Road Transport and Distribution Award
Covers road transport and distribution - transport by road of goods, wares, merchandise, materials or livestock; receiving, handling or storing goods at a distribution facility; cartage of petroleum products; and distribution / relocation of vehicles. 14 classifications - Transport Worker Grades 1-10 plus Distribution Facility Employee Levels 1-4. Standard rate is Transport Worker Grade 3.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
Official Fair Work rates. This award’s minimum pay rates are synced directly from the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Pay Database and updated automatically when the Commission changes them - including the annual wage review - so payroll always uses the current legal minimums without a manual update.
What's built
- All 10 Transport Worker grades at the July 2025 figures.
- Distribution Facility Employee Levels 1-4 (note placeholder figures for Levels 2-4 - see limitations).
- Hours-of-work setup with the 7 / 14 / 21 / 28-day averaging cycles, the 5.30am-6.30pm spread of hours, the 8h daily cap and the special early-start carve-out for newspaper / meat / poultry / fruit-veg drivers (12.01am-6am with 30% additional loading).
- RDO accumulation up to 10 days with 48 hours' notice required to change a scheduled RDO.
- Casual loading 25% with 4-hour minimum engagement; PT minimum 4 hours per shift.
Known limitations
- Distribution Facility Employee Levels 2-4 are placeholders ($1,060.00 / $1,088.50 / $1,116.80) - re-audit on next pass to confirm against Schedule A and the current FWC pay guide.
- Saturday / Sunday ordinary-hours arrangements are by majority agreement (cl. 13.4) - confirm how this is set up for your enterprise before relying on the seeded penalty rates.
Setup & special instructions
- MA000038 is general / local Road Transport and Distribution. MA000039 is the Long-Distance Operations award - confirm coverage matches the work performed before assigning either.
- Newspaper, meat, poultry and fruit / veg drivers can start between 12.01am-6am under cl. 13.6(c)/(d), but each ordinary hour in that window attracts a 30% additional loading.
- • Road transport
- • Distribution
- • Cartage
- • Petroleum delivery
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the road transport & distribution award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
Book a demo