NDIS travel and transport claiming.
Travel is one of the most commonly under-claimed — and most commonly mis-claimed — parts of NDIS billing, for two reasons. First, the word travel covers two completely different things, with two separate sets of rules, that providers confuse constantly. Second, travel is fiddly to track: kilometres go unrecorded, the minutes a worker spends moving between participants get forgotten, and the rules are involved enough that many providers simply avoid claiming at all.
This guide separates the two kinds of travel, explains what's claimable in plain English, and points you back to the one source that decides the detail — the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements. Treat every figure and limit below as subject to those arrangements: they change, and they vary by location.
NDIS travel covers two separate things: provider travel (your worker's time and kilometres getting to a participant) and participant transport (driving the participant somewhere, funded from their plan). Both must be agreed in the service agreement before you can claim. Provider travel has time and kilometre limits set in the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements, which vary by location.
Two different things called travel
Before you can claim travel, you need to know which kind you're looking at. These aren't variations on a theme — they're funded differently, claimed differently, and mixing them up is the single most common travel mistake.
Provider travel
The support worker travelling to a participant, or between participants. It has two parts — a labour component (the time the worker spends travelling) and a non-labour component (the cost of running the vehicle, commonly claimed per kilometre). In short: getting your worker to the work.
Participant transport
Transporting the participant as part of a support — for example, driving them to an activity or an appointment. This draws on the participant's own transport funding, not on provider travel. In short: getting the participant places.
Same word, two different rules, two different funding sources — confused constantly. Throughout this guide, confirm the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements before you rely on any of it, because the detail changes and varies by location.
Provider travel: the worker's time
Subject to the current rules and limits, you can claim for the time a support worker spends travelling to deliver a support, and travelling between one participant and the next, charged at the relevant support rate. The principle is straightforward: that travel time is part of delivering the support, so it can be claimable rather than written off.
The detail is where it gets involved. There are limits on how much travel time you can claim, conditions on when it applies, and the rules differ depending on where the support is delivered, with different treatment for different regions.
Don't bill from memory of the rules
We're deliberately not quoting maximum minutes, caps, or regional multipliers here — they change, and a wrong number is worse than no number. Before you bill a single minute of worker travel time, confirm the current limits and conditions in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements for the participant's location.
Provider travel: vehicle costs
The second part of provider travel is the non-labour cost — actually running the vehicle to get there. This is commonly claimed on a per-kilometre basis. The figure used elsewhere on this site is $1.00 per kilometre, but treat even that as subject to the current rules and the participant's agreement rather than a fixed fact. The Pricing Arrangements are the authority on the amount that applies.
In some cases additional costs, such as road tolls, may also be claimable. As with worker travel time, there are conditions and limits, and they depend on the participant's plan and on what was agreed up front. The rule of thumb is simple: capture the kilometres accurately at the time, then claim within what the current arrangements and the service agreement allow.
Participant transport is different
Everything above is about your worker. Participant transport is about the participant. When a support involves transporting the participant somewhere — for instance, driving them to a community activity — that relates to the transport funding in the participant's own plan, not to provider travel.
Keep the two firmly apart. The kilometres your worker drives to reach a participant, and the kilometres driven with the participant on board to get them somewhere, answer to different rules and different funding. Conflating them is how travel claims go wrong. When in doubt, name which one you're claiming, then check it against the current Pricing Arrangements.
Get it in the service agreement
Travel should never be a surprise on an invoice. The time to agree it is up front, in the participant's service agreement, so that travel is expected, understood and claimable before the first shift is delivered. An agreement that spells out how travel will be charged protects both sides.
Claiming travel that was never agreed is one of the fastest ways to a dispute, a withheld payment, or an awkward conversation with a plan manager. If travel is part of how you deliver support, write it into the agreement. We cover the wider point in our guide to NDIS service agreements.
Why providers under-claim travel
Even when travel is agreed and genuinely claimable, plenty of it never makes it onto an invoice. The reasons are mundane — which is exactly why they cost so much.
- —It's fiddly to capture per shift. Travel happens in the gaps around supports, when nobody's sitting at a screen, so it rarely gets logged cleanly.
