What a week for Hitrak.

Our first real move into the Australian market began on Monday with the news that Hitrak had been named a finalist in the Australian Supply Chain and Logistics Association (ASCLA) 2026 Awards, in the Big Data, IT and Business Intelligence Award category. Winners will be announced at the awards gala at Brisbane City Hall on Friday 23 October 2026. It is the first international recognition for the New Zealand-built company.

From there we headed to MegaTrans in Melbourne, one of the largest freight and logistics events in Australasia. Our exhibit was busier and better received than we had dared hope. Carrier after carrier stopped by to see how Hitrak works, and the enthusiasm for what we have built was genuinely humbling.

Hitrak is the AI-powered, event-driven transport management system (TMS) for freight carriers, built in New Zealand and serving operators across New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. Its premise is a simple one: real AI needs real data. Because Hitrak captures every freight event as it happens, its AI works off a true record of the operation rather than a patchy reconstruction after the fact.

The single thing that stood out most consistently at the stand was a live demonstration of exactly that. Investigating a freight claim, piecing together the scans, timestamps, proof of delivery and messages behind a consignment, normally takes an operator hours. Watching Hitrak return the full picture in three to four seconds was, for many visitors, the moment it clicked.

Johnny Davison, Hitrak's founder and CEO, also joined Sam Smeaton on the Forward Thinking podcast, produced by LogiHire, to talk through the data-first thinking behind the platform and where it fits in the Australian market.

Beyond our own stand, the week taught us a great deal about what is happening across the ditch in the wider industry, and where a system like Hitrak fits. But the part we valued most was the people. We met operators, technologists and fellow builders who were generous with their time and their stories, and we are looking forward to those connections turning into long-term friendships and, we hope, working relationships.

For a New Zealand company making its Australian debut, the week could not have gone better. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, said hello, and shared their world with us. We will be back.