Mobile Plant Risk Assessment Template for New Zealand

A Mobile Plant Risk Assessment is a comprehensive safety evaluation document that helps you identify, assess, and control workplace hazards associated with mobile plant equipment under New Zealand law. This critical document ensures you meet your legal obligations as a PCBU while protecting workers and others from potential harm during mobile plant operations.

When do you need this document?

You must conduct a mobile plant risk assessment whenever you introduce new mobile equipment to your workplace, including excavators, cranes, forklifts, bulldozers, or any self-propelled machinery. The assessment is also required when you modify existing plant equipment, change operating procedures, relocate equipment to new work sites, or when incidents occur that highlight previously unidentified risks. Additionally, you need updated assessments when new workers begin operating the equipment or when maintenance schedules change. Regular periodic reviews are essential to ensure ongoing compliance and safety effectiveness.

Key legal considerations

Your mobile plant risk assessment must demonstrate systematic hazard identification covering mechanical hazards like crushing or entanglement, environmental factors such as unstable ground or overhead power lines, and operational risks including visibility limitations or load capacity exceedance. The document should detail your risk evaluation methodology using appropriate risk matrices and clearly specify control measures following the hierarchy of controls - elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment. You must ensure competency requirements are defined for operators, maintenance procedures are established, and emergency response plans are documented. The assessment should also address consultation requirements with workers and their representatives, as mandated under New Zealand workplace health and safety legislation.

Legal requirements in New Zealand

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, PCBUs have specific duties regarding mobile plant safety management. You must ensure plant is designed, manufactured, imported, supplied, installed, constructed, commissioned, used, and maintained to be without risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable. The regulations require that mobile plant be regularly inspected by competent persons, with records maintained of all inspections, maintenance, and modifications. For certain high-risk plant like cranes, additional notification requirements to WorkSafe New Zealand may apply. Your risk assessment must be documented, regularly reviewed, and made available to relevant parties including workers, contractors, and WorkSafe inspectors upon request. The assessment should align with relevant Approved Codes of Practice, particularly for load-lifting equipment, and consider any hazardous substances involved in plant operations.