Reach Stacker Operations SWMS
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
A reach stacker is a machine built around a contradiction: it lifts at reach, and reach is exactly what tips it. The **load moment** — the container's mass multiplied by the radius at which it is held — governs everything the machine does, and the load moment indicator in the cab is a limit, not a target. The machine will happily lift a box it cannot carry once the boom extends, and the instant the combination exceeds the chart it rotates forward around its front axle with no recoverable warning. Uneven ground, a pothole, a soft patch, or travelling with the load high all move the tipping line closer, which is why this document treats ground condition and travel position as stability controls rather than housekeeping.
The second defining mechanism is the **twistlock**. A container hangs on four corner castings, and the spreader's twistlocks either hold all four or the box comes down — and partial engagement looks identical to full engagement from the cab seat. The indication must be verified on every lift, and a lift never proceeds on an amber or disagreeing signal. The third is mass and blindness together: a laden reach stacker concentrates well over a hundred tonnes on its front axle, cannot stop quickly, and cannot see a person standing near half of its perimeter — so pedestrian exclusion in the operating area is absolute. This SWMS covers laden and empty container lifting, stacking and destacking, truck and rail wagon loading, yard travel, intermodal and construction laydown, and refuelling and operator maintenance checks. Authored for New South Wales. Regulator: SafeWork NSW.
Hazards identified
14 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Forward tip-over with no recoverable warning — fatal to the operator and anyone in the fall path
A laden container dropped onto plant, a truck or a person below
A worker or truck driver struck or run over by a hundred-tonne machine that never saw them
Electrocution or arc flash from the boom bridging a live line to ground
The gap closes faster than a person clears it — fatal crushing
A toppling stack of laden boxes onto an adjacent work area or roadway
A pit lid or slab rated for trucks giving way under a front axle carrying well over a hundred tonnes
Collision with public or rail traffic where the machine crosses a live corridor
Fall more than 2 m from a container top, stack or the machine
A leaking or misdeclared box turning a routine lift into a chemical incident
Uncontrolled boom or load movement, or a fuel fire during refuelling
A fatigued operator of a hundred-tonne machine, and long-term vibration injury
Noise-induced hearing loss for operators and ground personnel
Musculoskeletal, cut and pinch injuries, and strike injury from a door under a shifted load
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Operate strictly within the load chart for the actual mass at the actual radius — the load moment indicator is a limit and not a target, the machine will lift a container it cannot carry at extension, and travel is only ever with the load in the manufacturer's specified carry position, low and retracted.
- 2Assess and maintain the operating surface for the machine's wheel loads with potholes, edges and soft areas repaired or excluded, and verify container masses from documentation or by weighing rather than assuming them.
- 3Verify full engagement of ALL four twistlocks before every lift, refuse any lift on an amber, disagreeing or faulted indication, and settle the load a short distance to prove engagement before travel.
- 4Exclude all pedestrians from the operating area with physical barriers rather than paint, hold truck drivers in a designated driver safe zone clear of the load and travel path, and make the spotter the only authorised person inside the area — never in the travel path or under the load.
- 5Assess the working envelope at FULL boom height and reach against overhead lines, observe the Part 4.7 approach distances with physical goalposts marking the limit, and have the supply authority de-energise or relocate any line within the machine's envelope.
- 6Prohibit any person in the gap between the machine and a fixed object, stack, truck or rail wagon while the machine is live, and apply the park brake and ground the spreader before anyone approaches.
- 7Stack to the site's documented stacking plan for height, orientation, interlock and ground rating, destack from the top in sequence, and never pull a container from a lower tier.
- 8Confirm the operating surface and every structure the machine crosses is rated for the actual wheel loads — a pit lid rated for trucks is not rated for this — and rate by an engineer or physically exclude every pit, trench, suspended slab and pavement edge on the route.
- 9Separate machine operations from live traffic with barriers and dedicated crossings, apply a traffic guidance scheme to AS 1742.3 where a public road interface exists, and work rail interfaces only under the rail operator's protection arrangements.
- 10Eliminate the climb by doing at ground level everything the task allows, use an EWP or access platform for work at container height rather than climbing castings and ladders on boxes, maintain three points of contact on the machine's designed access, and never ride the spreader or a container.
