The time-sensitive Road Transport Contractual Chain Order – Fuel Cost Recovery – 2026 (RTCCO) made by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on 20 April 2026 imposed obligations on parties in road transport contractual chains for whom road transport services were performed to regularly adjust the rates paid for such services, to ensure other parties recovered the increased costs of fuel.

The core obligations under the RTCCO related to the adjustment of rates for transport services to provide cost recovery for the increased cost of fuel automatically ceased to apply from 7 June 2026, as a result of the weekly average national terminal gate diesel price falling below $2.00 per litre.

However, while the key substantive obligations imposed by the RTCCO have ceased, the RTCCO has not been revoked and is subject to an ongoing review by the FWC.

Australian Industry Group has made detailed submissions in the review that:

• identified that, pursuant to clause 5 of the RTCCO, the core obligations related to rate adjustments ceased to apply from 7 June 2026 given the fall in the price of fuel;
• argued that the RTCCO created significant practical compliance difficulties for many organisations; and
• proposed that if the FWC was potentially considering reviving the RTCCO in any way, it should fundamentally reconsider the form and content of the RTCCO, and genuinely engage with industry about this first.

An Expert Panel of the FWC conducting the review of the RTCCO has issued a Statement on 19 June 2026 which confirmed that the core obligations under the RTCCO have ceased to apply, and has invited interested parties to make submissions about what steps, if any, the FWC should take in relation to the RTCCO by 4:00 pm on Friday, 3 July 2026.