On 3 August 2026, fuel excise relief ended and the rate reverted to the full indexed 53.7 cents per litre on both petrol and diesel.
If you run vehicles, that happened this week, and it is almost certainly not in your pricing yet.
The full timeline, because the step-down confused everyone
The relief did not simply expire. It unwound in two stages, which is why a lot of operators have the wrong number in their heads.
| Period | Excise rate | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1 April 2026 | 52.6c/L | Baseline |
| 1 Apr – 30 Jun 2026 | 20.6c/L | Halved in response to the fuel shock |
| 1 Jul – 2 Aug 2026 | 36.6c/L | Partial step-down |
| From 3 Aug 2026 | 53.7c/L | Full indexed rate restored |
Two things matter here.
The jump this week was 17.1c/L, not the 32c many operators had braced for on 1 July. The step-down softened the first hit and, in doing so, made the second one easier to miss.
You are now paying more than before the crisis began. The restored rate of 53.7c is above the pre-April baseline of 52.6c, because excise is indexed. Anyone waiting to “get back to normal” is already past it.
The heavy vehicle road user charge, cut to zero for the April–June quarter, also ended.
What it costs, per vehicle
The step-up from the July rate is 17.1c/L. From the April emergency rate it is 33.1c/L.
Here is the annual excise-only impact, by vehicle type:
| Vehicle | Annual km | Consumption | Annual litres | +17.1c vs July | +33.1c vs April |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ute / light commercial | 25,000 | 12 L/100km | 3,000 | $513 | $993 |
| Van | 35,000 | 11 L/100km | 3,850 | $658 | $1,274 |
| Light rigid truck | 50,000 | 20 L/100km | 10,000 | $1,710 | $3,310 |
| Heavy rigid | 80,000 | 35 L/100km | 28,000 | $4,788 | $9,268 |
| Prime mover | 120,000 | 50 L/100km | 60,000 | $10,260 | $19,860 |
Now multiply by your fleet.
A trade business with five utes: roughly $2,565 a year. Manageable, and easy to ignore — which is exactly the problem, because it is pure margin.
A transport operator with ten prime movers: roughly $102,600 a year. That is not a rounding error. On a 5% net margin that requires over $2 million in additional revenue to replace.
Note: fuel tax credits may offset some of this for eligible heavy vehicle and off-road use. The credit rate moves with the excise rate, so the net position depends on your entitlement — worth confirming with your accountant rather than assuming.
The pump price is not just the excise
The excise restoration landed on top of a fuel market that had already reset higher.
Following the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz from early March 2026 — a chokepoint carrying roughly 20% of global daily oil supply — national average unleaded passed $2.30 per litre in late March, with diesel rising faster in many regions. Australia is one of the most fuel-import-dependent developed economies, with limited domestic refining, so global disruptions transmit to Australian pumps quickly and almost completely.
By late July 2026, petrol and diesel were at or above pre-conflict levels — before the excise came back on.
So the honest position is: pump prices had already normalised upward, and then 17.1c/L of tax was added on top.
What to do this month
1. Recalculate your true cost per kilometre
Not your fuel cost. Your total cost per kilometre — fuel, maintenance, tyres, registration, insurance, finance, depreciation and driver time. Most operators quote from a number they built two or three years ago and have adjusted by feel since.
If you do not have a current figure, everything below is guesswork.
2. Check whether your contracts allow pass-through
Three questions:
- Do your contracts contain a fuel surcharge mechanism, and is it actually being applied?
- Do they contain a rise-and-fall clause, and does fuel fall within its scope?
- For fixed-price work quoted before March 2026 — what is the remaining exposure, and how long does it run?
Fixed-price work quoted before the fuel shock was priced in a different world. If you have a long tail of it, quantify the exposure now rather than discovering it at year-end.
3. Move surcharges before you move base rates
A fuel surcharge that moves with a published index is commercially far easier to defend than a base rate increase. Customers understand it, it is visibly linked to something outside your control, and it comes back down when fuel does — which makes it easier to say yes to.
If you do not have one, this is the moment to introduce it. “Excise returned to the full rate on 3 August” is a specific, verifiable, externally-caused reason. Those are the easiest price conversations you will ever have.
4. Do not absorb it quietly
The default Australian response to cost increases is absorption — lower margins, longer hours, less taken out of the business. It is the single most common reason a business that looks busy is not making money.
Absorbing 17.1c/L across a fleet, silently, for twelve months, is a decision. Make it deliberately or not at all.
The wider point
Fuel is currently the most visible cost pressure — the MYOB Business Monitor found 51% of Australian SMEs named fuel as their single biggest cost concern, with average fuel costs up around 18% year on year.
It is not, however, the largest. Wages carry roughly half the weighting of the small business cost index, and total business costs are up 24.6% since March 2020.
Fuel is simply the one you can see on a sign by the road every day.
Use the visibility. A fuel-triggered conversation with a customer is the easiest pricing conversation available to you right now, and it opens the door to the harder, more valuable one about whether your rates reflect any of the last four years.
Where to go next
- Fuel Excise Cost Calculator — run it on your own fleet
- Cost Per Kilometre: The Only Number That Matters in Transport
- Repricing Freight Rates After the 2026 Fuel Shock
- Vehicle and Fuel Costs for Trade Businesses
- Australian Business Compliance Calendar 2026-27
Sources: Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts — fuel price relief measures fact sheet; Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; ACCC weekly fuel price monitoring; MYOB Bi-Annual Business Monitor, May 2026; AMP Bank GO Small Business Cost Pressure Index 2026. Rates current as at 7 August 2026. Fuel tax credit entitlements vary — confirm your position with your accountant.