Submissions close at 4 pm AEST on Friday 23 October 2026.
An Expert Panel has proposed amendments following a review hearing on 9 October 2026. The proposals are now open for public consultation, with workers, businesses and other stakeholders invited to respond.
The Order is designed to ensure increased fuel costs are recovered throughout road transport contractual chains, affecting transport operators, subcontractors, owner-drivers and businesses that engage transport services or receive goods delivered by road.
What would change?
The proposed amendments include moving fuel cost adjustments from fortnightly to monthly, reducing the frequency of adjustments required under the Order.
The obligations would also cease if the national diesel terminal gate price remained below $2 per litre for four consecutive weeks.
Other proposed changes would allow businesses to meet their obligations through fuel cost adjustments made under relevant state or territory industrial instruments, agreed contractual formulas, cost models, benchmarking methods or fuel levies.
For an agreed fuel levy to satisfy the proposed requirements, the person incurring the increased fuel cost must receive a copy of the Order, the levy must be adjusted at least monthly, and the payer must take reasonable steps to ensure it covers the increased fuel cost.
Obligations extend across the supply chain
The Order is intended to ensure increased fuel costs are addressed throughout the contractual chain, including rates paid to contractors, subcontractors and owner-drivers.
It also places obligations on the party at the top of the chain — the party that entered into the first contract or arrangement — meaning the ultimate customer may need to ensure transport rates cover increased fuel costs.
Primary parties in a road transport supply chain would also be required to take reasonable steps to ensure transport businesses engaging owner-drivers adjust the rates paid to those drivers to cover increased fuel costs. An exception applies where the primary party is a small business employer that is not a road transport business.
How to have your say
Submissions must be lodged by 4 pm AEST on Friday 23 October 2026.
The Order is expected to be finalised and potentially take effect shortly after submissions close, although its final terms and commencement date remain subject to the Commission’s process.
Visit the major case webpage TWU & ARTIO application for a road transport contractual chain order – fuel cost major case (MS2026/1) to view the proposal and find out how to have your say.
Read:
- the Expert Panel’s Decision [2026] FWCFB 278 (pdf)
- the Notice of intent and draft determination (pdf), which lists the changes
- the Draft fuel costs recovery order (pdf), with the proposed changes marked
- a fact sheet about the proposed changes (pdf).