Victoria's 2026–27 traffic fines: what a work ute pays now

From 1 July 2026, a Victorian speeding fine for a full licence holder in a light vehicle runs from $261 for less than 10 km/h over to $1,046 for 45 km/h or more. A phone camera fine is $627 and 4 demerit points. A company that fails to nominate the driver faces $4,182.

How much did Victoria’s traffic fines go up on 1 July 2026?

About 2.7%. Victorian fines are set in penalty units, and the Treasurer fixes the value of a penalty unit each financial year under the Monetary Units Act 2004. For 2025–26 it was $203.51. For the year that started on 1 July 2026 it is $209.10.

Every fine written as a number of penalty units moves with it. That is why the increase looks small and even across the board: a few dollars on a minor fine, closer to $30 at the top of the speeding table.

Fines Victoria publishes both years side by side for speeding by full licence holders in a light vehicle. This is the table that applies to a ute, a van or a company car:

Fines Victoria notes the amounts are adjusted in July each year. If a fine arrives for an offence before 1 July 2026, the amount on the notice is the one that counts.

Which fine is a work ute most likely to get?

The cheapest one. Victoria publishes how many camera speeding fines it issues in each band, and the low end dominates.

In 2024–25, fixed and mobile cameras issued 881,498 speeding fines. Of those, 675,284 were for less than 10 km/h over. Fewer than 4,000 were for 35 km/h or more. The government’s own note on the data is blunt: most people exceed the limit by less than 10 km/h.

For a small fleet that changes the question. The risk is not one driver doing 150 on the Hume. It is four drivers each drifting a few kilometres over on suburban roads between jobs, a few times a year, and each fine landing in the company’s name.

What do the phone, seatbelt and red-light cameras cost now?

Speeding is not the only camera on the road. Fines Victoria lists these amounts as at 1 July 2026:

The distracted driver and seatbelt cameras are the ones to watch in a work vehicle. In 2024–25 they produced 69,599 fines. Seatbelt offences were the biggest group: 26,128 for the driver not wearing a belt correctly and another 19,414 where the driver failed to make sure a passenger was wearing one.

That second number matters if your crew rides together. The offence is recorded against the driver, not the apprentice in the passenger seat.

The same cameras also caught 1,452 unregistered vehicles in 2024–25, where a vehicle flagged for a phone or seatbelt offence turned out to be unregistered as well. At $1,046 for an ordinary two-axle ute, a lapsed rego is the most expensive line in that table.

How are heavy vehicles treated differently?

If anything in your fleet is over 4.5 tonnes GVM, it is on a separate, steeper table. Fines Victoria’s heavy vehicle rates apply to a vehicle with a loaded weight (GVM) over 4.5 tonnes, a combination over 14.5 tonnes GCM, or a bus with more than 12 seats.

The bands split differently too. For a heavy vehicle, 10–14 km/h over and 15–24 km/h over are separate bands, and the second one costs twice what a ute pays for the same speed. A removalist truck or a tipper on the same road as the ute is playing by different numbers.

What does a company pay if nobody is named as the driver?

Camera offences in Victoria are owner onus. The notice goes to the registered owner, which for most small fleets is the business. Fines Victoria says companies are directed to nominate the driver, and once they do, the fine is reissued to that driver at the ordinary amount.

If the company does not nominate, the figures from 1 July 2026 are:

• $4,182 for failing to nominate the driver
• $25,092 if the company fails to nominate three or more times within 12 months, under section 84BEA of the Road Safety Act 1986

Put that next to the table above. A $261 low-range speeding fine becomes a $4,182 company liability if it sits in the wrong inbox. The process for nominating, and the deadlines, are covered step by step in how to nominate the driver for a company camera fine. What happens when a notice is ignored for longer, up to registration sanctions on every vehicle the business owns, is in what an unpaid fine in Victoria can do to a company fleet.

Why should a business care about a driver’s demerit points?

Because a suspended licence takes a vehicle off the road as surely as a breakdown does. Victoria Legal Aid sets out the limit for a full licence holder: no more than 11 demerit points in any three-year period. Go over it and VicRoads sends a demerit point option notice. Take the suspension and it runs for three months for the first 12 points.

Here is how quickly that adds up for one driver over three years, using the 2026–27 camera amounts:

One more point from there and the driver is over the limit. Victoria Legal Aid is clear that a suspended driver must not drive at all, including to work. For an owner-operator, that might be the person who does the quoting, the driving and the invoicing.

Demerit points can only go on a person’s licence. That is the whole reason nomination exists, and the whole reason the company amount is set so high.

What should a small fleet actually do this year?

None of this needs new software. It needs three things that are easy to let slip.

1. 1Know who had each vehicle, on each day. A camera notice arrives after the offence, sometimes well after. If the answer to “who had the white Hilux on the 3rd?” depends on memory, nomination becomes guesswork.
2. 2Open every notice the week it arrives. The nomination deadline is printed on the notice, and it does not wait for someone to get around to the mail.
3. 3Keep rego current on every vehicle. The unregistered two-axle vehicle fine matches the top speeding fine at $1,046, and it is entirely avoidable. Victorian rego, TAC and inspection requirements are summarised on the Victorian compliance page.

A camera fine is a $261 problem if you can name the driver, and a $4,182 one if you cannot.

A whiteboard and a shared calendar can do the first job if the fleet is two utes and the same two people. Past that, the gaps start to show. Axlerun’s free Drive plan lets you record which driver has which vehicle and log fines against it, and the first three vehicles are free forever. On Cruise, a fine entered against a date is assigned to the driver who was on duty, and rego and service alerts warn you before a renewal lapses.

Are the amounts on this page the final word?

No. They are the amounts Fines Victoria lists as correct at 1 July 2026 for full licence holders. Learner and probationary drivers have different demerit limits, and some offences carry court penalties well above the infringement amount. Fines rise again each July with the penalty unit.

If a notice in front of you shows a different amount, the notice is what applies. If you are deciding whether to contest a fine, or how fines should be handled in employment arrangements, that is a question for a lawyer or your accountant rather than a blog post.