Water Cart SWMS

Suits civil, earthworks, road and construction businesses that run water carts and water trucks to suppress dust on haul roads and work areas. It follows the job in order, from planning routes and daily checks through filling, driving, working around pedestrians, spraying, overhead lines and public roads, to dust, noise and heat controls and parking. Work near overhead power lines in general has its own SWMS.

Using a water cart or water truck on construction work is high risk construction work because powered mobile plant moves in the work area (WHS Regulation ss 289 and 291(o)), so that item is ticked and a SWMS is required before it starts (s 299); away from construction work this document works as a written safe work procedure or task risk assessment. You can also tick a fall risk of more than 2 metres if the tank must be filled from the top, energised electrical installations or services if overhead lines are near the routes or filling points, a road in use, water with a drowning risk if the cart fills from a dam or creek, or the contaminated atmosphere item if the work creates silica dust, as the Queensland silica code advises.

Learn More: What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?
Have you ever been asked to provide a SWMS on a project in Queensland? Read our guide to what a Safe Work Method Statement is and when you need one.

What Is Covered In Our Water Cart SWMS?

The job steps run in the order the work is done, from pre-start checks to finishing up. The hazards and controls include:

• Cart rollover on slopes and soft edges
• Liquid surge in a partly filled tank
• Slippery over-watered roads
• Pedestrians struck by the cart
• Reversing into people and plant
• Falls from the tank top at filling points
• Hose whip and overflow at hydrants and standpipes
• Drowning risk and bank collapse at dams
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Overspray onto people, leads and equipment
• Collisions on public roads and at entries
• Silica dust, noise and vibration
• Fatigue and heat on long shifts

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 a site induction that covers the traffic management plan, watering routes, filling points, signals and exclusion zones
• Current driver licence for the class of the truck and any trailer driven (Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation has no high risk work licence class for water carts or water trucks)
• Operators trained and assessed as competent on the water cart type (rigid truck, articulated or towed), its pump, spray bars, cannon and controls, and briefed on its rated payload, mass limits and the maker’s slope and speed limits
• Spotters trained in the site’s hand signals or radio calls, the cart’s blind spots and the power line exclusion zones
• Safety observer trained for the role (watching the plant and warning the driver when it is likely to enter an exclusion zone) where the cart works near overhead power lines
• Traffic controllers (accredited persons) where traffic control is needed on or beside a road
• 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
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (site entries and roads)
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021 (access to vehicles and tank hatches)
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021 (whole-body vibration, hoses and standpipes)
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (keeping plant back from excavation edges)
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 10 to 13 and schedule 2 (exclusion zones), and s 140 (construction work)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld), which applies the Heavy Vehicle National Law in Queensland: chain of responsibility (s 26C), mass (s 96) and loading (s 111) for heavy vehicles on public roads
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 (Qld): traffic controllers (ss 54 and 55)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (guidance)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (guidance)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Elevating work platforms (guidance); its power line contact advice is applied by analogy

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages
• Business, client, job and document details typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• The high risk construction work checklist, worded as WHS Regulation s 291, and the construction project question (s 292)
• A worker and health and safety representative consultation record
• Qualifications, plant, PPE, hazardous chemicals, safety equipment, permits, references and emergency arrangements filled in for this work
• A 5 x 5 risk matrix, and job steps with initial and residual risk scores and the people responsible
• Implementing, monitoring and review requirements, an additional controls log, revision history and a worker sign-on sheet

Review and adjust it for your site, your plant and the way your crew does the job, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. If you have any trouble downloading this SWMS, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.