NDIS travel charges for therapists: how provider travel works

For a mobile therapist, the drive to an NDIS participant's home is part of the job. Whether you are paid for it depends on rules that are easy to learn piecemeal: from a plan manager's rejection email, a colleague's rule of thumb, or a section of the Pricing Arrangements read once and half remembered. The result is two kinds of loss. Some practices never claim travel they are entitled to. Others claim it in a way that gets short-paid or clawed back.

This post sets out how NDIS provider travel works as a structure. The numbers (the caps and the rates) are set in the NDIS pricing schedule and the NDIA's Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits guidance, and they are reviewed regularly, so check the current versions before you set your fees or quote a participant.

Provider travel has two parts

NDIS provider travel for therapy supports is made up of two separate things:

• Travel time (labour costs). The time a therapist spends travelling to a participant can be claimed, within a cap on how much time can be claimed. Since 1 July 2025, therapy travel time has had its own, lower price limit: the NDIA set it at half the price limit for the therapy itself.
• Non-labour costs. The running costs of the vehicle, as a per-kilometre amount up to a set rate, and costs such as tolls and parking, negotiated with the participant as a reasonable contribution under the NDIA's rules.

They are claimed differently and capped differently, so treat them as two lines, not one combined travel fee, and keep both separate from the therapy itself. The current pricing schedule lists provider travel items for therapy supports, and the NDIA's guidance says how non-labour costs are claimed; follow them exactly, because a correct amount on the wrong item still gets rejected.

Caps depend on where the visit happens

How much travel time can be claimed depends on where the support is delivered. The NDIA uses the Modified Monash Model to classify places from major cities through to very remote, and sets different travel time caps for different groups of regions. Under the 2025-26 guidance, the cap for major cities, regional centres and large rural towns was shorter than for medium and small rural towns, and remote and very remote areas had no travel time cap and higher price limits.

In practice, you need to know which region type each participant's address falls into, and the cap for that type, before you quote travel. Look up the address against the current Modified Monash Model classification (the NDIA reclassifies some isolated towns) and read the matching cap in the NDIA's current guidance, rather than assuming a single cap for your whole patch.

Return trips and shared trips

The rules also cover the journey back. The NDIA has said therapists can claim travel time in both directions, within the cap for the region, and its guidance sets out when the trip back to your base after the last participant of the day can be claimed. It matters for mobile therapists who often finish far from home, and it is an area where practices commonly guess. Read the current wording rather than relying on what a colleague did last year.

Where one trip serves more than one participant, the travel is divided between them, as agreed with each participant in advance, rather than claimed in full from each. Say you drive thirty minutes to a supported accommodation house and see two participants there: billing each participant the full thirty minutes would claim an hour for half an hour of driving. Agree how you will split shared travel and write it down.

Agree it with the participant first

Provider travel can only be claimed where you have agreed it with the participant in advance. Your service agreement should say:

• That you will charge for provider travel, and how: time, kilometres or both
• The rate you will charge for each, at or below the price limit
• How travel is worked out when one trip serves more than one participant
• How travel is treated when a participant cancels at short notice

Then mention it again when you book. Participants and plan managers should never be surprised by a travel line. If a participant's plan does not have enough funds in the right category to cover travel, that is a conversation to have before the visit, not after the claim is rejected.

Getting the invoice right

• Travel time and non-labour costs as their own lines, separate from the support itself
• The support item the current pricing schedule and the NDIA's guidance specify for each
• The date of travel, matching the date of service
• Minutes and kilometres you could reconstruct from your diary if asked

Keep the evidence: your diary, the addresses and the route. If a plan manager asks how you arrived at forty minutes, “it felt like forty” is not an answer. Our guide to NDIS invoicing requirements covers the rest of the invoice, and travel time is the hidden cost in mobile practice covers the travel no funder pays for.

How AspireOS works out NDIS travel

AspireOS was built alongside a mobile practice, so travel is part of every booking rather than a gap in the diary. The Calendar works out kilometres and minutes from the day's route, and your price book holds the travel rules for each funder, so travel charges are added from the day's drives. For NDIS, travel is held to the limits you set, the drive home is added to the last visit of the day, and your price limits act as caps on the invoice. You set those limits and travel rates from the current pricing schedule and guidance yourself: AspireOS keeps no copy of either and does not update them, so check that its settings match the rules for your participants.

For agency-managed participants, the NDIS upload tab builds the bulk payment file and flags problems first, such as travel time and kilometres on the same line, before you upload it in the NDIS portal yourself. See AspireOS for NDIS providers and AspireOS for mobile allied health.

You can start free, set up your NDIS services and travel rules, and see how a mobile day prices out before you bill a single participant.