Feed Truck and Mixer Wagon SWMS

For feedlots, dairies, graziers and rural contractors who run feed trucks and mixer wagons. It follows the job from the route plan and pre-start check through hitching, loading from silos and bunkers, mixing, travelling, reversing, discharging feed and clearing blockages, to dust, noise and fatigue, road travel and shutdown. Tractor driving, PTO hitching and grain augers have their own SWMS.

Operating a feed truck or mixer wagon is farm and transport work, not high risk construction work, so no high risk construction work item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is not legally required for it (WHS Regulation s 299 applies to high risk construction work); the document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. If the work is part of construction work, tick any reg 291 item that applies, for example movement of powered mobile plant (item o) or work on or near energised electrical installations or services (item k).

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

What Is Covered In Our Feed Truck and Mixer Wagon SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the feed run and check the route, power lines and stock” to “Travel on public roads, refuel, clean down, park and shut down”. The hazards and controls include:

• Entanglement in PTO shafts, augers and chains
• Missing or removed guards
• Reaching or climbing into the mixing chamber
• Silage face and pile collapse at bunkers
• Silo outlets, bins and silage pits
• Rollover on slopes, soft ground and bunker edges
• Reversing into people, stock and structures
• Stock crowding the vehicle at feed lines
• Overhead power lines and raised augers
• Hydraulic hose failure and oil injection
• Starting up during clearing and cleaning
• Dust, mould, noise, heat and fatigue

High Risk Construction Work

None of the high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are pre-ticked, because this job is not high risk construction work by itself. Tick any that apply on your site.

Licences, Training and Competency

• Training and verified competency in operating the feed truck or mixer wagon, including the PTO and drive, guards, mixing chamber, discharge, isolation and loading, checked by the PCBU or supervisor before solo work (Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024, chapter 6)
• Driver licence for the class of vehicle driven on a public road; no high risk work licence class applies to feed trucks, mixer wagons or tractors (WHS Regulation Schedule 3)
• Training for anyone working near the machine in the feed area, including loader operators, stock handlers and spotters, on the guards, isolation and signals
• Close supervision of young or inexperienced workers until the PCBU confirms they are competent (Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006)
• Competent person for servicing, inspection and repair of the shafts, guards, hydraulics and mixing gear (WHS Regulation s 213)
• Licensed electrical worker for any electrical wiring or repairs (Electrical Safety Act 2002 s 55)
• Property or site induction covering the feed pads, silos, bunkers, no-go areas, overhead lines and stock handling
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders (or access to them) to suit the work and the distance from help (WHS Regulation s 42)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 205, 206, 208, 210, 211 and 213 (plant: alterations, proper use, guarding, operational controls, emergency stops, maintenance); ss 214 and 215 (powered mobile plant); s 216 (roll-over protection on tractors)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 56 and 57 (noise), s 60 (hazardous manual tasks), ss 78 and 79 (falls), Part 4.3 (confined spaces, ss 62 to 77)
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024 (guarding and PTOs 7.1, tractors 7.2, in-field traffic 7.10, confined spaces 7.11, isolating energy sources 8.2, isolated work and fatigue section 9)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Confined Spaces Code of Practice 2021 (mixing chamber, silos and silage pits)
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Children and Young Workers Code of Practice 2006
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld): s 6 (heavy vehicle means a vehicle with a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t), s 26C (primary duty of each party in the chain of responsibility), s 96 (compliance with mass requirements), s 110 (national regulations may prescribe loading requirements), s 111 (compliance with the loading requirements) and s 228 (duty of driver to avoid driving while fatigued or unfit to drive)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (model code, not approved in Queensland; guidance only)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (16 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: safety boots with non-slip soles and high-visibility clothing; close-fitting clothing, with long hair tied back and no loose cuffs, jewellery or straps near rotating parts
• Emergency arrangements for: entanglement in a shaft, auger, chain or conveyor, power line contact (general guidance) and rollover, or a person engulfed in feed, silage or a silo
• 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.