The Transport Workers Union is launching bids to set minimum rates and conditions for food delivery platform workers, truck drivers and “last mile” parcel couriers like Amazon Flex just days after the Albanese government’s laws came into effect.

The union’s four applications, to be made on Wednesday to the Fair Work Commission’s new road transport division set up under world-first gig economy laws, are expected to reshape the transport industry which the union argues is driven by a race to the bottom.