Food Trucks and Mobile Vendors Back-Office Services

The Award: typically the Fast Food Industry Award 2020 or the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020

Which award applies depends on the business, the work each employee actually performs, their classification and whether they are full-time, part-time or casual. The Fair Work Ombudsman's coverage summaries do not name mobile food businesses. They place businesses that take orders for, prepare and sell meals, snacks and beverages mainly for take-away — consumed away from the point of sale — under the Fast Food Industry Award 2020, and caterers under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, so a food truck or mobile vendor needs to match how it actually trades to those descriptions before configuring payroll. Check coverage for your own business rather than assuming one award covers everyone, and use the Fair Work Pay Calculator for the current rate for a given award, classification and shift.

Classifications: Food and Beverage Levels 1-3 under the Hospitality Award, or Fast Food Employee Levels 1-3 under the Fast Food Award. Most food truck staff are casual or the owner-operator.

Ordinary hours: 38 hours per week for employees. Event-based trading creates irregular patterns.

Penalty rates: the award sets separate rates for Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and for overtime, evening, night or shift work where it provides them, and they vary by classification and by whether the employee is full-time, part-time or casual — casual employees have their own rates in the award's penalty table. Rather than work from a remembered percentage, look up the current rate for the specific classification and shift on the Fair Work Pay Calculator and apply the rate in effect on the day worked. Weekend market/event trading triggers Saturday/Sunday rates.

Minimum engagement: 2 hours for casuals under the Hospitality Award (clause 11.3); 3 consecutive hours under the Fast Food Award (clause 11.3) — award texts read 8 September 2026.

Key allowances: meal allowance, travel between event sites.

Getting these provisions wrong creates systematic underpayment that compounds with every pay period. The Fair Work Ombudsman actively monitors compliance in this sector, and the penalties for deliberate underpayment were significantly increased under recent legislation. Valont's payroll specialists configure your payroll software with the exact award rules for each employee classification, eliminating manual interpretation errors.

Sources: award coverage — the Fair Work Ombudsman's summaries of the Fast Food Award [MA000003] and the Hospitality Award [MA000009] and the award texts of the Fast Food Industry Award 2020 [MA000003] and the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009] (read 8 September 2026); pay and award rules — Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission; superannuation, BAS and tax — the Australian Taxation Office.