Pre-start checks in Australia: what WHS law requires

Are pre-start checks a legal requirement in Australia?

Not by that name, but the duty behind them is. Australia's model Work Health and Safety Regulations don't mention a "pre-start check". They require plant to be maintained and inspected by a competent person in line with the manufacturer's recommendations, and operator manuals for mobile plant list checks to do before use. So for most plant, a pre-start check is how you follow the manufacturer's recommendations day to day.

Regulator guidance says the same thing more directly. Safe Work Australia's general guide for industrial lift trucks says a pre-start check should be done at the start of each shift and whenever an operator uses a different truck. Mine sites, civil contractors and labour hire firms often go further and make a signed pre-start a condition of using any plant on site.

What WHS Regulation 213 says

Regulation 213, "Maintenance and inspection of plant", is the core rule. In the text adopted by the states (quoted here from Queensland's Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011):

• "(1) The person with management or control of plant at a workplace must ensure that the maintenance, inspection and, if necessary, testing of the plant is carried out by a competent person."
• "(2) The maintenance, inspection and testing must be carried out— (a) in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations, if any; or (b) if there are no manufacturer's recommendations, in accordance with the recommendations of a competent person; or (c) in relation to inspection, if it is not reasonably practicable to comply with paragraph (a) or (b), annually."

The "person with management or control of plant" is the person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) that controls the plant at the workplace. Safe Work Australia publishes the model WHS laws that each jurisdiction adapts. Two things follow:

• The manufacturer's manual sets the schedule. If the manual says check the forks, hydraulics and brakes before each shift, that's the inspection regulation 213 points you to.
• The checker must be competent for that plant: trained and experienced enough to know what a fault looks like. For a pre-start, that's a trained operator. More in what is a competent person.

Regulations 214 and 215 add risks you must manage for powered mobile plant: the plant overturning, things falling on the operator, the operator being ejected, collisions with people or other plant, and "mechanical failure of pressurised elements of plant that may release fluids". A good pre-start covers the parts that control those risks: ROPS and FOPS, seat belts, brakes, steering, warning devices and hydraulic hoses.

Your state or territory's rules

Each jurisdiction has its own law, and the numbering and details can differ. Safe Work Australia develops the model laws; the states and territories adopt them, and their regulators enforce them. Victoria is the only jurisdiction that hasn't adopted them.

In Victoria, WorkSafe says employers must comply with specific duties for plant covering "installation and commissioning, maintenance and inspection requirements", and points to its Compliance code: Plant for practical guidance (WorkSafe Victoria). Don't assume a WHS regulation number applies there.

What a plant pre-start check covers

A pre-start covers the items the manufacturer lists for daily checks, in the order an operator walks round the machine. The common ground across most mobile plant:

Safe Work Australia's lift truck guide adds that the pre-start should include reading the load rating plates to make sure the truck and attachments suit the task. Start from these, then match each checklist to the manual. Our free forklift checklist and the other equipment checklists are written in walkaround order.

Forklifts: licences and pre-starts

Operating a forklift is high risk work under the WHS Regulations. You need a high risk work licence to operate "a forklift truck, other than a pedestrian operated forklift truck", and a separate one for an order-picking forklift truck. SafeWork NSW lists these as the LF and LO licence classes. Boom-type elevating work platforms with a boom length of 11 metres or more, and many types of crane, also need a licence.

A licence covers the operator's competence; the pre-start covers the truck's condition on the day. Regulation 218 also restricts passengers on an industrial lift truck: a passenger is only allowed if the truck is designed to carry a seated passenger and the seat has suitable restraints within the operator's protective zone.

Registered plant and records

Records are compulsory for registered plant. Regulation 237 says the person with management or control of plant that must be registered "must keep a record of all tests, inspections, maintenance, commissioning, decommissioning, dismantling and alterations of the plant", for as long as the plant is used or until they relinquish control, and must pass it on to the next person who takes control.

Registered plant items include boilers and pressure vessels above set hazard levels, tower cranes, lifts and escalators, building maintenance units, amusement devices, concrete placing booms, and mobile cranes rated over 10 tonnes. Registered mobile and tower cranes also need a major inspection by a competent person at the end of their design life, or every 10 years if the manufacturer gives no recommendation (regulation 235).

For other plant, no WHS regulation says how long to keep pre-start sheets. You'll see "keep them for at least a year" in industry material, but that's guidance, not law. What matters is being able to show the checks were done, what they found, and that defects were fixed before the plant was used again.

Mining and quarry sites

Mines and quarries often sit under separate mining safety laws and regulators, so check which applies to your site. Queensland and New South Wales, for example, regulate mines and quarries under their own mining safety legislation, and Western Australia has separate WHS regulations for mines. On most mine sites the safety management system makes a recorded pre-start compulsory for every item of mobile plant and light vehicle, including contractors' gear, and site inductions cover how it's done. See quarries and mining for how pre-starts work there.

Running pre-starts on phones

Paper pre-start books work until someone needs to know about a defect before the next shift. CheckBadges puts a QR sticker on each machine; the operator scans it with their own phone's camera and does that machine's pre-start in the browser, with no app or login. A failed item needs a note and up to 3 photos, emails your alert list at once, and warns every operator who scans that machine until it's marked fixed. One limit to know: it needs a mobile data connection when the pre-start is submitted, so a pit or remote site with no coverage needs another option. Our roundup of pre-start checklist apps compares tools that work offline.