16th - 17th September 2026
Main Stage Schedule
Please be advised that the conference program is not final and is subject to change
Opening Remarks
Join us for the official opening of the 2026 Megatrans conference.
Beyond Diesel: The Best Way Forward
In recent years, the shift to low-emissions vehicle technology has seen electric trucks dominate the space. We provide examples of some recent decarbonisation projects and learnings from the people behind them.
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Future in Motion: The Tech Powering Tomorrow’s Transport
Get a glimpse of the innovations revolutionising mobility, boosting efficiency and driving sustainability across global supply chains.
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Automate All Avenues: Driving All Modes Forward
The beauty of transport and logistics is that it isn’t limited to just one mode. From the airways to shipping lines, from roads to rail, these sector leaders discuss the ways they are using automation and the latest technology to increase efficiency in their supply chains.
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Powering the Supply Chain
How to achieve the goal of running all operations on 100 per cent renewable electricity, transforming supply chain sustainability and reducing emissions.
Driving Safer, Smarter Freight: NHVR's Safety and Productivity Priorities
As Australia's heavy vehicle industry continues to evolve, so too does the regulatory approach to improving safety and productivity. Join Matt d'Abbs, NHVR Chief Safety & Productivity Officer, as he discusses NHVR’s regulatory priorities and how industry and regulators can work together to achieve safer outcomes across the supply chain.
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Seal the Deal: Top Tips to Secure Logistics Contracts
For major fleets, large scale distribution and freight contracts are the golden ticket. But just how can transport fleets stand out from the pack and separate themselves as the lucrative transport partner?
Preparing for Global Disruptions
In an era marked by volatility and interconnected risks, this session explores how geopolitical tensions and energy market instability are reshaping the global landscape. With fuel prices fluctuating amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East, the discussion will examine the ripple effects on supply chains, inflation, and economic resilience.
Reinvigorating Mid-Tier Logistics
Australia’s mid-tier logistics operators – vital small and medium freight providers – are under growing pressure from rising costs, tight margins, and long payment terms.
Financing the Future
As the supply chain undergoes a massive structural transformation, the capital required to modernise infrastructure, digitise logistics, and refresh fleets has never been higher. Balancing the urgent need for innovation with the reality of maintaining a healthy bottom line is a complex challenge that ripples from the warehouse floor to the final mile. This panel explores how finance innovators are unlocking new models of investment and credit to ensure the entire global trade network remains both resilient and profitable.
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Preparing Freight for the Future: Technology, Data and Workforce Capability
In an increasingly complex freight environment, achieving safer, more efficient and productive transport outcomes relies on nationally consistent approaches and meaningful collaboration between government and industry. This joint presentation explores how Austroads and Transport Certification Australia (TCA) are working with industry to support the adoption of trusted data, telematics and digital technologies, while also helping build the workforce capability needed to maximise the benefits of these advancements. Drawing on examples from freight, infrastructure and transport innovation, as well as the National Heavy Vehicle Driver Competency Framework, the session highlights how nationally coordinated approaches can be applied in practice to improve productivity, support capability uplift and respond to emerging challenges across the transport sector.
From Dispatch Chaos to Delivery Control: Turning Transport Complexity into Operational Advantage
Australia’s transport operators are navigating a new kind of complexity: rising cost pressure, tighter capacity, fragmented fleets, compliance demands and customers who expect faster, more predictable deliveries. For many teams, manual dispatch, static routes, and reactive exception handling are no longer enough to keep operations moving efficiently. In this session, we will explore how logistics teams can move from dispatch chaos to delivery control by using smarter routing, real-time visibility, exception management and AI-assisted decision-making. The discussion will focus on how transport complexity can be turned into an operational advantage, helping businesses improve asset utilisation, reduce cost-to-serve, strengthen service reliability and build more resilient delivery operations across Australia.
Opening Remarks
Join us for the official kickoff of day two of the MegaTrans Conference.
From Risk to Resilience: The Latest Transport Technology
For major transport and logistics fleets, managing assets, staff and freight has never been so important. Whether it be telematics updates or the latest safety systems, these companies are reshaping sustainability, efficiency and safety for the industry.
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Recruiting Right: Overcoming Staff Shortages
An array of transport and logistics members discuss the best ways to not just recruit, but also retain the best staff.
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Unlocking Rail Freight Productivity and Competitiveness
Australia’s freight task is growing rapidly, but that growth cannot be met by road alone. To keep goods moving efficiently, safely and sustainably, rail freight must play a much larger role in Australia’s national freight system. The National Rail Action Plan (NRAP) has laid the foundations with landmark reforms to digital signalling, standards and interoperability. The next phase of reform will be about turning those foundations into real freight outcomes. This session will explore how a future national reform program must focus on coordinated freight network planning. It’s not about rail in isolation. It’s about rail as part of an integrated freight and transport system, using road and rail to their respective strengths to support faster, more reliable and lower-cost freight movements across Australia.
Keeping Australia Moving in a Crisis: Building a homegrown low carbon fuels industry
Australia sits at the end of long, fragile fuel supply chains. We import most of our liquid fuels, so conflict in the Middle East or disruption in key shipping lanes quickly shows up as higher prices at the pump, higher airfares and rising freight and farming costs. Those risks are now central to debates on fuel security and what a Future Made in Australia really looks like. In this session, Stephen will explore how rapidly scaling low carbon liquid fuels can shore up Australia’s energy sovereignty. He will show how a local biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel industry can insulate households and businesses from geopolitical price shocks, so distant conflicts do not automatically mean costlier petrol and flights. He will outline how building domestic production can keep airlines and critical freight moving when global shipping slows, and reduce exposure to insurance hikes and route closures. Stephen will also discuss the role of regional Australia in this shift. New biofuel and sustainable aviation fuel hubs based on sugarcane bagasse, crop residues, agricultural and forestry waste and oilseeds can create long term skilled jobs in rural and regional communities. These hubs can keep trucks and planes supplied during a crisis, support defence and disaster response, and anchor a resilient, low carbon fuels industry that keeps Australia moving when global supply chains falter.
Keeping it Cool: Inside the Evolution of Cold Chain Logistics
Cold storage and transport has become a critical part of the supply chain. We look at how sustainable solutions are entering the landscape and what they mean for its future.
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Location, Location, Location: Establishing DCs for the Future
Just as important to the success of a transport and logistics company is its home base. Across the supply chain, these tips and tricks are all about finding the right space and fitting it out to meet the evolving needs of the sector.
Defending Digital: Cybersecurity in the Supply Chain
With the increasing automation and digitisation of the transport, warehousing and logistics sectors comes the greater risk for cyber-attacks and threats to vital information.
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Greener By Design: Manufacturing Driving Sustainability Across the Supply Chain
Manufacturers play a central role in shaping the environmental performance of modern supply chains, from materials selection and production methods through to packaging, transport and end-of-life outcomes. This panel brings together manufacturing leaders to explore how sustainability is being embedded into operations, product design and logistics strategies.
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