NDIS Provider Travel Billing Guidelines: How Sole Traders Claim Travel Time and Kilometres

Key takeaways

• Travel has two parts: travel time (labour) and vehicle costs (non-labour, per km). Each is claimed on its own invoice line, separate from the support itself.
• Time caps apply: up to 30 minutes each way in metro and regional centre areas (MMM 1–3) and up to 60 minutes each way in regional areas (MMM 4–5). Remote areas (MMM 6–7) have no time cap.
• Travel time uses your agreed support rate: for support workers, travel is billed at the same hourly rate agreed for the primary support, or lower if you agree that with the participant.
• Vehicle costs are "up to $0.99 per km" for your own vehicle, plus tolls and parking at cost. This is a reasonable-contribution guide, and the participant must agree to it.
• Provider travel is not Activity Based Transport: driving to the participant is provider travel. Driving the participant during a community activity is activity-based transport, with its own line items.
• Agree it in writing first: travel must be in your service agreement before you claim it.

What is NDIS travel billing, and who can claim it?

NDIS travel billing is how providers recover the cost of getting to a participant to deliver a support. It covers your time on the road and the running costs of your vehicle. You can claim provider travel only when all of the conditions below are true, according to the NDIA's pricing rules.

A note on who the price limits apply to: plan-managed and NDIA-managed participants are covered by the price limits, and plan managers can't pay invoices above the limit, whether you're registered or not. Self-managing participants aren't bound by price limits, but a clear agreement is still the best protection for you both.

What you can't bill for: admin travel monitoring, rostering and making payment claims are covered by overheads in your hourly rate — don't bill them as travel.

• The support item you're delivering allows provider travel.
• The support is delivered face-to-face with the participant.
• The participant agreed to the travel charges in advance, and your service agreement specifies them.
• You explained why the travel is a good use of their funding.
• You're a sole trader travelling from your usual place of work to or from the participant, or between participants, or you're paying a worker for that travel time.
• You haven't already claimed a support that has travel built into its price.

Provider travel vs activity based transport

These are two separate things, and mixing them up is one of the most common invoicing errors. Quick test: if the participant is not in your car yet, it is provider travel. If they are in your car as part of the activity, it is activity-based transport.

• Provider travel (time) — your time driving: claim on the same support item as the primary support, flagged as "Provider Travel".
• Provider travel, non-labour — per-km vehicle costs, tolls, parking: claim on a separate "Provider travel – non-labour costs" item (a _799_ line item). Examples: Daily Personal Activities (0107): 01_799_0107_1_1; Community participation (0125): 04_799_0125_6_1; High intensity daily personal activities (0104): 01_799_0104_1_1. Non-labour items carry a notional unit price of $1.00, so you claim the dollar amount as the quantity (for $35.64 in vehicle costs, claim 35.64 units at $1.00).
• Activity Based Transport (time) — driving the participant to, from or as part of a community participation support (swimming pool, social group, shopping trip): your time is billed at the agreed hourly rate on the main support item, because it is part of the support.
• Activity Based Transport (vehicle) — vehicle costs go on an ABT line item, for example 04_590_0125_6_1 for community participation. These items are not subject to price limits and also use a $1.00 notional unit. Rates guide: up to $0.99/km for a standard vehicle and up to $2.76/km for a vehicle modified for accessibility, or a bus. Tolls, parking and fares can be claimed up to the full amount.
• Shared trips: if you transport two or more participants on one trip, apportion the costs between them, with each participant’s agreement in advance.

Travel time caps by location (2026-27)

The NDIA classifies the participant's location using the Modified Monash Model (MMM), based on where the participant is when you deliver the support. You can look up a participant's MMM rating with the Department of Health's Health Workforce Locator. If your drive takes 45 minutes in an MMM 1–3 area, you can claim only 30 — the extra 15 minutes is a cost of doing business.

• Major cities, regional centres (MMM 1–3): up to 30 minutes each way.
• Regional areas (MMM 4–5): up to 60 minutes each way.
• Remote / very remote (MMM 6–7): no time cap, with loadings of 40% (remote) and 50% (very remote) on price limits.

