From today, 21 April 2026, the Fair Work Commission’s new Road Transport Contractual Chain Order is in effect. It is the first order of its kind, fast-tracked under the government’s Fairer Fuel Act, and it requires businesses at the top of the road transport supply chain to pass through increased fuel costs to the operators doing the actual hauling. The order applies across the entire road transport industry and will remain in force until the national weekly average terminal gate price for diesel falls below $2.00 per litre. Given diesel is currently sitting above $3.00, this order is likely to be with us for some time.
The mechanics are straightforward. Primary parties in a transport contractual chain, meaning the businesses commissioning the freight, must review their rates at least fortnightly and adjust them by enough to ensure that transport operators can recover the increased cost of fuel since 6 March 2026. That obligation extends down the chain. Secondary parties must do the same for their subcontractors, owner-drivers and employee-like workers. The order does not prescribe a single methodology. Businesses can use rise and fall clauses, benchmarking, fuel levies or other arrangements, and averaging across groups of contractors is permitted. Small businesses that are not road transport businesses and sit at the top of a chain are exempt from the obligation to ensure pass-through further down, but they are still subject to the order in relation to their own direct transport arrangements.
The order exists because the Fair Work Commission found that owner-drivers and small fleet operators were being crushed by diesel costs they could not pass on. Many lacked the bargaining power to renegotiate contracts with the major retailers and logistics companies they haul for. Some had already parked their trucks. Others were relying on personal loans to keep running. The Commission described the situation as an unfair and disproportionate burden on the most vulnerable participants in the transport chain.
For independent servo operators, this order matters in two ways. The first is on the cost side. If you receive fuel deliveries via a distributor or wholesaler that uses road transport contractors, the cost of that transport is going up. This is not because distributors are padding their margins. It is because the actual cost of moving diesel by road has risen sharply, and the Fair Work Commission has now formally required that those increased costs be recovered across the transport chain. Expect to see this reflected on your invoices, either as a line item, a fuel levy, or a general increase in your delivered price. The second way it matters is on the customer side. Your commercial customers, the tradies, farmers, and fleet operators who fill up at your site, are the same people dealing with these cost pressures across their own supply chains. Diesel is not just expensive at the pump. It is now formally recognised as an emergency cost that is being recovered contractually across every level of the freight industry.
There are a few things to watch. The order will be reviewed by the Fair Work Commission after one month, with submissions on its impact invited from across the industry. It will then be reviewed every three months until it ceases to apply. Woolworths and Coles have already moved to more frequent fuel cost reviews with their transport providers, and Uber has introduced a per-kilometre fuel surcharge for drivers. The precedent being set here is significant: the government has created a legal mechanism to force fuel cost recovery through commercial contracts in a crisis. Whether that mechanism is extended, modified or wound back will depend on how the diesel price and the broader conflict play out over the coming months.
If you are seeing changes to your delivery costs or new fuel levies appearing on your invoices, this order is the likely explanation. Transport operators up and down the chain are now required to pass through these costs, and your supplier is in the same position, recovering costs that have been passed to them. If you would like help understanding how the order works or how it is being applied to your business, get in touch with ServoPro and we can walk you through it.