People attending regular medical or allied health appointments, particularly where the appointment is in Brisbane and home is not.
Registered NDIS Provider · 405 358 3296
NDIS Travel and Transport Support in Queensland
Getting there shouldn’t be the hardest part of your week.
What is NDIS travel and transport support?
NDIS travel and transport support pays for help getting to the places your plan goals require. Medical appointments, work, TAFE, day programs, the shops, community activities, family. It covers both being driven and being taught to travel independently.
There are two different things people call transport funding, and mixing them up causes a lot of confusion. The first is a recurring transport allowance paid into your plan, which you use for taxis, rideshare, fuel or contributions towards a driver. It’s set at one of three levels depending on how much you work, study or participate in the community.
The second is provider-delivered transport, where a support worker drives you as part of a supported activity. That’s charged differently, and it’s usually the better option when you need someone with you at the destination as well as on the way there.
Most participants end up using a mix. Working out the right split at the start of a plan makes the funding go noticeably further.
Who this support helps
Participants in work or study, where transport reliability decides whether the job or the course survives the first three months.
People with anxiety, sensory sensitivity or psychosocial disability, for whom a crowded bus is not a neutral experience. Being driven is sometimes the difference between attending something and cancelling it.
Participants working towards travelling independently, where the goal is fewer supported trips over time rather than more.
And families who have been doing every trip themselves for years and are worn down by it, particularly where a parent is now driving to three appointments a week on top of everything else.
How the support works
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We start with your actual week. Which trips are fixed, which are flexible, which ones you’d genuinely rather do yourself. It’s surprising how often a schedule that felt impossible becomes manageable once it’s written down and a couple of trips get grouped together.
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Transport is usually delivered as part of a support shift rather than as a standalone ride. A worker picks you up, comes into the appointment if you want them there, takes notes if that helps, and gets you home. For a lot of people that’s the part that matters. Turning up at a specialist appointment alone and being asked questions you weren’t ready for is a hard way to spend a Tuesday.
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Where independence is the goal, we work the other way. Riding the route together, then sitting a few seats away, then meeting you at the other end, then a phone call to check you arrived. It’s slow on purpose. People who are pushed through that sequence too quickly usually go backwards.
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We’re clear about how travel is charged before we start. Worker travel time to reach you, and travel during a shift, are billed under the NDIS pricing arrangements, and you should know what that looks like in your area before you commit rather than discovering it on an invoice.
The problems participants run into
Transport funding running out before the plan does is the most common one. It’s often set at a level that assumed a quieter year than the one the person actually had, and once it’s gone there’s no straightforward way to top it up.
Then there’s the geography. Public transport in outer Logan, the Ipswich growth corridors and the northern Gold Coast is thin. A trip that takes eighteen minutes by car can take an hour and forty by bus, with two connections, and that’s assuming both buses run.
Taxis and rideshare are unpredictable in exactly the situations where predictability matters. Drivers cancel wheelchair-accessible bookings. Cars don’t turn up at 7am in an outer suburb. Participants miss appointments they waited four months for.
Travel charging catches people out badly. Participants sign up with a provider based across town, then find a meaningful chunk of their funding is going on the worker’s drive to reach them. Nobody explained it, and by the time it shows up the money is spent.
And there’s the quiet erosion of a life. When every trip has to be arranged, negotiated and paid for, people stop making optional ones. The medical appointments continue. The visits to friends do not.
How GOTLEHS CARE helps
We plan transport across the whole plan period rather than booking trips one at a time. If your funding won’t cover the year at your current rate, we’d rather you knew that in March than in September.
We group trips wherever it makes sense. Two appointments in the same part of town on the same day costs a fraction of two separate runs, and most clinics will move a booking if you ask early.
Being based at Park Ridge helps here. Logan, Beenleigh, Springwood, Browns Plains and the northern Gold Coast corridor are short runs for us, which means more of your funding goes on the trip and less on getting to you.
Talk to us about getting around
Frequently asked questions
If your question isn’t here, ring us on 0425 799 687. We’d rather answer it properly than have you guess.
What’s the difference between transport funding and provider transport?
Transport funding is a recurring amount paid into your plan that you spend on taxis, rideshare, fuel or contributions to a driver. Provider transport is when a support worker drives you as part of a supported activity, charged through your Core budget. Most participants use both, and the right balance depends on whether you need someone with you at the destination.
Will I be charged for the worker’s travel time to reach me?
Yes, worker travel is billable under the NDIS pricing arrangements, and you should understand what that looks like before you commit to a provider. We’ll tell you upfront what it means for your address, and if it would take an unreasonable share of your funding we’ll say so.
Can you take me to medical appointments and come in with me?
Yes. Support during the appointment is often more valuable than the ride itself, particularly for specialist appointments where a lot of information arrives at once. Our workers can take notes and help you get your questions answered.
Can you help me learn to use public transport on my own?
That’s one of the things this support is designed for. We build it gradually, starting with travelling together and reducing our involvement as your confidence grows. The pace is set by you, and there’s no rush to the finish line.
What happens if my transport funding runs out mid-plan?
It can’t usually be topped up from other budgets, so the answer is to see it coming. We plan transport across the whole plan period and flag early if the numbers won’t reach the end of it, which gives you time to seek a variation or adjust how trips are arranged.