Payments for provider travel costs are often a source of confusion among NDIS participants and providers alike.
A provider can charge your NDIS plan for transport costs associated with delivering approved NDIS services.
Extra costs may include the driving time for a provider to deliver face-to-face supports such as at your home, travel time for taking you to and from an activity and other items such as car parking or toll fees.
Provider costs under the NDIS highlights
- Provider transport costs are charged separately to the support
- Costs may include a combination of support worker travel time and other related transport costs
- Participants must agree to these costs in advance
- Costs must be split if the travel costs cover providing supports to two or more participants at the same time.
Looking for information about how the NDIS funds transport costs for participants? Check out Travel and transport funding under the NDIS. Or check out our PACE page for more details about recurring transport funding.
A guide to provider travel costs for face-to-face support.
Sometimes NDIS providers need to travel to a location such as a person’s home or a place of respite to deliver supports. In this case, providers may be able to bill you for travel costs.
All of the following conditions must be met for providers to claim travel costs from a participant’s NDIS Plan:
- The NDIS participant has agreed in advance
- NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits must indicate that providers are eligible to claim travel costs for the support item and the proposed claim must comply with the price limits guide
- The activity must be related to delivering specific disability support to the participant
- The support must be delivered face-to-face (in person not online)
- The provider must explain to the participant why paying for provider travel is a good use of their NDIS funds
- Travel time can be claimed if: a) the provider has to pay the worker for their travel time or b) the provider has their own business (sole trader).
Provider travel: Labour costs.
The NDIS uses 7 zones determined by population and location to set prices for supports and services, including travel allowance for providers. Zone 1 includes major cities, while zone 7 covers very remote areas. All of the other zones sit in between.
Reflecting the cost of providing services, price limits vary based on the zone where the service is provided. The maximum time providers can claim for travelling to each participant per session is:
- Zones 1-3: 30 minutes
- Zones 4-5: 60 minutes
- Zones 6-7 (remote and very remote areas): as agreed up to the hourly rate for the support item.
In addition, providers delivering Core and Capacity Building supports can also claim for the time spent travelling from the last participant to their usual place of work (if the provider is paying the worker for that time). The maximum amount of return travel time depends on the zone as above.
Provider travel: non-labour costs.
In addition to the worker’s time, they may incur other travel-related costs when delivering face–to–face support. This can include car parking costs, toll fees and car running costs like petrol and maintenance. Such additional items can only be claimed if the support allows travel time to be claimed.
Under the NDIS, the participant can be asked to make a reasonable contribution to these costs, as follows:
- For a vehicle owned by the provider or the worker, up to $0.97 a kilometre
- For other forms of transport or associated costs such as road tolls, parking, and public transport fares, up to the full amount.
Provider claims for activity-based transport costs.
A participant can engage a provider to help them get to and from certain activities such as driving to a community activity covered under their NDIS plan. This assistance is called “activity based transport”.
Providers of Core > Assistance with social, economic and community participation supports and some Capital supports can claim costs for transporting a participant to an activity.
The participant must have agreed in advance. How this works and the agreed costs are usually included in the service agreement between the participant and the provider.
Not all Capacity Building supports are eligible to claim activity-based transport costs. The following are permitted:
- Finding and keeping a job > Employment support
- Improved learning > Transition through school and to further education
- Improved living arrangements > Assistance with accommodation and tenant obligations
- Increased social and community participation > Life transition planning
- Support coordination > Psychosocial recovery coaching
- Increased social and community participation > Skills development and training
- Improved relationships > Individual social skills development.
Activity-based provider transport costs the NDIS may cover.
Where a worker incurs costs to drive you to an activity and home again, they can claim for transport time and relevant travel-related costs.
- Activity-based transport: Labour/time costs.
The provider can bill the participant’s plan for the time that support workers spend delivering transport directly connected to the support. This includes picking you up and driving you to the location as well as the return trip.
The worker’s travel time can be charged at the hourly rate for the relevant support item if the participant agrees. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate a lower hourly rate.
- Activity-based transport: Non-labour costs.
As is the case for some face-to-face supports, the delivery of activity-based supports means some providers have to pay other costs such as road tolls, parking feed and vehicle running costs.
Providers can negotiate with participants to make a reasonable contribution towards these costs, usually considered to be the following:
- For a vehicle that is not modified for accessibility, up to $0.97 a kilometre
- For a vehicle that is modified for accessibility or a bus, up to $2.76 a kilometre
- For other forms of transport or associated costs, such as road tolls, parking and public transport fares, up to the full amount.
Keep in mind that providers can only charge these fees if they’re directly connected to the support and you have agreed to pay these in advance.
Top tip: Provider activity-based transport costs are not subject to price limits. However, you may be able to negotiate a lower rate for the worker’s time during transport in your service agreement.
Billing for activity-based provider transport costs.
- Costs should be claimed against the relevant activity-based transport support item.
- These support items can be delivered to individual participants and groups of participants subject to the rules set out in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits.
- Claims should be made using the relevant support item and against the participant’s core budget.
- Providers must separate support costs and travel costs on invoices. In some cases, this means three separate costs will appear.
- If a worker incurs costs transporting more than one participant, travel costs can be split between the participants (called ‘apportioning’) if each participant agrees in advance.
An example of how activity-based transport costs work under the NDIS.
A provider is delivering Assistance with social and community participation services. They are required to transport a participant from their home to a local swimming pool and back including:
- 25 minutes driving the participant to the pool and setting them up in the activity
- 40 minutes of support in the pool during the activity
- 20 minutes returning the participant to their home in the same vehicle
- The agreed hourly rate of both the support and support worker’s transport time is $50
- They have also agreed to cover the support worker’s car park fee ($4.50) and school running costs at $0.85 a kilometre.
The provider’s claim looks like this:
- $33.33 for the 40 minutes of direct support at the agreed rate of $50 per hour
- $37.50 for the 45 minutes of transport time at the agreed rate of $50 per hour
- $21.50 for the non-labour costs ($0.85 x 20 km = $17 plus the $4.50 car park fee).
Source: NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2023-2024 V1.2.
Leap in! is here to help.
If you need some help to understand how travel and transport charges work under the NDIS, the Leap in! Crew is here to help.
Give us a call on 1300 05 78 78 or chat with us here on our website (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm).
Originally published 5 January 2022, revised and updated 11 March 2024.
Further reading.
Travel and transport funding under the NDIS.