Trailer Towing SWMS

Suits tradespeople, landscapers, farms, hire businesses, event crews and any workplace where workers tow box, tipper, plant, boat or equipment trailers behind cars, utes and 4WDs. It follows the trip from checking ratings and loading, through hitching, pre-departure checks, driving, sway and braking, reversing and roadside stops, to unhitching. Heavy vehicle coupling and uncoupling is covered by a separate SWMS.

Towing a trailer is transport work, not high risk construction work, so no item is pre-ticked and a SWMS is required by law only for high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 299). If the work is part of construction work, tick the reg 291 items that apply, such as item 14 (movement of powered mobile plant) or item 13 (a road or traffic corridor in use). Otherwise it works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. The Heavy Vehicle National Law applies only where the tow vehicle or the trailer has a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t.

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

What Is Covered In Our Trailer Towing SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the trip and match the tow vehicle, trailer and load” to “Unload, unhitch and park the trailer”. The hazards and controls include:

• Combinations exceeding towing ratings
• Trailer sway and loss of control
• Longer braking distance and downhill runaway
• Hands and feet crushed at the coupling
• Trailer rolling or drawbar dropping when hitching
• Load shifting or falling onto the road
• Reversing into people and obstacles
• Worn tyres, bearings and brakes failing
• Faulty lights, chains and breakaway cables
• Roadside stops beside traffic
• Strains from ramps and heavy loads
• Fatigue on long drives

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

• Driver licence of the class that covers the tow vehicle and trailer combination; driver licensing sits outside work health and safety law, so check the class with the Queensland road authority
• Experience or supervised practice in towing, hitching and reversing the type of trailer, verified and recorded by the PCBU
• Training in hitching and unhitching, safety chains, the breakaway cable, the electrical plug and the trailer brake controller where fitted (WHS Regulation s 39)
• Only where the tow vehicle or the trailer has a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t, which makes the combination a heavy vehicle (HVNL s 6), do the heavy vehicle requirements for the driver and the other parties in the chain apply
• No high risk work licence class applies to towing a trailer on the road (WHS Regulation Schedule 3)
• Site induction for the sites visited, and the general construction induction training card (white card) where the work is on a construction site
• First aid arrangements for the trip (WHS Regulation s 42), and a way to call for help on remote roads (s 48)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) schedule 1, part 2, division 5, item 7: the Act does not limit the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995, which prevails to the extent it is inconsistent, and a person with a WHS duty must still discharge it even where that Act prescribes a lesser duty (the same item names the Heavy Vehicle National Law, which applies here only as the next lines set out)
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 203, 206 and 213: plant risk management, proper use, and maintenance and inspection by a competent person following the maker’s recommendations (a trailer and tow vehicle used for work)
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 214 and 215: powered mobile plant at a workplace, including collisions with people and warning devices when manoeuvring
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 36, 39, 42, 44, 48 and 60: hierarchy of controls, training, first aid, personal protective equipment, remote or isolated work and hazardous manual tasks
• WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) ss 78 and 79: managing the risk of a fall from the trailer deck or ramp
• Only where the tow vehicle or the trailer has a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t: 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)
• A car, ute or 4WD towing a light trailer is not usually a heavy vehicle, so the Heavy Vehicle National Law line above does not apply to it; a combination that includes a vehicle with a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t is a heavy vehicle (HVNL s 6(1) and (2))
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021 (remote or isolated work)
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Rural Plant Code of Practice 2024 (section 8.4, transporting rural plant: immobilising vehicles and trailers; written for rural plant and used here as guidance only)
• 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 (14 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: safety boots with a hard toe and a non-slip sole; gloves for chains, straps, the coupling and the jockey wheel; high-visibility clothing when loading, hitching or stopping beside a road
• Emergency arrangements for: trailer sway or loss of control, trailer comes loose or the load falls and breakdown or tyre failure on the road
• 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.