The fares and travel allowance is paid when an employee:

• starts and finishes their work day on a construction site
• starts their day performing prefabricated work in an open yard and finishes the day onsite attending to build or install work.

Tip

The Allowances in building and construction page has more information on the fares and travel allowance, and other vehicle and travel entitlements.

To calculate an allowance, use our Pay and Conditions Tool.

An employee who is requested by their employer to start or finish work at a location that is not the job site is not paid the allowance. The employee will be paid their hourly rate from when they arrive at the off-site location. If they start on a job site and finish work at an off-site location they will be paid their hourly rate until they finish at the off-site location.

Example

Noah is a traffic controller for a civil construction company.

He usually starts and finishes work on a job site and receives the fares and travel allowance. He uses his own vehicle to travel to and from work.

This week, he’s working at a job site 30 km from home.

On Monday Noah’s employer asks him to stop and collect some traffic management paperwork from the local municipal offices on his way to the job site.

He starts work and is paid his hourly rate from when he arrives at the municipal offices.

On Tuesday Noah is asked to stop at his employer’s depot on his way home from site, to drop off some surveying equipment.

He’s paid his hourly rate from when he starts work at the job site, to when he leaves the depot after dropping off the survey equipment.

Noah is not paid the fares and travel pattern allowance on Monday or Tuesday because he didn’t start and finish on the job site on those days.