- —Workers don't record kilometres. If recording distance means remembering to write it down later, it gets rounded to zero — and no kilometres logged means nothing to claim.
- —Travel time between participants gets forgotten. A worker who drives straight from one participant to the next has done claimable travel, but with no obvious shift to hang it on, it slips through.
- —Uncertainty about the rules makes providers avoid claiming. Faced with limits, conditions and regional differences, many decide the safest thing is to not claim travel at all.
The result is the same every time: travel that was genuinely delivered, and genuinely claimable, quietly left as unclaimed revenue. It is one of the most persistent gaps in NDIS claiming overall.
How software should handle travel
Travel is a tracking problem before it's a billing problem. Good software makes the tracking effortless, so the billing follows. Look for these.
Capture kilometres in the field, at the time
The worker records distance on their phone when the travel happens, not from memory at the end of the fortnight.
Attach travel to the shift it belongs to
Every piece of travel is tied to the support it relates to, so nothing floats free and unclaimed.
Price per-kilometre travel automatically
Recorded distance becomes a correctly priced line without anyone reaching for a calculator.
Keep travel within what the service agreement allows
Claims stay inside what was agreed with the participant, so travel is never billed past its limits.
Reconcile recorded travel against what was claimed
Travel that was logged but never billed surfaces as a gap, before it ages out.
Keep it simple enough that workers actually record it
The best travel rule is the one your team will follow — if capturing travel is harder than skipping it, it gets skipped.
For NDIS providers using practice management software
Rostrel captures travel kilometres directly in the worker's shift record — at the time, on their phone — then automatically prices the distance as a correctly coded NDIS transport line item against the participant's service agreement. When a shift is submitted, Rostrel checks recorded travel against what was billed and surfaces any gap, so travel that was delivered but never invoiced doesn't quietly age out. Provider travel time and participant transport are tracked as separate line items so the two are never conflated on a claim.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between provider travel and participant transport?
Provider travel is about getting your worker to the work — the time they spend travelling and the cost of running the vehicle, commonly claimed per kilometre. Participant transport is about getting the participant places, such as driving them to an activity or appointment, and it draws on the participant's own transport funding. They're funded and claimed differently, and confusing the two is the most common travel mistake.
Can I claim a support worker's travel time?
Subject to the current rules and limits, the time a worker spends travelling to deliver a support, or between participants, can be claimable at the relevant support rate. The limits, conditions and regional treatment change over time and vary by location, so confirm the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements for the participant's location before you bill any worker travel time.
How much can I claim per kilometre for vehicle costs?
Provider vehicle costs are commonly claimed per kilometre. The figure used elsewhere on this site is $1.00 per kilometre, but treat that as subject to the current rules and the participant's service agreement rather than a fixed amount. The NDIS Pricing Arrangements are the authority on the rate that applies.
Do I need to put travel in the service agreement?
Yes. Travel should be agreed up front in the participant's service agreement so it's expected, understood and claimable before the first shift is delivered. Claiming travel that was never agreed is one of the fastest routes to a dispute, a withheld payment, or an awkward conversation with a plan manager.
Why do providers leave travel unclaimed?
Travel is fiddly to capture: it happens in the gaps around supports, workers forget to record kilometres, travel between participants has no obvious shift to attach to, and uncertainty about the rules pushes some providers to avoid claiming altogether. The result is delivered, genuinely claimable travel left as unclaimed revenue.
Are there limits on how much worker travel I can claim?
Yes. Worker travel time is capped by location under the Modified Monash Model — broadly up to around 30 minutes per trip in metropolitan areas (MMM 1–3) and up to around 60 minutes in regional areas (MMM 4–5). Separately, since 1 July 2025 the labour component of travel for therapy supports has been capped at 50%, though core support-worker travel is not affected by that change. Vehicle costs are claimed per kilometre at the rates in the price guide. Because these caps and rates are set in the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, check the latest version before you claim.
Stop leaving travel unclaimed
Rostrel captures travel kilometres against the shift they belong to, bills them as an NDIS transport line, and reconciles the travel that was recorded against the travel that was claimed — so delivered travel stops quietly going unbilled. The limits and conditions are still yours to apply from the current Pricing Arrangements; Rostrel just makes sure nothing falls through the gap between the field and the invoice.
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