Travel time rate

For disability support workers, the travel rate is the hourly rate agreed for the primary support, or lower if you agree that with the participant. The 50% travel rate that applies from 1 July 2025 is for therapy providers only and does not apply to support workers. Claim by the actual time: 50 minutes of travel is 0:50 hours, not a rounded unit.

Vehicle costs per kilometre

These are the amounts the NDIA considers a reasonable contribution. You and the participant agree the actual rate, and it can be lower. You can claim vehicle costs only where the rules also allow you to claim the travel time for that trip. The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 replaced the old Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document, and the NDIA updates it through the year — confirm current figures on the NDIS pricing arrangements page before invoicing.

• Your own vehicle (provider travel): up to $0.99/km.
• Standard vehicle (activity based transport): up to $0.99/km.
• Modified vehicle or bus (activity based transport): up to $2.76/km.
• Tolls, parking, public transport: up to the full amount.

Multiple participants in one trip

If you visit more than one participant in the same trip, you can divide travel time and kilometres between them. Agree the split with each participant in advance in the service agreement. You can't claim the full trip against each person.

How to format travel lines on an NDIS invoice (step by step)

Plan Managers reject invoices where travel is bundled into the support or where line items do not match. Here is the clean way to do it. Worked example: a sole trader in an MMM 1 area has agreed $70.00/hr with a participant for a weekday daytime support (illustrative rate only). The trip is 25 minutes and 18 km each way, and support runs 2 hours. Both legs fit inside the 30-minute cap, so the full 50 minutes is claimable — support $140.00 + travel time $58.33 + vehicle costs $35.64 = $233.97 invoice total.

• Step 1 — Put travel in the service agreement: state that you will charge travel time and per-km costs, the rate for each, and how you will split multi-participant trips. Without this, you have no basis to claim.
• Step 2 — Record the trip as it happened: log the departure time, arrival time and kilometres driven, and note which participant each leg relates to. These records are your evidence if a claim is questioned.
• Step 3 — Keep time and distance separate: never combine them into one line. Use three lines per visit — the support, the travel time and the vehicle costs.
• Step 4 — Apply the cap before you invoice: compare each leg to the 30- or 60-minute cap for the participant’s MMM area and bill the lesser of actual time and cap.
• Step 5 — Use the right line item for each line: support and travel time on the same support item number; vehicle costs on the matching _799_ provider travel non-labour item, or the ABT item if you were transporting the participant.
• Step 6 — Show quantity, rate and total on every line: use hours for time and units for dollars. Include the participant’s reference number, your ABN, the dates of service and a clear description, as on any valid tax invoice. See our NDIS invoice requirements guide (/resources/ndis-invoice-requirements).

Stop doing travel maths by hand with Rayvice

Splitting travel from shift hours, checking caps and converting kilometres into dollars gets tedious, especially across several participants. Rayvice is independent software and is not endorsed by the NDIS or NDIA. You still need a service agreement that covers travel. Plans from $24 AUD a month, 9-day free trial, no credit card. Keep reading: NDIS support worker rates (/resources/ndis-support-worker-rates), how to send an NDIS invoice to a plan manager (/resources/how-to-send-ndis-invoice-to-plan-manager), how to invoice an NDIS participant (/resources/how-to-invoice-ndis).

• Log the shift in about 30 seconds, including travel time and kilometres.
• Rayvice splits travel alongside shift hours, so day, evening, weekend and public holiday rates sit next to a separate travel line instead of being buried in the total.
• Per-km and travel-time amounts are calculated for you, so you do not convert kilometres or minutes on a calculator.
• Invoices are checked against 2026 NDIA price caps before they exist, along with your ABN, BSB and the participant’s 9-digit NDIS ID.
• One tap sends a tax-invoice PDF to the plan manager, with delivery status you can see.

Common questions

Official sources

NDIS rules change. Verify current figures on these official pages before invoicing:

• NDIS pricing arrangements (ndis.gov.au) — 2026–27 schedules, current as of 24 September 2026
• NDIS: Guide to getting paid