain in Transport Alliance.

The alliance is a group of more than 200 companies examining how best to use the digital ledger technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the transport industry.

It hopes to establish blockchain standards in such areas as vehicle maintenance, quality control and fraud prevention.

Among its members are shippers FedEx Corp (>> FedEx Corporation) and United Parcel Service Inc (>> United Parcel Service), tire maker Bridgestone Corp (>> Bridgestone Corp), German software company SAP SE (>> SAP) and some banks and brokers, according to the alliance's website.

BNSF said it will work with other alliance members to decide how data should be used in the freight transportation blockchain.

"It is important that the industry comes together to align around a set of standards," Muru Murugappan, BNSF's vice president of technology services, said in a statement.

He was not immediately available for additional comment.

BNSF operates in 28 U.S. states and Canada, and is among the largest of Berkshire's more than 90 business units. It generated $2.84 billion (2.03 billion pounds) of profit in the first nine months of 2017.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)