aged care
Petrol Prices & Home Care in Australia: What to Know
Why Fuel Costs Matter More in Mobile Healthcare Than Almost Anywhere Else
Mobile healthcare is structurally different from clinic-based care. The practitioner brings the care to you, which means transport is not incidental to the service. It is the service. Without the drive, there is no visit.
In most allied health and nursing fields, a mobile practitioner might see four to eight patients in a day, often spread across a suburb or region. Unlike rideshare or delivery services that can surge-price dynamically, most healthcare appointments are booked in advance at an agreed rate. When petrol prices spike, the practitioner absorbs that increase immediately. Over a working week, this adds up to a meaningful chunk of income.
Australia’s petrol prices have been notably volatile over recent years and more so in the recent past with . Prices in capital cities have fluctuated significantly due to global crude oil movements, refinery decisions, the Australian dollar’s strength against the USD, and local retail competition cycles [1]. Regional and rural areas face a compounding problem: they typically pay more per litre than metropolitan areas, and the distances between patients are considerably greater [2].
The result is a quiet but real strain on the viability of mobile healthcare, particularly for practitioners operating in outer suburban corridors, regional towns, and rural communities where the need for in-home care is often highest.
How Petrol Prices Affect the Cost of Home Care Services
When families search for mobile healthcare professionals, they are usually focused on clinical fit: does this person have the right qualifications, do they have experience with my loved one’s condition, can they visit when we need them? Petrol prices are rarely top of mind. But they shape what families ultimately pay.
Most mobile practitioners charge a travel fee in addition to their consultation rate. This is entirely reasonable and reflects real costs. But the amount, and how it is calculated, varies widely. Some practitioners charge a flat fee per visit, some charge per kms, and some build travel into their overall rate. When fuel prices rise, practitioners who have not reviewed their travel fee structure can find themselves running at a loss on distant appointments.
The therapists on our network report that transparent communication about travel fees significantly reduces friction with families. When the cost is explained clearly, most families understand it. Where confusion arises is when fees change unexpectedly, or when a practitioner simply stops accepting patients in certain postcodes because the economics no longer work. That second outcome is the one that genuinely harms access to care.
Families who use our platform tell us that one of the most frustrating experiences is finding an excellent mobile nurse or therapist, building a relationship over several months, and then losing that practitioner because they have had to restructure their caseload to manage costs. For someone relying on consistent home-based care, that disruption is more than inconvenient. It can be clinically significant.
The Specific Pressure on Aged Care and NDIS Participants
For older Australians receiving care under the Home Care Packages programme, or NDIS participants managing their own plans, petrol price increases create a particular kind of squeeze.
Home Care Package funding is set by the federal government and reviewed periodically. When petrol prices rise in between review cycles, there is no automatic adjustment to account for increased service delivery costs. Providers must either absorb the cost, reduce service hours, or pass it on to clients through higher rates. None of these outcomes is straightforward [3].
For NDIS participants on self-managed or plan-managed funding, the issue is somewhat different. The NDIS Price Guide includes provisions for travel, but they are specific about what can be charged and how [4]. Practitioners working within these frameworks must navigate the rules carefully, which can sometimes mean that actual travel costs exceed what is reimbursable. In those cases, some practitioners make difficult decisions about which participants they can continue to serve.
DVA clients, including veterans and war widows receiving services under the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, face their own version of this challenge. DVA does fund travel for approved providers, but the rates and approval processes can lag behind real-world cost movements.
In our experience working with mobile practitioners across all of these funding streams, the practitioners who manage these pressures most effectively are the ones who are transparent with clients and families early, document their costs carefully, and stay across funding guideline updates as they occur.
What Regional and Rural Families Face
If petrol prices are a pressure in metropolitan areas, they are a magnified problem in regional and rural Australia.
Fuel prices in regional areas are consistently higher than in capital cities. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has documented this premium repeatedly in its petrol monitoring reports, noting that regional consumers pay more due to lower competition among retailers, higher transport costs for fuel delivery, and reduced price cycling that gives metro consumers opportunities to fill up cheaply [2].
For a mobile occupational therapist driving between clients in a regional town, or a mobile nurse providing wound care across a farming district, the fuel bill is a much larger proportion of their operating costs than it is for a city-based practitioner.
The downstream effect is reduced supply of mobile practitioners in exactly the areas where immobile or housebound patients have the fewest alternatives. A city-based patient who cannot access a mobile practitioner has a harder time than before. A rural patient in the same situation may have no accessible alternative at all.
This is not a new problem, but rising petrol prices sharpen it. Home Visit Network was built with the intent of improving access precisely for people in these situations, and we are watching this dynamic carefully as we continue to grow our network in regional and rural areas.
What Mobile Practitioners Can Do to Manage Fuel Costs
For the practitioners reading this, there are practical steps worth considering.