- 11Verify placards, documentation and condition before lifting, quarantine leaking or damaged containers downwind and away from drains, and keep any discharge out of stormwater — a discharge is an offence under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW).
- 12Operate a maintained machine to the manufacturer's service schedule with a recorded daily prestart, ground the machine on any defect to brakes, steering, boom, spreader or the load moment system, carry out maintenance only with the boom lowered or supported and energy isolated, and refuel with the engine off, spill containment in place and ignition sources excluded.
- 13Ensure the operator holds the licence or competency the site and machine class require, all workers hold a current White Card (CPCCWHS1001) where on a construction site, and every worker is inducted into the yard's traffic management plan.
- 14Consult workers on WHS matters affecting them per Section 47 of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), record the consultation, and review the SWMS per Section 302 whenever the machine, ground conditions, yard layout, traffic plan or work changes, after any incident, or at minimum every 12 months.
Applicable Codes of Practice
The benchmark for plant risk management, exclusion zones, and the interaction between powered mobile plant and people in the yard.
The benchmark for construction-phase coordination and exclusion zones where the yard or laydown is a construction workplace.
The design basis for the machine and its spreader, including rated capacity and load moment limitation.
The benchmark for safe use, inspection, maintenance and operational requirements for the machine class.
The corner castings, lifting arrangements and stacking provisions the spreader's twistlocks engage.
The basis for the traffic guidance scheme where machine operations interface with a public road corridor.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
The reach stacker is powered mobile plant, and it moves, slews and lifts throughout the operating area alongside trucks, other plant and the containers it handles.
The machine loads and unloads trucks and rail wagons and travels on, across or adjacent to yard roads and rail in use by other traffic.
The boom at full height and reach can meet overhead electric lines, light towers and gantries at the yard and its boundaries.
Climbing on the machine, container tops or stacks for lashing, inspection or clearing a twistlock fault is work at a height above 2 m.
Reach stacker operations of this kind are high risk construction work under Section 291 of the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW), so a SWMS must be prepared before the work commences (Section 299), kept readily accessible, reviewed as necessary (Section 302), and given to the principal contractor if one is appointed. The machine is plant under Chapter 5, carrying duties to use it within its design limits, to keep it inspected and maintained, and not to alter it or override the load moment system. Energised electrical work near overhead lines is separately governed by Part 4.7, Division 4, sections 154 and 157. A tip-over, a container drop, a person struck or crushed, a stack collapse or an electrical contact is a notifiable incident to SafeWork NSW under Sections 35–38 of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), reportable even where nobody is injured, and the most serious breaches are prosecuted as Category 1 or Category 2 offences with imprisonment available for individuals.
Who this is for
- →Reach stacker operators and the yards, container terminals and intermodal depots that run them.
- →Materials handling and logistics contractors moving laden and empty containers, and loading trucks and rail wagons.
- →Principal contractors and site supervisors responsible for yard traffic management, exclusion zones and the stacking plan.
- →Construction and civil contractors handling containers, plant and heavy cargo in a laydown or on a construction workplace.
- →WHS managers and HSE advisors responsible for powered mobile plant, pedestrian separation and overhead line management.
What you receive
- ✓A complete, editable Safe Work Method Statement authored for New South Wales — the WHS Act 2011 (NSW), the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW) and SafeWork NSW as regulator.
- ✓A document control table with fill fields for PCBU, site, prepared by, reviewed by, approved by, version, dates and review date.
- ✓An activity scope covering laden and empty container handling, stacking and destacking, truck and rail loading, yard travel, laydown and refuelling and operator maintenance checks.
- ✓A regulatory references section citing Section 291, Section 299 and Section 302, Chapter 5 plant duties, Part 4.7 electrical, the AS 1418, AS 2550 and AS 3711 series, and the primary duty, consultation and notifiable-incident provisions of the WHS Act.
- ✓A workers, roles and qualifications section defining the operator, spotter, truck drivers, supervisor and maintenance personnel and their competencies.
- ✓14 identified hazards with initial and residual risk ratings on a 5x5 matrix, each with controls ordered through the full hierarchy — eliminate, engineer, administrative, PPE.
