Quiet hours: when you can and can't message customers
There is no legal curfew on marketing texts in Australia, but sending at the wrong hour still costs you. Here is the difference between the law and best practice, and sensible windows to stick to.
A 6am service reminder is technically legal and still a bad idea. Quiet hours are where the Spam Act ends and brand judgement begins, and dealerships that get this right look professional while the ones that don't get flagged as spam by the people they most want to keep. This is general information, not legal advice; check your obligations with a qualified adviser.
The law versus best practice
The Spam Act 2003 (Cth) does not set legal quiet hours. There is no provision that says you must not text before a certain time. What the Act does require is consent, sender identification and a working unsubscribe on every message. So quiet hours are a best-practice convention, not a statute. That does not make them optional in any sense that matters. A message that lands at the wrong hour gets marked as spam, drives opt-outs, and trains your database to ignore you, which undercuts the whole point of follow-up.
The Spam Act sets no curfew, but sending outside reasonable hours still damages your brand and your results. Treat quiet hours as a rule even though the law doesn't.
Sensible sending windows
Industry guidance from Australian SMS providers converges on daytime sends. A commonly cited window is roughly 9am to 8pm on weekdays, with some providers suggesting an even tighter business-hours range. The principle is simple: message people when they are awake and receptive, not first thing in the morning or late at night. Be more conservative on weekends and public holidays. Unless the message is genuinely about that occasion, it is usually better to pause regular campaigns rather than intrude on someone's day off.
9am to 8pm
A widely cited best-practice window for marketing SMS in Australia on weekdays, with weekends and public holidays handled more conservatively.
Mind the time zones
Australia spans multiple time zones, so “morning” is not one moment. A send timed for 8am on the east coast lands around 6am in Perth. If your contacts are spread across states, schedule against the recipient's local time rather than your own.
Let the system hold the line
Quiet hours are easy to agree on and easy to break under pressure, especially when a salesperson fires off a late-night follow-up by hand. This is where automation earns its keep: defined sending windows that hold messages until an appropriate hour, applied per time zone, so nothing goes out at 6am by accident. For the broader rules, see the Australian dealer's guide to compliant customer messaging.
Sources: ACMA: Avoid sending spam, Esendex Australia: SMS marketing laws. Figures are industry findings, not Dealerloop results.
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