Flat Pack Furniture Delivery and Assembly SWMS

Suits furniture delivery and assembly businesses and self-employed assemblers who deliver flat pack furniture to homes and businesses and build it on site. It follows the job from planning and loading the vehicle through carrying boxes on stairs and through doors, working in an occupied home, unpacking, assembling with hand and power tools, kneeling and awkward postures, and anchoring tall furniture to the wall. Removals, whitegoods and kitchen cabinets need their own documents.

Delivering and assembling furniture is not 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 your job is part of construction work, tick the reg 291 items that apply. Otherwise this document works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment that you tailor to your deliveries and the furniture you assemble.

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

What Is Covered In Our Flat Pack Furniture Delivery and Assembly SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the delivery and check the order and the home” to “Check the furniture, remove packaging and leave”. The hazards and controls include:

• Manual handling of heavy boxes
• Carrying on stairs and through doors
• Furniture tipping over onto a person
• Drilling into hidden cables and pipes
• Asbestos in older wall linings
• Cuts from knives and strapping
• Hand and power tool injuries
• Kneeling and awkward postures
• Working in occupied homes with children and pets
• Working alone on deliveries
• Loading and securing the delivery vehicle

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

• Delivery and assembly workers trained in hazardous manual tasks, including team lifting, carrying on stairs and the use of trolleys and stair climbers (WHS Regulation s 39 information, training and instruction)
• Workers trained in assembling the furniture to the maker’s instructions and in anchoring tall furniture with the restraint kit and fixings suited to the wall
• Workers trained in the safe use of the hand and power tools they use
• Driver licence for the class of delivery vehicle driven
• No high risk work licence class in Schedule 3 of the WHS Regulation covers this work, and delivery and assembly of furniture is not construction work, so a construction induction training card is not needed unless the site requires it
• Licensed electrical worker for any wiring, lighting or power connection that is part of the furniture or the wall: workers only plug in finished equipment (Electrical Safety Act 2002 s 55)
• First aid equipment and facilities, and the person appointed as the job’s first aider (WHS Regulation s 42); a worker on a lone delivery carries a first aid kit

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• 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)

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: safety boots; cut-resistant gloves for handling packaging, strapping and glass or metal parts; safety glasses when drilling and cutting; hearing protection for noisy tools, as the last control
• Emergency arrangements for: furniture tipping or falling on a person, hit a service while drilling (cable, pipe or gas) and injury to a worker working alone
• 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.