Ground Person and Spotter SWMS

Suits builders, civil and concrete contractors, crane crews and site supervisors who use ground persons and spotters to guide reversing trucks, mobile plant and cranes. It covers planning roles and signals, blind spots, exclusion zones, crane lifts, acting as a safety observer near overhead lines and managing pedestrians. Traffic control on public roads is covered by separate SWMS.

Spotting for powered mobile plant on a construction site is high risk construction work under WHS Regulation s 291(o), so that item is ticked. Tick other items the job involves, such as energised overhead lines or a road in use. Where the work is not construction work, such as in a yard, warehouse or farm, a SWMS is required by law only for high risk construction work (s 299); the document still works as a written safe work procedure.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Ground Person and Spotter SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the task and agree roles, signals and routes” to “Finish the task and hand over”. The hazards and controls include:

• Being run over by reversing trucks and plant
• Blind spots around mobile plant
• Unclear signals between spotter and operator
• Pedestrians entering the work zone
• Being struck by swinging or dropped loads
• Crush between plant and structures
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Radio failure and lost communication
• Poor light and bad weather visibility
• Heat, fatigue and noise
• Tipping on soft or sloping ground
• Plant restarting after an incident

High Risk Construction Work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Is carried out in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction including the site traffic management plan
• Spotter or safety observer who is trained and competent for the role; training such as work as a safety observer or spotter (RIIRTM203E) is the kind the Mobile Crane code names
• A spotter or ground person who slings a load, or directs the crane operator when the load is out of the operator’s view, holds a dogging licence or a higher rigging class (Schedule 19, dogging work; Schedule 3 items 4 to 7)
• Plant operators hold the licence or ticket for the plant they operate where Schedule 3 requires one
• Directing public traffic on a road is traffic control, not spotting: use a traffic controller and the traffic management SWMS
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders (or access to them) as the work needs (WHS Regulation s 42)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Concrete Pumping Code of Practice 2019
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead electric line exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (13 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: high-visibility clothing in a colour and class suited to the site and time of day, with reflective strips for night work; safety boots; hard hat; safety glasses
• Emergency arrangements for: person struck by or trapped by plant, contact between plant and an overhead line and loss of radio or signals
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed November 2026.