Vehicle SWMS and WHS templates

Safety documents for vehicle work in Queensland

Vehicle work covers trucks, crane trucks, utes, vans and vehicle-mounted plant, plus loading, unloading and travel between sites. The main risks are collisions with people and plant, unsafe loads and driver fatigue. On construction sites a SWMS must be in place before high risk construction work starts (s 299), and the s 291 items that often apply are work on, in or adjacent to a road or other traffic corridor in use (n) and areas where powered mobile plant moves (o).

Rules that come up in vehicle work

• Chain of responsibility: under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), a heavy vehicle has a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t (s 6). Safety is a shared responsibility of every party in the chain (HVNL s 26A), including the driver’s employer or prime contractor, operator, scheduler, consignor, consignee, packer, loading manager, loader and unloader (HVNL s 5). Each must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety of its transport activities (HVNL s 26C), and that duty cannot be transferred (HVNL s 26B).
• Licences: Schedule 3 classes include vehicle loading cranes of 10 metre tonnes or more (item 13), non-slewing mobile cranes over 3 t (item 14) and boom-type elevating work platforms with a boom of 11 m or more (item 21). You must see written evidence of the licence before directing a worker to do the work (s 85).
• Mobile plant: plant must not collide with pedestrians or other plant, with a warning device where a collision is possible (s 215).

Templates for vehicle work

• Daily Vehicle Pre-Start Checklist: for a daily walk-around check
• Fatigue Management Policy & Procedure Template: for driver and operator fatigue
• Company Vehicle Policy Template: for work vehicle use and rules
• Road Transport Management Policy & Procedure Template: for road transport procedures
• Safe Operation of Vehicle Loading Crane SWMS: for truck-mounted loading cranes
• Traffic Management SWMS: for work near live traffic

Every template is an editable Word or Excel file you can brand with your logo, and you download it straight after checkout. Once filled in for your job, the documents help you meet your duties. Related reading: traffic management plans and fatigue management. This is general information, not legal advice.