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Law Current to: October 7, 2025

Tolling Infringements

Chapter 6, Part 7 of the Transport Infrastructure Act 1994 (Qld) (the Transport Act) outlines the compliance requirements for users of Queensland’s toll roads.

Under the Transport Act, a toll road user is required to pay a charge for the use of a road within a prescribed period, usually 3 days. If the toll charge isn’t paid within the prescribed period, the toll road operator will issue a toll invoice requesting payment within 14 days. The toll invoice adds an administrative fee to the toll charge. If a toll road user fails to pay the toll invoice, the toll road operator can issue a toll Demand Notice to the registered owner of the vehicle.

Section 99 of the Transport Act requires that the registered owner respond to a Demand Notice by either paying the amount requested or providing a statutory declaration that they were not the driver. The registered owner is given 30 days to provide this response. It is an offence not to respond to a Demand Notice without a reasonable excuse: Sections 99 (7) & 105ZH The Transport Act.

Where a registered owner fails to respond to a Demand Notice, the toll road operator can refer the unanswered Demand Notice to either the Brisbane City Council or the Department of Transport and Main Roads (collectively, the Administering Authority) to consider issuing an Infringement Notice.

The Transport Act ‘operates so as to make the registered owner of a motor vehicle liable for the payment of the tolls on receipt of written notice and liable for an offence consequent upon non-payment, although the owner’s liability to pay the tolls may be avoided if, within a prescribed time, the owner takes certain steps to establish that he or she was not the driver’. Bradley v Barber [2016] QCA 53, 4.

Infringement Notices for Not Responding to a Demand Notice

Each Infringement Notice fines a person 1 and 2/5 penalty units, or approximately $225.00. It is required to include information about the alleged offence and the options available to the registered owner.

If the registered owner does not respond to the Infringement Notice within 28 days, the fine is transferred to SPER for collection. A registration fee is added. Money paid to SPER or the Administering Authority to resolve an Infringement Notice is paid into the Queensland’s Consolidated Fund.

Toll Road Providers in Queensland

The toll road provider in Queensland is Transurban Group, operating as Linkt.

Toll roads have been operational in Australia since 1932 in Sydney. In Queensland, toll roads first became operational in 1986. ’Free flow’ or fully automated toll payments were implemented in Queensland in July 2009. Registration plate technology is used to identify vehicles which travel on toll roads.

Toll fines and our clients

Between July 2015 and June 2017, Homelessness Law assisted 194 people with SPER debts. Of these, 39 (or 20%) had debts for fines connected with the use of toll roads.

Of the 39 clients who have experienced issues with toll fines, most had received multiple Infringement Notices. On average, each person had approximately 19 Infringement Notices for Falling to Respond to a Demand Notice. Eight people had in excess of 40 toll related Infringement Notices. One person had over 90 Infringement Notices. Of the 39 clients:

  • all were experiencing severe financial hardship. Only two earned some type of wage, the remaining 37 were reliant on social security payments;
  • all were either homeless or at significant risk of homelessness;
  • 19 out of 39 were male, 19 were female, and one person identified as transgender; and
  • no person was under 25, and the average age was 39.

Our casework indicates that many of the Infringement Notices were issued in circumstances where our client’s disadvantage created a barrier to them addressing the underlying toll debt or responding to the subsequent Demand Notice.

Janet had a long history of personal and financial hardship. Over the course of a number of years, she had suffered severe mental and physical health conditions that impaired her decision-making ability and limited her capacity to make arrangements for her affairs. During this period, Janet received multiple Infringement Notices for failing to respond to a Demand Notice. SPER was now collecting this debt.

After moving into more stable housing, Janet sought our help to resolve her SPER debt. A review of Janet’s SPER Debt Schedule disclosed numerous, historic toll related fines. Many of the fines were incurred during periods of homelessness or while Janet’s mental health was in decline. Janet never received the notices and only became aware of the fines when getting help from Homelessness Law.

Working with Janet, her lawyers gathered evidence to support a request to the Authorised Authority for the withdrawal and cancellation of the fines. They helped Janet prepare a statutory declaration outlining Janet’s reasonable excuse and why the fines should be withdrawn. Based off these submissions, the Authorised Authority withdrew the fines from SPER and cancelled the original Infringement Notices.

 

Responding to an Infringement Notice

If your client receives an Infringement Notice for failing to respond to a toll Demand Notice, they can:

  • pay the fine, either in full or through a voluntary instalment plan;
  • elect to dispute the matter in Court; or
  • transfer the Infringement Notice to another person or notify Linkt that the vehicle was sold, stolen or illegally taken.

If your client does not respond to the Infringement Notice within the required time, the fine will be transferred to SPER for collection.

