The Fair Work Commission has today issued a mandatory fuel cost recovery order.
The order will apply across the whole road transport contract chain and will come into force tomorrow, Tuesday 21 April.
Under the order, parties in the road transport contract chain will need to adjust their rates within each fortnight or twice per calendar month to ensure that the transporter undertaking the work can recover the increased cost of fuel since on or before 6 March 2026.
The ATA supported the order before the commission, while proposing amendments to make it clearer and more workable, backed by written submissions, oral submissions and witness evidence.
ATA Chair Mark Parry said the final order was a powerful and necessary response to Australia's unprecedented fuel crisis.
"The events of the weekend show that we still face a long period of price and supply disruption. Small and medium sized trucking businesses cannot keep Australia's freight moving at rates that do not recover their fuel costs," Mr Parry said.
"The industry's business as usual contractual arrangements have served us well and will serve us well in the future. But they're not working for many operators under the emergency we face.
"I urge every trucking business to read the order, talk to their financial adviser and seek the necessary rate adjustments," he said.
In the hearings, the ATA raised concerns about clause 4.2 of the draft order, which requires primary parties to take reasonable steps to ensure that secondary parties engaging owner drivers adjust the rates they pay to cover the increased cost of fuel.
"The ATA proposed removing the clause, on the grounds that it would be administratively burdensome. Given that the order has a dispute settlement clause, we argued that there was no need to require primary parties to police the operation of the clause," Mr Parry said.
"The commission retained the clause, while providing that it does not apply to a small business primary party that is not a road transport business. Earlier in the hearing process, the commission also pared back the requirement from all reasonable steps to reasonable steps.
"The Fair Work Ombudsman will need to provide industry with clear guidance about what are reasonable steps. The ATA will provide the commission with any evidence we receive about issues with the clause when it reviews the order after its first month of operation.
"The commission will then review the order every three months. The cost recovery obligations in the order will cease to apply if the national weekly average terminal gate price of diesel falls below $2.00 per litre.
"These rules about when the order ceases to apply will ensure that it continues for the period of the emergency and no longer," he said.
