Delivery Driver Pay Rate in Australia: the $31.30 an Hour Minimum

What the Minimum Standards Order Changed

The Fair Work Commission made the Interim On-Demand Delivery Employee-like Worker Minimum Standards Order on 11 August 2026 and it started on 17 August 2026. It is the first order of its kind. It sets a minimum hourly rate for delivery workers on apps and puts a floor under the whole earnings period, so what you are paid across the period has to reach the rate for the time you were engaged.

The mechanism is a top-up. The platform adds up your hours of engaged time in an earnings period (which it sets, up to 21 days), multiplies them by the hourly rate for your vehicle, and compares the result to what it paid you. If you were paid less, it owes you the difference in the next earnings period or within 7 days after it. If you were paid more, nothing changes.

Delivery Minimum Rates by Vehicle

The rate depends on how you deliver. The order’s own classes are below, with the rate table that applies now and the one that starts on 1 January 2027.

Who the Order Covers (and Who It Doesn’t)

It covers “employee-like workers”: people engaged through an app or website run by a digital labour platform operator, whose work across an earnings period is mainly collecting and delivering food, drinks, alcohol or groceries that a customer ordered online, to be delivered as soon as possible. The Fair Work Ombudsman describes them as independent contractors who usually use a vehicle such as a car or bike. The order also binds the platform operators that engage them.

• Covered: food, drink and grocery delivery on an app, on foot, by bike, e-bike, scooter, motorcycle, car or small van.
• Not covered: anyone using a vehicle with a carrying capacity of more than 1 tonne.
• Not covered by this order: passenger rideshare driving and parcel “last mile” delivery. The Commission is still considering applications for those, and says it will review this order if it publishes a draft for either.
• Employees: if a restaurant or store employs you directly to deliver, you are an employee under an award or the National Minimum Wage, and this order does not apply to you.

Which brand you use matters less than what you do. Uber Eats, DoorDash and similar food and grocery apps are digital labour platforms. If the work you do through the app fits the coverage test above, the order applies to the platform that engages you. If you are not sure, ask the platform or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.

What Counts as Engaged Time

The floor is calculated on engaged time, not on the time you spend logged in. Engaged time is the period recorded in the app from when you accept an order until you complete it. If you accept a second order while still on the first, the second engagement starts when the first one finishes. An engagement can include several orders dispatched at different times, running from the first accepted to the last completed.

The order says engaged time does not include:

• time after the customer cancels and you are told, unless the platform requires you to do something (such as returning the items), in which case it runs until that is done;
• time after you abandon the engagement before completing it;
• time lost to breakdowns, accidents or breaks, or for any other reason outside the platform’s control;
• “non-engaged time”: waiting or delaying after the food was ready or after you collected it where the platform has evidence of the delay, claiming a delivery complete late, or taking an unreasonable route, including a stop of more than 5 minutes unrelated to the delivery.

Non-engaged time is policed in steps. The platform must send you a first notification with its evidence, then a second one for a later engagement. Only after the second can later engagements with non-engaged time be excluded, and the notifications expire after 6 months. If it turns out an engagement did not include non-engaged time, the platform must withdraw the notice. You can dispute exclusions through the platform’s process and then the Fair Work Commission.

Time away from the app is your choice and unpaid: you decide whether and when to accept engagements. The platform must give you the hours of engaged time and the amounts paid at the end of each earnings period, and keep the records for 7 years, which is what you check your own numbers against.

The Rate Is Before Your Costs

The most important point for take-home pay: the order makes the worker responsible for their own vehicle. You pay for registration, fuel or charging, maintenance, repairs, compulsory third-party insurance, any licences or checks the platform requires, and fines unless the platform directed you to do what led to the fine. The platform must hold personal accident insurance for you. None of those costs is reimbursed through the floor.

So the figure to compare with a wage is not the $31.30 to $32.00 hourly rate itself but what is left after those costs and after tax. The ATO’s cents-per-kilometre rate for 2026-27 is 91c a km (capped at 5,000 km under that method), a ready estimate of car running costs; see cents per km. For a full tax view, use the rideshare and delivery earnings after tax calculator.

Worked Example (Made-Up Figures)

These numbers are invented to show the arithmetic. They are not what any driver earns. A van driver has 12 hours of engaged time in an earnings period and the platform paid $350.00. They drove 120 km.

How to Check Your Own Statement

1. Take the earnings statement for one earnings period, with the dates and the total the platform paid.
2. Find the hours of engaged time for the same period. The platform has to provide this, along with the gross and net amounts paid, at the end of every earnings period.
3. Multiply those hours (to the nearest minute) by the rate for your vehicle in the table above.
4. If your total pay is less, the difference is your top-up. It is due in the next earnings period or within 7 days after it.
5. If the numbers do not match, ask the platform for its records (it must supply them on request), then use its internal dispute process. The Commission can mediate, conciliate or give a non-binding opinion if that fails.

The calculator above does steps 3 and 4 for you. For help, the Fair Work Ombudsman’s page on the order is linked below, and the Fair Work Infoline is 13 13 94.

Tax, ABN and GST for Delivery Workers

Independent delivery workers usually work under an ABN, so no tax is withheld from payments. Everything you receive from the platform is assessable income to report in your tax return, with the expenses above deductible to the extent they relate to the work. You may owe tax at the end of the year, so setting money aside as you go is sensible. GST registration is only compulsory once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, unlike rideshare driving where registration is required from the first trip. The after-tax guide, the gig economy guide and the contractor pay calculator explain each step. To turn an hourly rate into an annual figure, use the hourly to annual salary calculator and the take-home pay calculator.

What Happens Next

The rates step up on 1 January 2027 ($31.80, $32.00 and $32.50). From 1 January 2028 they are adjusted every year by the National Minimum Wage increase from the annual wage review. The order is described as interim: the Commission will review it if it publishes a notice of intent and draft order for the TWU’s other applications covering employee-like workers and road transport contractors doing “last mile” delivery. Check the sources below for any change.

Related Calculators and Guides

• Rideshare & Delivery Earnings After Tax: GST, tax and what to set aside
• Gig Economy Pay Guide: ABN, BAS and deductions
• Contractor Pay Calculator: your rate as a salary equivalent
• Cents per Km: the ATO car expense rate
• Hourly to Annual Salary Calculator
• Take-Home Pay Calculator

Frequently Asked Questions