Route optimisation is one of the most effective tools available. Rather than booking appointments as they come in regardless of geography, structuring your week so that Monday appointments are in one corridor and Tuesday appointments are in another can meaningfully reduce total kilometres driven. Several scheduling and practice management tools include basic route planning features, and even a simple map review at the start of each week can save significant fuel.
Reviewing travel fees regularly is something many practitioners put off. If you have not updated your travel fee structure in the past twelve months, it is worth modelling what your current fuel costs actually are and whether your fee reflects them. This is not about overcharging. It is about running a sustainable practice so you can continue providing care.
Electric vehicles are increasingly relevant to this conversation. The upfront cost remains a barrier for many practitioners, but several states now offer incentives for EV purchases, and the per-kilometre running cost for an EV is substantially lower than for a petrol vehicle [5]. For a practitioner who drives significant distances each week, the economics of an EV are becoming more compelling over a five-year horizon.
Telehealth integration does not replace in-home visits, but for some aspects of care, a mix of in-person and telehealth appointments can reduce the total number of drives without compromising the quality of the therapeutic relationship. Many patients and families who were initially resistant to telehealth have come to appreciate its convenience for check-in appointments, review sessions, or brief interventions.
What Families and Carers Can Do
If you are organising care for a family member and you are concerned about how petrol prices might affect your access to mobile practitioners, there are a few things that can help.
Being flexible with appointment timing and clustering visits thoughtfully can make your location more viable for practitioners who are managing their route economics. A practitioner who is already visiting your suburb on a Wednesday is much more likely to add your appointment to that day than to make a separate trip. So be available when an appointment is offered. If a home care patient isn’t available because they are out to lunch or they are going for a drive that day, they will quickly be considered a non priority so work around the practitioner’s schedule.
Being open about your budget and asking practitioners directly about their travel fee structure removes ambiguity. Most experienced mobile practitioners appreciate a straightforward conversation about costs over discovering a mismatch later.
If you are a family carer who is also driving a relative to appointments, the calculus of petrol prices affects you too. In some cases, in-home care is not just more convenient. It is demonstrably cheaper once you factor in the petrol, parking, and time costs of clinic visits for someone who needs significant assistance to travel. This is a point worth raising with your GP when discussing care options.
A Note on Funding Reviews and Advocacy
The connection between petrol prices and home care in Australia is not purely a market problem. It has a policy dimension that deserves attention.
Funding frameworks for aged care, NDIS, and DVA were designed at points in time when fuel costs looked different. As the cost environment changes, there is a legitimate case for reviewing whether travel reimbursement provisions keep pace with reality. Several peak bodies representing allied health and community nursing have raised these concerns in various submissions, and it is an area where advocacy from families, practitioners, and platform operators alike can make a difference.
If you are a mobile practitioner experiencing meaningful financial strain due to travel costs in your home care work, documenting and sharing that experience with your professional association or peak body is a practical step toward systemic change.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do rising petrol prices affect the cost of home care services in Australia?
When fuel costs rise, mobile practitioners face higher operating expenses for each visit they make. Many pass some of this on through travel fees, which may increase or be applied to postcodes that were previously exempt. Over time, significantly higher fuel costs can also reduce the number of practitioners willing to service outer suburban or regional areas, affecting availability as well as price.
Are travel fees for mobile healthcare covered under NDIS, Home Care Packages, or DVA?
In most cases, yes, though the specifics vary. The NDIS Price Guide includes provisions for provider travel. Home Care Packages can fund travel as part of a care plan. DVA covers travel for approved providers under specific conditions. The challenge is that reimbursement rates do not always adjust quickly when real-world fuel costs move, creating gaps that practitioners and families must navigate.
What can families do to reduce the impact of petrol prices on their home care costs?
Being flexible about scheduling, clustering appointments to align with a practitioner’s existing route, and having transparent conversations about travel fees are all practical steps. In some cases, a hybrid model combining in-home visits with telehealth for lower-intensity appointments can reduce total costs without sacrificing care quality.
Do petrol prices affect home care more in regional areas than in cities?
Yes, significantly. Regional fuel prices are consistently higher than metropolitan prices, and distances between patients are greater. This makes regional mobile healthcare more expensive to deliver and can reduce the supply of willing practitioners in areas that often have fewer alternatives for patients who cannot travel easily.
How should mobile practitioners respond to rising fuel costs in their practice?
Route optimisation, regular review of travel fee structures, and exploration of lower-cost vehicles including EVs are the most practical responses. Transparent communication with clients about travel fees reduces friction and helps maintain relationships even when costs change.
References
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Petrol Monitoring Report. ACCC, Canberra. Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/petrol-and-fuel/petrol-price-cycles
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Regional Petrol Price Differentials. ACCC, Canberra. Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/petrol-and-fuel/regional-areas
- Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. Home Care Packages Programme. Available at: https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/home-care-packages-program
- National Disability Insurance Agency. NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. NDIA, Canberra. Available at: https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/pricing-arrangements
- Electric Vehicle Council. State of Electric Vehicles Australia. EVC, Sydney. Available at: https://electricvehiclecouncil.com.au/reports/
