Freight technology within the limits of physical work
Freight companies announce electrification as a number of vehicles. At a busy depot the binding constraint is the electricity connection, and a board that governs the vehicle count without it will approve trucks that cannot be charged in time.
Replacing three transport systems one customer cohort at a time
When I joined Morrowgate in March 2021, its three divisions moved about 2.3 million consignments a month through three transport management systems, the oldest written in-house in 1998 and hosted under a contract costing A$4.1 million a year.
Starting with 24 electric prime movers instead of the 60 we had announced
In February 2023 our board announced a goal of 60 battery-electric prime movers on the Melbourne port shuttle by June 2025, and four months later the local distribution network business quoted A$9.6 million and thirty months to give our depot the 4 MVA supply
Renewing a A$190 million contract on delivery events, not a live feed of our drivers
Early in 2024 the grocery retailer that is our largest contract-logistics customer, worth A$190 million a year to us, asked for a live telematics feed from every vehicle serving its distribution centres as a condition of renewing our five-year contract.
I would rather tell a board what the substation, the vendor contract and the driver roster will allow than promise what a software brochure says. Freight technology is judged at the gate, the dock and the charger, by people who never see the project plan.
Most transport-system replacements are planned module by module, the way the software vendor sees them. The risk sits in customers' connections, and planning the migration around those connections costs more in parallel running but protects revenue and trust.
Large shippers increasingly ask carriers for raw live telematics as a contract condition. Delivery events answer their real questions better, while location traces, speed records and driver identity carry obligations that belong with the carrier.
Revenue, year to June 2026
A$3.42 bn
Interstate freight, ports and containers, contract logistics and regional freight
Technology colleagues led
360
Platforms, data, terminal and fleet systems, and cyber security
Peak demand at the Melbourne port depot
1.38 MVA
Serving 24 battery-electric prime movers on the connection the site already had
In freight, the hard limits on technology sit outside the software: in the substation, the stevedore's gate and the driver's shift.
I am chief technology officer of Morrowgate Freight Limited, a fictional ASX-listed freight group based in Melbourne. In the year to June 2026 we earned A$3.42 billion from interstate road and rail freight, port container transport, contract warehousing and regional distribution, with 1,720 trucks, three intermodal rail terminals and 21 warehouses. My remit covers the transport platform and customer connections, telematics, terminal equipment networks, cyber security and the engineering of depot charging.
I trained as an electrical engineer and spent seven years testing railway signalling in Victoria, then worked on locomotive telemetry, ran technology at a Brisbane container terminal and was chief information officer of a fleet-leasing business before joining Morrowgate in 2021. Each move taught me that the systems which fail most expensively in freight sit between two organisations: a train and a track manager, a truck and a stevedore, a depot and an electricity network.
My approach is clearest in a 2023 decision. Our board had announced 60 battery-electric prime movers on the Melbourne port shuttle by mid-2025, and the electricity network then quoted thirty months to connect them. I recommended starting with 24 trucks on the connection we already had and telling investors at once that the goal would be late. That uncomfortable advice gave us eighteen months of measured data, now the basis of a smaller, cheaper network upgrade.
One freight platform, migrated customer by customer
By May 2025 all three divisions ran on one transport platform handling about 2.3 million consignments a month. Customer connections fell from 410 to 236 and invoice disputes from 4.1 to 1.5 per cent of invoices. The programme cost A$72 million against A$64 million approved, and no customer missed an invoice run.
Electric prime movers on the connection we already had
Since April 2025, 24 battery-electric prime movers have worked the Melbourne port shuttle on a 1.5 MVA supply, with managed charging holding the depot's peak at 1.38 MVA. They avoid about 820,000 litres of diesel a year, with availability of 93 per cent against 95 for diesel units on the same work.
Delivery events instead of drivers' traces
Our largest contract-logistics customer renewed a A$190 million-a-year contract on an event feed rather than raw telematics. Dock waiting at its distribution centres fell from 74 to 41 minutes, and the same data schedule now sits in 52 customer contracts. No driver identity leaves Morrowgate through it.
Vendor access to terminal equipment brokered and recorded
We replaced 27 standing vendor connections into cranes, reach stackers and gate systems with approved, time-limited sessions. Average restoration time for equipment faults rose from 3.2 to 4.7 hours at first and recovered to 3.5 hours within eighteen months, once spares and local diagnosis were in place.
Current focus
I am preparing two board papers for February 2027: whether to accept the network's 2.5 MVA upgrade at our Melbourne port depot and buy 20 more battery-electric prime movers, and whether to electrify the Sydney port shuttle, where the connection is tighter and the containers heavier. Alongside them, my team is replacing the yard-management software at all three intermodal terminals, the last major system older than the transport platform it feeds.
Conversations I welcome
I am not seeking an executive move. I would consider one non-executive directorship outside freight, joining the Audit and Risk Committee and, after a year, chairing a technology or cyber committee if the board has one. I can give about 25 days a year, subject to my board's consent and a conflicts check, and I accept a few speaking invitations on fleet electrification and terminal security.
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
Kestwick Driver Training FoundationNon-executive director of a not-for-profit training new heavy-vehicle drivers · 2022–present
Formation
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)Strathlyn University of Technology · 1996
Graduate Certificate in Cyber Security, part-timeStrathlyn University of Technology · 2015
Company directors' courseAustralasian Board Practice Institute · 2023
Eleanor brought the board a recommendation to revise our own electric-truck commitment, with the cost in the first paragraph and the people who disagreed named. It was not the paper we wanted. It was the one that let us keep the programme credible with investors and with our drivers.
Dougal PenhaligonFictional managing director and CEO, Morrowgate Freight LimitedThe full record ↗
Contact
I am not seeking an executive move. I would consider one non-executive directorship outside freight, joining the Audit and Risk Committee and, after a year, chairing a technology or cyber committee if the board has one. I can give about 25 days a year, subject to my board's consent and a conflicts check, and I accept a few speaking invitations on fleet electrification and terminal security.
