Activity Based Transport is a critical component of the NDIS framework, aimed at providing individuals with disabilities the necessary transportation to engage in community participation or capacity building support activities. It is actually very different from Provider Travel:

• Activity Based Transport: Time and travel costs spent transporting a participant to the activities related to the support.
• Provider Travel: The time and travel costs spent travelling to deliver a support to a participant.

This tutorial dedicates to Activity Based Transport - so we will show you how to effectively handle it on Comm.care. If you're interested in Provider Travel, read the tutorial here.

Activity Based Transport

The NDIS defines Tranport in 2 different concepts:

• Activity-Based Transport: Transport to, or from, or as part of, a "Community Participation’ or ‘Capacity Building’ support. This is a transport delivered by a registered provider who will also be supporting the person at the destination.
• General Transport: Transport to an activity that is not itself a support or to a support that is delivered by another provider. This enables the participant to travel to and from appointments or their place of work.

In a nutshell, Activity Based Transport encompasses the time and travel costs spent by a worker when transporting participants to the activities related to the support. Specifically, it involves:

• The worker time: This is the time spent accompanying and/or transporting the participant, as part of the total time your worker spends supporting the participant.
• Activity Based Transport: This includes additional costs incurred when transporting the participant (i.e. road tolls, parking fees, and vehicle running expenses).

For the additional costs of Activity Based Transport, The NDIA allows you to claim:

• up to $0.97 per kilometre for a vehicle that is not modified for accessibility.
• up to $2.76 per kilometre for a vehicle that is modified for accessibility or a bus.
• Up to the full cost for other transport or additional expenses like tolls, parking, and public transport fares.

If you offer transport services to multiple participants on one trip, you should divide the worker's time and additional costs amongst participants, with the agreement of each participant in advance.

Note: You must meet the conditions outlined by the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (previously the NDIS Price Guide) in order to claim for transport costs from a participant's NDIS Plan. For detailed information, please refer to the latest version of the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits.

A Use Case for Activity Based Transport Claims

You agreed to support a participant with their community activity, including a trip to the local swimming pool (Access Community Social and Rec Activ)

The ride in a non-disability-modified vehicle takes 25 minutes to reach the pool. This time includes helping the participant in and out of the vehicle and preparing them for the activity. The worker travels with the participant. They offer assistance at the pool for 40 minutes. Afterwards, they take 20 minutes to bring the participant back home in the same vehicle. The pool is 10 kilometres away from the participant's home.

You and the participant settled on a $65.47 hourly rate. This is also the rate for the support worker’s time transporting the participant.

The participant also agreed that you can claim the support worker's car park fee ($5) and running costs ($0.85 per km for a total of 20 km) under the support item.

Technically, your claim for this support comes in three separate parts:

• The primary support including the total 85-min time spent at swimming pool and on the transport to and from the pool.
• Activity Based Transport (Kilometres) for the 20-kilometre travel to and from the pool.
• Activity Based Transport (Parking) for the parking fee.

Note: You can also claim for the worker's travel time to reach the participant before the support begins, as instructed in the Provider Travel tutorial.

Step 1: Set up your Services involving Activity Based Transport

If you want to claim for Activity Based Transport later, you need to make some initial configurations in your organisation's services. It's important to note that Comm.care aligns with the latest NDIS Support Catalogue, which outlines the support items available for Activity Based Transport claims.

Go to Your Organisation > Services > Add Service. You can also click on an existing Service and click Edit.

On the Service modal, when you proceed to the Line (support) items section:

• Add the item for the primary support (04_104_0125_6_1).
• Add the item Activity Based Transport (04_590_0125_6_1). This will be used to claim for the kilometres travel to and from the pool. Make sure you select Manual under the Period section; this allows you to change the support item name and set the unit price later. After clicking Add, you need to edit the support item name to ABT (Kilometres), and set the unit price to $0.85 if that's the agreed hour rate.
• Add another item Activity Based Transport (04_590_0125_6_1). This will be used to claim for the parking fee. Also select Manual under the Period section so you can change the support item name later. After clicking Add, you need to edit the support item name to ABT (Parking).

Tips: Most 'Activity Based Transport' support items come with the sequence number 590.

Step 2: Add an appointment

Consider that you have set up your organisation services and enter the travel details in the circle’s service roadmap; let’s move to Appointments.

When you add an appointment that you can claim for Activity Based Transport later, it’s important to set up the information correctly.

On the Duration field, make sure to enter the total time of the primary support and the transport time.

After selecting the Related service that you have set up in Step 1, proceed to the Support Item . There you should:

• Select the support item for the primary support.
• Add a support item ABT (Kilometres). The default value for Time has been automatically set to 0. You just need to set the Quantity to 20 (for the total kilometres transporting the participant).
• Add the support item ABT (Parking). The default value for Time has been automatically set to 0. Also, you just need to set the Quantity to 5 (for $5 to be spent). This will result in the total charge being equal to the quantity, as the unit price has already been set to $1.

Step 3: Completing the Progress Note

After delivering the support that involves Activity Based Transport, it’s time to make sure your staff complete the Progress Note properly.

To get started, simply click on the red page icon in the related appointment on the circle calendar.

On the Progress Note modal, you can see that Comm.care has already pre-filled multiple line items using the data from the appointment. This means you can spend more time on entering other vital information.

Below are several things you may notice in the support items:

ABT (Kilometres)

• Quantity: Feel free to change the pre-filled value (20) if you need to. But most of the time, you will just want to keep this field intact.
• Price: See that this field has been populated (0.85) from the Service in Step 1.

ABT (Parking)

• Quantity: Feel free to change the pre-filled value (5) if you need to. But most of the time, you will just want to keep this field intact.

Step 4: Understanding invoices involving Activity Based Transport

At this state, let’s consider that you have created an invoice or claim using the progress note from Step 4. You will see on the invoice that the Activity Based Transport charges are shown separately from the primary support, allowing for accuracy and transparency.

Also, in the case where staff use their own vehicle, you can see how many kilometres they have travelled to transport the participant so that you can pay them.

Go to Organisation > Reports > Staff Hours, see the Quantity column of the Activity Based Based item(s) for the kilometres transporting the participant.