- ✓The stability control set built on the load moment — operating within the load chart, verifying container mass, and ground and travel controls treated as stability, not housekeeping.
- ✓A PPE matrix mapping each task to the required equipment and Australian Standard, and emergency procedures covering tip-over, overhead line contact, a person crushed, a container drop, a dangerous goods leak and incident notification.
- ✓A worker sign-on acknowledgement table, in Microsoft Word (.docx) format, unbranded and fully editable.
Worked example
A reach stacker operator at a Western Sydney intermodal yard is loading laden boxes onto a train under time pressure. The next container has no verified weight on the manifest and the operator, who has moved a thousand like it, judges it 'about a 20-tonner' and takes it at reach to place it two rows back. It is closer to 30 tonnes — a heavy machinery import declared low. At full extension the load moment indicator goes to alarm, but the operator reads the alarm as the machine being conservative, not as the truth, and eases the box out another half a metre to clear the stack. The front axle unloads the rear, and the machine rotates forward around it in under two seconds. Under Section 291 of the WHS Regulation 2025 (NSW) this is high risk construction work, and under Section 299 a SWMS is required. This document makes the missing step non-negotiable: no lift on an unverified mass, the load moment indicator treated as a limit and never a target, and any stability warning treated as a stop rather than a challenge — because the machine will lift a container it cannot carry, and by the time it tells you, it is already going over.
Related legislation
- Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) — Section 19 primary duty of care; Section 47 consultation; Sections 35–38 notifiable incidents.
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Section 291 (high risk construction work) and Section 299 (preparation and content of a SWMS), with review under Section 302.
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Chapter 5 (plant): the duty to use plant within its design limits, keep it inspected and maintained, and not alter or override its safety systems.
- Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) — Part 4.7 (electrical work and electric lines), including the approach distances and duties for plant working near overhead lines at Division 4, sections 154 and 157.
- Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW) — the offence of discharging fuel, oil or a leaking container's contents to land or stormwater during operation, refuelling or quarantine.
Frequently asked questions
The load moment indicator alarmed but the machine still lifted the box. Doesn't that mean it was safe?
No — it means the opposite. The load moment indicator is a limit, not a target, and the alarm is the machine telling you the combination of mass and radius is at or beyond what it can carry. The machine will physically lift a container it cannot safely hold at extension, because lifting and staying upright are two different things. A reach stacker tips by rotating forward around its front axle with no recoverable warning once the chart is exceeded, so any stability warning has to be treated as a stop, not a challenge. This SWMS makes that explicit and pairs it with verifying container mass before the lift rather than judging it by eye.
Why does the SWMS insist on excluding pedestrians completely instead of just being careful?
Because a laden reach stacker cannot see a person standing near roughly half its perimeter and cannot stop quickly with well over a hundred tonnes on its front axle. 'Being careful' relies on the operator seeing someone they physically cannot see. The controlling principle is that the machine does not share ground with people: pedestrian routes are separated with barriers rather than paint, truck drivers stay in a designated safe zone, and the only person authorised inside the operating area is a trained spotter working to an agreed signal system — never in the travel path or under the load. Every exception is engineered, signalled and agreed in advance.
Our yard has a pit lid and slab rated for trucks — is that good enough for the reach stacker?
Not without an engineer confirming it. A laden reach stacker concentrates well over a hundred tonnes on its front axle, which is a completely different load case from a truck spread over multiple axles. A pit lid, service trench cover, suspended slab or pavement edge rated for trucks is not rated for this. The SWMS requires every structure the machine crosses to be rated by an engineer for the actual wheel loads or physically excluded from the route, with routes marked and kept and no shortcuts across unassessed ground — including reassessing ground that softens in wet weather.
Does buying this SWMS make our reach stacker operation compliant?
No. This is a professionally authored documentation set — a template Safe Work Method Statement — not a certificate of compliance, and no purchased document can make an operation compliant on its own. You must review it against your actual machine, yard, ground conditions, traffic plan and load chart, fill in the site-specific fields, consult your workers under Section 47, have it applied by a competent licensed operator, and keep it reviewed under Section 302. Compliance comes from the controls being genuinely in place on the ground and the machine being operated within its limits — the document supports that; it does not replace it.