Telehandler SWMS

For builders, hire companies, civil crews and site teams who use telehandlers to unload trucks and place materials. It follows the job from planning the lift and checking the ground and power lines through the pre-start check, travel, lifting, suspended loads and approved work platforms to refuelling and shut-down. It does not cover forklifts or elevating work platforms, which have their own SWMS.

Using a telehandler 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 of more than 2 metres when a work platform is used, and energised electrical installations near overhead lines.

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 telehandler SWMS?

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

• Telehandler tip-over on soft or sloping ground
• Overloading and loss of load stability
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Pedestrians struck or crushed by the machine
• Loads falling from forks and attachments
• Suspended loads swinging or dropping in crane mode
• Falls from, or entrapment in, a work platform
• Attachments dropping because they are not locked
• Ground, slab or deck failing under the machine
• Machine or load falling into an excavation
• Loads shifting when loading and unloading trucks
• Fire from fuel and battery charging
• Machine left unattended or started by others

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 work on construction sites
• Operator trained and assessed as competent on the make and model of telehandler and on each attachment used, including its controls and load charts
• No high risk work licence is needed to operate a telehandler with fork arms, a bucket or a grab (WorkSafe Queensland guidance on multi-purpose tool carriers; Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 section 13). It is not a forklift truck for Schedule 3 item 24, because it has a boom, not a mast (Schedule 19). The operator must still be competent: keep evidence such as RIIHAN309F Conduct telescopic materials handler operations
• A site or hire company rule asking for another ticket, such as a forklift licence, is a site rule, not the law; sight and record it before work starts
• Boom-type elevating work platform licence (Schedule 3 item 21) only when a work platform on the main boom can extend 11 m or more
• Crane licence when used as a crane with a jib and hook: non-slewing mobile crane (Schedule 3 item 14) when rated over 3 t; a slewing telehandler needs the slewing mobile crane class for its capacity (items 15 to 18); a non-slewing telehandler rated 3 t or less needs none
• Dogging licence, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3), for anyone who slings a load or directs the operator when the load is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19); an unlicensed worker may sling only where a licensed dogger, rigger or engineer has fixed the weight, slings, method, gear check and lifting points, the load stays in view, and a signed-off lifting procedure and training are in place (WorkSafe Queensland, Dogger – DG)
• Documented familiarisation training on the specific make and model before the telehandler lifts suspended loads on a jib or hook (crane mode)
• Spotter or safety observer briefed on hand signals, the exclusion zone and the power line distances
• Site induction and daily pre-start meeting

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
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (telescopic handlers used as a crane, s 13)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (plant near excavations)
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (work on or beside a road)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities 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 electric line exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Elevating work platforms (guidance)

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (18 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.