Failure to provide safe work platform leads to truck driver's fall

A Victorian freight delivery service was fined $11,000 after it failed to provide a safe work platform for use by persons involved in unloading trucks, resulting in a driver falling from heights (WorkSafe Victoria v Fresh Centre Unloading Service Pty Ltd [2025]).

Incident

Fresh Centre Unloading Service Pty Ltd provided freight unloading services out of the Melbourne Market Authority in Epping, Victoria. In early September 2023, the company hired a forklift driver who was tasked with unloading trucks. He received on-the-job training in his first month by shadowing other forklift drivers.

On the evening of 1 January 2024, a truck driver employed by another transport company arrived with a load of rockmelons. The forklift driver commenced to remove pallets from the trailer. The forklift driver towed pallets hooked to the forklift towards the trailer’s edge. The truck driver stood on a ramp tray that was attached to the forklift tynes, and used the trolley jack to move any pallets that were out of the forklift’s reach to the trailer’s edge.

After all the pallets were unloaded, the truck driver loaded the trolley jack so that it could be lowered back to the ground before stepping onto the ramp tray. The truck driver asked the forklift driver to wait while he pulled the roller door of the trailer down, however, the forklift driver did not hear and proceeded to reverse the forklift. The truck driver, still standing on the ramp tray attached to the forklift, lost his balance and fell 1.5 metres off the ramp tray to the ground.

Charge and sentencing

Fresh Centre Unloading Service Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to a failure to eliminate or reduce the risk of injury to persons by failing to provide a work platform instead of the ramp tray. The work platform would have guardrails and could be secured to the forklift using locks, pins or chains thereby providing a safe working area.

The company was, without conviction, fined $11,000 and ordered to pay costs of $5,124.

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