LPG Cylinder Delivery and Exchange SWMS

Suits LPG suppliers, cylinder exchange businesses and delivery drivers who load, carry and swap cylinders at homes, farms, workshops and commercial customers. It follows the run in order: planning and vehicle checks, loading, driving, assessing the customer’s site, unloading, disconnecting and connecting cylinders, leak response, damaged cylinders and finishing the run. Cylinder handling in general and tank installation need their own SWMS.

Delivering and exchanging LPG cylinders is 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 a delivery is part of construction work, for example at a building site, tick the reg 291 items that apply, such as movement of powered mobile plant or work in an area that may have a flammable atmosphere. Otherwise the document works as a written safe work procedure and task risk assessment that you tailor to your vehicles and customers.

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

What Is Covered In Our LPG Cylinder Delivery and Exchange SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the run and check the vehicle” to “Secure the vehicle, record the run and finish”. The hazards and controls include:

• Heavy cylinders dropped or tipped
• Gas leaks at connections and valves
• Fire and explosion from ignition sources
• Cylinders moving in the vehicle
• Cylinders carried in enclosed vehicles
• Out-of-test and damaged cylinders
• Cold burns from liquid LPG
• Gas collecting in low or enclosed areas
• Vehicle reversing near customers
• Dogs, steps and uneven customer sites
• Overhead lines at the tail lift or crane
• Gas work that needs a licence
• Driver fatigue on delivery runs

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 suits the delivery vehicle; no Schedule 3 high risk work licence class covers LPG delivery, but a vehicle loading crane of 10 metre tonnes or more has its own class (item 13, which includes load estimation and slinging with that crane) and other slinging of a load needs dogging
• Where the supplier owns or provides the cylinders (a fuel gas delivery network), training in the supplier’s safety management system: the network operator must be reasonably satisfied a person has the skills, knowledge and experience the system requires, and the person must be recorded as a fuel gas supplier in it (Petroleum and Gas (Safety) Regulation 2018 s 80)
• Instruction and training specific to loading, driving and unloading dangerous goods where the transport is regulated under chapter 5A of the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Dangerous Goods) Regulation 2018 s 20; s 5 exempts some small loads)
• A dangerous goods vehicle licence (s 186) and driver licence (s 187) of that Regulation apply where dangerous goods are carried in a receptacle of more than 500 L capacity or more than 500 kg in a receptacle, such as a bulk tank; confirm whether either applies to your vehicle and load
• Gas work licence that allows the work, needed for gas work in relation to a gas device (type A) (Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 s 726(1)); for a gas device (type B), such as a fuel gas system for a motor vehicle or vessel, a gas work authorisation is needed (s 727(1)); only the connection or disconnection of a gas cylinder to an existing gas fitting or gas device is outside the licence rule (s 726(4)), and s 727 has no matching exception; installing, removing, altering, repairing, servicing or testing a gas system (its devices, fittings and pipes) is gas work (s 725)
• Training in hazardous manual tasks, leak and fire response and first aid (information, training and instruction: WHS Regulation s 39; first aid: s 42)
• General construction induction training card (white card) where the delivery is to a construction site

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• WHS Regulation ss 52, 53 and 355: ignition sources, flammable material kept to the lowest practicable quantity (gas cylinders, whether empty or full), hazardous areas
• WHS Regulation Part 7.1 (ss 351, 359, 360, 362): hazardous chemicals at a workplace; Part 7.1 does not apply to hazardous chemicals transported by road if the transport is regulated under the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (s 328(3))
• WHS Regulation ss 214 and 215 (powered mobile plant), s 39 (information, training and instruction), s 60 (hazardous manual tasks), ss 42 and 48 (first aid, remote or isolated work)
• WHS Act ss 35 to 39: notifiable incidents; an uncontrolled escape of gas is a dangerous incident (s 37(c))
• WHS Act Schedule 1 Part 1 s 1(3) and (6) with WHS Regulation s 702A: an LP gas cylinder is prescribed high risk plant, so the Act reaches its use affecting public safety
• Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 (Qld): s 706 (reporting a prescribed incident that relates to a gas related device, which includes a container of fuel gas), ss 724 to 727 (types of gas device, gas work, licences and authorisations), s 815 (supply of fuel gas in containers), Schedule 2 (fuel gas delivery network, gas system)
• Petroleum and Gas (Safety) Regulation 2018 (Qld): ss 7, 8 and 10 (serious injury or illness, dangerous incident and prescribed incidents), ss 76 to 80 and 82 (fuel gas networks), ss 139 to 151 (transporting and supplying fuel gas cylinders), s 79 and Schedule 2 Part 4 (cylinder testing)
• AS 2337 Gas cylinder test stations (mandatory for inspecting and testing fuel gas containers) and AS/NZS 1596 The storage and handling of LP gas (preferred), as named in Schedule 2 Part 4 of the Petroleum and Gas (Safety) Regulation 2018
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 (Qld) chapter 5A and Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Dangerous Goods) Regulation 2018 (Qld): ss 5, 20, 83, 186 and 187; Australian Code for the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road and Rail
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld), only where the vehicle is a heavy vehicle: 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)
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021 (gas cylinders)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks 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 Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead power line exclusion zones in sections 10 to 13 and schedule 2

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 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; gloves suited to the task, with cold-resistant gloves where liquid LPG could escape; safety glasses; high-visibility clothing
• Emergency arrangements for: LPG leak, fire involving a cylinder or the vehicle and contact with liquid LPG or cold burns
• 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.