We discuss the general options to respond to an Infringement Notice in Infringement Notices:

Your client accepts responsibility for the offence

If a client accepts responsibility for the offence and seeks advice within 32 days, we can give them advice about responding to the Infringement Notice.

We discuss the general options to respond to an Infringement Notice in more detail here.

If your client has received multiple toll invoices or demand notices and is experiencing hardship, you may want to contact Linkt to discuss its hardship options. Linkt should be contacted within the timeframes stated on the toll invoice or demand notice to ensure the matter does not escalate.

Your client wants to have the matter heard in Court

If your client does not accept responsibility for the offence, they can elect to have the matter heard in court.

LawRight is unable to help clients to dispute toll-related fines in court. However, if your client had a reasonable excuse for not responding to the Infringement Notice, they can ask the Administering Authority to cancel the fine. You should discuss these options with your client.

If your client wants to have the matter heard in court, you should encourage them to get advice from a lawyer that works in this area.

 

Your client was not the driver

If your client was not the driver at the time the toll road was used, they can respond to the toll invoice or demand notice by notifying Linkt that they were not the driver. They will need to:

  • provide the details of the actual driver, including their name and address.
  • inform Linkt that the vehicle was sold or otherwise disposed of. They will need to provide the date the vehicle was disposed of and details of who the person that acquired the vehicle.
  • inform Linkt that the vehicle was stolen or illegally taken and the date the matter was reported to the police.

This ‘toll invoice nomination’ can be completed online or by statutory declaration. The statutory declaration must be completed within 30 days of the date of the toll invoice or demand notice. More information about this process is available on Linkt’s website.

If the toll invoice nomination is successful, the toll invoice or demand notice will be sent to the nominated person. You should discuss this with your client, including if they have any safety concerns with the toll invoice or demand notice being reissued to the actual driver. If safety is a concern, you should contact Linkt to discuss the options available.

Infringement Notices transferred to SPER  

A review of a client’s SPER debt schedule may reveal multiple Infringement Notices for not responding to a toll Demand Notice without a reasonable excuse. These debts can be from many years ago.

There are many reasons why our clients are unable to respond to a Demand Notice, including lack of a fixed address or frequent changes in temporary accommodation. For those in severe hardship, they may not be able to respond to a Demand Notice in a timely manner, for example due to personal crises, illness, imprisonment, or hospitalisation. Victims of controlling or violent relationships may be unable to respond for fear of retribution by their violent partner. Factors such as mental illness, disability or illiteracy can further inhibit a person’s ability to respond to a Demand Notice

Common reasons why a person did not respond to a Demand Notice include:

  • the client was homeless at the time the Demand Notice was issued;
  • the client was in a violent relationship;
  • the client was transient and the Demand Notice was sent to a previous address; or
  • the client was not in possession of the vehicle at the time the toll was incurred, either because they had sold the vehicle or a controlling family member was driving the vehicle.

When speaking with a client, we should make enquiries about the Infringement Notices to determine whether the client had a reasonable excuse for not responding to the Demand Notice.

If we can evidence the client’s circumstances when the Infringement Notices were issued, essentially the circumstances that show why the client had a reasonable excuse, the Administering Authority may withdraw and cancel the fines.

As an initial step, we should speak with a client about the fines and the circumstances that led to the issuing of the Infringement Notices.

If we form the view the client was responsible and does not have a reasonable excuse, we can provide the client with advice about their options to resolve their SPER debt.

If the client had a reasonable excuse for not responding to the toll Demand Notice, or if it would be in the public interest for the fines to be withdrawn and cancelled, we can:

  1. Contact the Administering Authority to request information about the Infringement Notices. Relevant contacts:
    1. Toll Offences Unit, Queensland Revenue Office ([email protected]); and
    2. Brisbane City Council ([email protected])
  2. Collect information about the client’s circumstances at the time each Infringement Notice was issued that establish a reasonable excuse for not responding to the Demand Notice. Consider what evidence we or the client can collect to support these arguments.
  3. Prepare submissions to the Administering Authority requesting the withdrawal and cancellation of the Infringement Notices.

These matters often take many months to resolve. We should also speak with the client about their options to resolve any other SPER debts. If the client has other SPER debts that we are not seeking to have withdrawn, we may want to assist them to set up a payment plan or to complete a WDO. An Infringement Notice can be withdrawn at any time before the fine is satisfied in full: s 28 SPE Act. It may be in the client’s interest to set up a payment plan (this will stop enforcement action) to pay off other SPER fines while we seek to withdraw toll related Infringement Notices. Please consider the Order of Satisfaction of SPER debts before advising a client.

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