The information in this article supplements our Uniforms, vehicle and travel entitlements content. You can use the industry filter on the page to find out more about these entitlements in your award.

Employees who start or finish work on a work site other than the employer's workshop or depot get paid travelling time allowance.

Travelling time allowance has a standard part and an additional part.

Standard travelling time

The standard part of travelling time allowance is a percentage of the minimum hourly rate for an employee’s classification.

The percentage depends on the work the employee is doing:

• plumbing and mechanical services and irrigation installer employees – 25% of the minimum hourly rate per day
• fire sprinkler fitter employees – 75% of the minimum hourly rate per day.

The minimum hourly rate doesn’t include:

• all-purpose allowances, or
• the casual loading for casual employees.

Additional travelling time

An additional travelling time part is also paid when the employee had to travel to a work site that is more than 50 kilometres radial distance from their "centre of employment" (other than distant work). 

Centre of employment

The centre of employment is a location set by the employer for each employee. An employee will only have one centre of employment. 

If the employer has different groups of employees in different locations the employer can use different centres of employment for each of the different groups.

If the centre of employment is going to be changed employees must be provided with 28 days' notice.

Example

Starting and finishing at a depot

Duncan takes a work vehicle from his employer’s depot on his way to the job site. At the end of the day he returns the vehicle to the depot before going home.

Duncan’s centre of employment is the depot. He starts and finishes his workday there. He’s paid for time spent travelling to and from the depot to the job site as part of his work time.

Duncan doesn’t get the standard travelling time allowance because his workday doesn’t start or finish at the job site.

Starting or finishing on site

Dell is asked by their employer to make a stop on their way to the job site to collect some materials.

Dell starts work when they arrive to collect the materials and is paid their ordinary time from this point onwards.

Dell finishes their day onsite.

Because Dell finished their day on the job site, they are paid the standard travelling time allowance for that day.

Distant work

An employee is on distant work if they’re required to travel from their normal place of employment or working on a job site that is far from their usual residence and they can’t reasonably be expected to return home each night.  

Time spent travelling between the normal place of employment or an employee’s normal place of residence is paid to a maximum of 8 hours in any day.  

If the employee isn’t accommodated on site, they get travelling time allowance for travel between their accommodation and the work site. In this case, their place of accommodation becomes their centre of employment when calculating travelling time allowance. 

They don’t get travelling time allowance for their forward and return journey to the distant job site from their home or usual place of work. Instead, they get paid for the time travelled up to 8 hours in a day. 

Example

Blair is sent by their employer to a distant job site and is offered good quality accommodation on site.

Blair gets travel time allowance when travelling between the accommodation and the job site. 

For the travelling time of their journey from home to the accommodation and accommodation to home, they get paid their ordinary hourly pay rate, up to 8 hours per day of travel.