Building Australia's Sustainable Freight Future: Ofload at AWS Summit 2025

Picture this: you're driving down the Highway and you see a tautliner truck rumbling past. There's a one in three chance that truck is driving completely empty. Even worse? Almost half the trucks on our roads are only partly loaded. It's a staggering reality that Chris McInnis, our CTO, shared at the recent AWS Summit in Sydney 2025.

Chris joined AWS sustainability leaders Bella Zanesco, ANZ Sustainability Leader at AWS and Colette Grgic, Head of the Startup Ecosystem at AWS, showcasing how cloud technology and data analytics are transforming Australia's freight industry, and the results are already impressive.

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Australia's freight sector faces a stark reality that demands immediate action. With transport comprising 17% of the nation's total greenhouse gas emissions (Climate Council, 2017), the pressure to decarbonise has never been greater. As Bella highlighted during the session: "Data is the foundation. We need to make smart decisions to decarbonise our businesses."

This foundation becomes even more critical when considering Australia's unique geography challenge. Spanning 8 million square kilometres with just 27 million people, 80% of all goods travel by road freight - making it a $68 billion industry that literally keeps the country moving.

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The statistics Chris shared paint a sobering picture of industry waste. "If you see a semi-trailer truck on the road, there's a one in three chance that truck is driving completely empty," he revealed to the audience. "But worse still is the fact that almost half the time these trucks are driving only partly loaded."

The scale of this inefficiency is staggering. Australian trucks drive over 6 billion kilometres empty every year - that is equivalent to traveling from Earth to the moon and back again over 8,000 times. "The sad reality is the number one good we ship around this country is actually air," Chris explained, highlighting how every empty kilometre adds to carbon emissions while eroding the razor-thin margins for Australia’s 58,000 small trucking companies (Australian Trucking Association, 2023).

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This is where Ofload's innovative approach transforms industry challenges into opportunities. Off the back of AWS's SageMaker and Timestream technologies, Ofload has built a comprehensive Carbon Analytics Platform that provides unprecedented visibility into freight operations.

"Imagine a bird's eye view where you can see every truck on every highway," Chris described. "You know where it's come from, you know where it's going, and more importantly, you know what freight it's carrying. We can leverage that data to forecast where trucks might otherwise be driving empty and fill it with your goods."

This isn't just theoretical innovation - it's delivering measurable results. In 2024, Ofload moved over 570 million kilograms of freight across more than 61 million kilometres, achieving a 20% reduction in carbon emissions for customers. That represents savings of over 3,500 tons of CO2, equivalent to removing 22,000 car trips between Sydney and Brisbane from the roads.

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Ofload's success reflects a larger trend in Australian innovation. As Colette noted: "Climate tech as an investment category received 20% of our nation's funding rounds that were above $100 million last year. For the second year in a row, climate tech is the second-largest funded category."

The momentum is building across industries, with corporate participation in climate tech funding rounds doubling since 2019. "It's not just a fad. It's not just a trend," Colette emphasised. "Investors are seeing real value and real opportunities, and they're putting their money where their mouths are."

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The urgency for carbon tracking solutions will only intensify. From July 2027, any Australian business with more than 100 employees or revenue exceeding $25 million must comply with new mandatory sustainability reporting requirements covering all emissions along the value chain, including freight.

"This is something becoming even more important," Chris noted, as organisations prepare for comprehensive emissions reporting that will require precise data on their logistics operations.

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The collaboration between Ofload and AWS demonstrates how strategic partnerships accelerate innovation. Beyond providing proof-of-concept credits, AWS solution architects worked directly with Ofload's Sydney-based engineering team to build the Carbon Analytics Platform from the ground up.

This hands-on support reflects AWS's broader commitment to sustainability leadership. As Bella outlined, Amazon's goal to achieve net zero carbon by 2040 (ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement) drives investments in renewable energy and climate technology. The company has already achieved 100% renewable energy matching for its data centres, seven years ahead of schedule.

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Looking ahead, Ofload is targeting a 30% reduction in carbon emissions for 2025, building on the 20% achieved in 2024. This ambitious goal reflects the company's commitment to creating "zero waste in the trucking industry" while putting more money into the pockets of the small operators who move 92% of Australia's freight.

The combination of advanced AWS cloud technologies, precise carbon analytics, and deep industry expertise positions Ofload at the forefront of Australia's sustainability transformation. As Chris concluded: "We're not just optimising freight, we're optimising the future of how Australia moves goods efficiently and sustainably."

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The thing about building a sustainable future is that it requires more than good intentions. It demands data-driven solutions, strategic partnerships, and an unwavering focus on solving real problems for real people.

For the small trucking operators who form the backbone of Australia's freight industry, platforms like ours offer a path to better margins and lower emissions. For large enterprises facing 2027's sustainability reporting requirements, we provide the precise carbon tracking they'll need to comply and compete.

As Chris concluded at the Summit: "We're creating zero waste in the trucking industry while putting more money into the pockets of the drivers who keep Australia moving."

The future of sustainable freight isn't some distant possibility - it's happening right now, one optimised load at a time.

Want to see how data-driven freight optimisation can transform your supply chain? Chat to our team to discover how we can help you cut emissions and costs simultaneously.

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Sources: 

Climate Council. (2017). Transport emissions: Driving down car pollution in cities. https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/FactSheet-Transport.pdf

Australian Trucking Association. (2023). Trucking Australia: The report. https://www.truck.net.au/sites/default/files/submissions/Trucking%20Australia%20-%20The%20Report.pdf

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