Under Support at Home, transport pricing is one of the few areas where providers can be flexible. You can reflect real costs like staff time, fuel, vehicle depreciation, insurance, and admin overhead. That flexibility is useful but it also introduces complexity.
StewartBrown’s August 2025 Support at Home Pricing Survey Sector Report shows the average transport trip charge is $105, with different methods used to set prices.
Fees are often based on factors like distance, trip duration, and provider-specific considerations. Many providers maintain separate price lists for group transport, driver-plus-car services, and indirect transport.
While this flexibility lets providers account for different costs, it also creates challenges:
- Trips can be mischarged, leading to revenue leakage or overcharging.
- Tracking mileage, time, and multiple pricing tiers adds administrative burden.
- Inconsistent billing can create compliance risks with participant budgets and service agreements.
What Support at Home rules say about transport
Support at Home rules separate transport into two types:
- Direct transport: provider supplies driver and vehicle
- Indirect transport: provider supplies taxi or rideshare vouchers, deducted from the participant’s budget
For direct transport, service agreements can specify a price range per trip based on distance, trip length, or participant needs. For example, “low distance” trips (1–10 km) might have a range of $30–$60 per trip. The price range applies only on a per-trip basis. Once agreed, each trip must be charged within that range. Providers may charge only a single price for delivering a unit (one trip) of the Direct Transport service.
In calculating a price range, providers can consider things like length of trip (distance and/or time), the requirements of the participant (for example, if they require mobility assistance), and any other relevant costs.
How to standardise transport pricing
Flexible pricing is useful, but inconsistent approaches across providers can create confusion for participants and compliance risks. There’s also a risk of revenue leakage.
Even minor inefficiencies can significantly impact income. With the average participant charge at $105 per trip:
- Misreported mileage or times can lead to under-billing
- Complex pricing tiers for group or special services increase administrative errors
- Inconsistent billing can cause participant dissatisfaction or trigger audit issues
By standardising processes and billing, providers can ensure costs are fully recovered, reduce administrative burden, and maintain compliance.
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How to simplify pricing
Providers can streamline processes by combining clear methodologies with technology. Here’s how:
- Set clear rules for charging by distance, time, or participant needs
- Apply variations like group trips or special assistance consistently
- Ensure charges align with participant budgets and SAH rules
How AlayaCare can help manage transport pricing
AlayaCare helps providers make transport pricing and delivery easier, reduce errors, and save staff time. Here are two examples.
Consistent billing
You can set up different service and bill code combinations to capture and standardise your transport trip pricing. Everything is linked to visit data, giving clear invoice and billing audit trails. Integration with participant budgets and invoicing allows for accurate forecasting, with less manual double entry and errors.
Trip optimisation
Even with flexible pricing under Support at Home, providers need to manage travel efficiently. Travel between visits can take a lot of staff time and add costs.
AlayaCare’s Visit Optimiser helps match care providers with visits based on location, skills, and care needs. It automatically allocates vacant visits to the closest/best matched employee, reducing travel time and letting staff spend more time with clients.
Absolute Care & Health struggled with manual routing. The team used Google Maps to plan all client trips, a process that took more than three days. With Visit Optimiser, routes are automatically tracked. The team is now 66% more efficient, saving 16 hours per week.
Get strategic with transport
Transport is more than a support service. It’s a strategic cost and compliance factor under Support at Home. With the right systems, providers can standardise pricing, maintain compliance and reduce overhead, and protect revenue.
Learn how AlayaCare can streamline billing, optimise staff time, and safeguard your revenue.
