What Is a Hands-Free Lifting Policy? A Practical Guide for Australian Riggers

A hands-free lifting policy is not a product specification or a compliance checkbox. It is a site decision about where hands are permitted to be during a lift — and what replaces them when they are not.

The gap that most lift plans leave open

Most lifting operations in Australian industry are planned in some detail. The crane is selected and inspected. The rigging gear is certified. The exclusion zone is marked. The lift plan is completed and signed, and a competent person reviews the weights and radii. For routine lifts, a pre-approved safe work method statement covers the sequence.

What most of these documents leave unaddressed is the last metre.

Once the crane takes the load and the slings come taut, the planning phase ends and the judgement phase begins. Someone on the ground — the dogman, the rigger, a maintenance worker receiving the load — watches the load descend and makes a real-time decision about when and how to touch it. That decision is usually not in the lift plan. There is no written instruction about how far from the load a person should stand, whether hands are permitted on a moving load, or what tool should be used to manage the final positioning.

A hands-free lifting policy is the document that fills that gap.

What the policy actually says

A hands-free lifting policy is a site-level or company-level statement that defines the conditions under which direct hand contact with a suspended or moving load is and is not permitted. It does not need to be long. The core of it can be stated in a few sentences:

• Direct hand contact with a suspended load during controlled movement or final positioning is not permitted
• Load control during movement must be achieved through taglines, push/pull poles, magnetic positioning tools, or other approved hands-free methods
• The load must be fully landed and de-tensioned before hands approach for rigging detachment or final adjustment
• The tools required for hands-free load control are pre-task equipment — they must be present and checked before the lift begins

What the policy does not do is specify which brand of push/pull pole to use, or which tagline construction is preferred. Those are procurement decisions that follow from the policy. The policy establishes the principle; the tools support it.

Why this is not just about the dogman

A common misconception is that hands-free lifting is a dogman's tool issue. It is not. A hands-free lifting policy affects every person who receives, positions, or interacts with a load that is still connected to a crane or hoist.

That includes maintenance workers receiving equipment during a shutdown, fabricators positioning structural steel, offshore workers landing deck cargo, and construction labourers guiding precast panels into position. The risk of hand contact with a moving or suspended load is not confined to people who hold a dogging licence. It is present wherever a load is moving and a person is nearby.

A well-written policy identifies the range of roles and tasks to which it applies, not just the licensed lifting personnel.

The Australian regulatory context

Australian WHS legislation — the model Work Health and Safety Act and the state and territory equivalents — places a duty on persons conducting a business or undertaking to eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable, and where that is not possible, to minimise those risks by working through the hierarchy of controls.

The NSW Resources Regulator, in Safety Bulletins SB24-04 (July 2024) and SB22-04 (March 2022), has explicitly recommended that mine operators "consider the hierarchy of controls when completing risk assessments" for hand and finger injury hazards, and "eliminate the opportunity for workers to enter crush areas, pinch points and entanglement hazards." Both bulletins apply to the NSW mining industry, but the duty of care principle they reflect applies across Australian jurisdictions and industries.

A hands-free lifting policy is one of the ways a site demonstrates it has applied the hierarchy of controls to the specific hazard of hand contact with a suspended or moving load. It is not the only possible response, and it does not guarantee compliance with any specific standard, but it is a documented, procedural step in the right direction.

What a practical policy document includes

Scope

Which lifts, which roles, and which locations does the policy cover? A clear scope prevents the policy from being applied inconsistently — for example, applied to crane lifts but not to forklift or hoist operations.

The core prohibition

A clear statement that direct hand contact with a suspended or moving load is not permitted during controlled movement or final positioning. This is the heart of the policy.

Approved methods

A list of the tools and methods approved for use in place of hand contact. This is where taglines, push/pull poles and magnetic positioning tools are specified by function and minimum specification.

Pre-task requirements

Hands-free positioning tools are pre-task equipment — confirmed as present and in working condition during the pre-lift check. This prevents the situation where the tools exist on site but are not available at the point of the task.

Exceptions and escalation

Are there circumstances where direct hand contact with a moving load might be permitted? If so, what authorisation is required? A policy with no exceptions can become a paper document people ignore in the field. One that defines exceptions — and specifies the conditions under which they are authorised — is more likely to be followed where it matters.

Competency

Using a push/pull pole correctly is a practical skill. The policy should specify what training or demonstration is required before a worker uses the tools the policy mandates.

What Mammoet Australia found in practice

Mammoet Australia, which implemented a Hands-Free Lifting policy across its Australian operations from early 2023 starting in the Pilbara, has published its experience. SHEQ Manager Ryan Binedell commented that "while the use of hands-free lifting tools isn't new to the industry, it's often been seen as optional and utilised when convenient." Mammoet's approach was to make it standard — "elimination and substitution," he noted, "are the most accessible and effective control measures in hazard management."

The practical finding is consistent with what other sites report when they formalise hands-free lifting: the tools are not the hard part. The hard part is establishing the expectation — through a written policy, through pre-task tool availability, and through consistent supervision — that hands do not go on the load while it is moving. Once that expectation is established and the tools are present, the practice follows.

Mammoet is cited here as independent industry evidence. Mammoet is not a PSC customer reference. All statements are sourced from Mammoet's own published content.

Connecting policy to daily practice

A hands-free lifting policy that lives only in a document management system will not protect anyone. For it to change behaviour in the field, three things beyond the document itself are needed.

Visible commitment from supervision. If a supervisor arrives at a lift and the push/pull pole is not in the kit, and the lift proceeds anyway, the policy is effectively suspended. If the supervisor stops the lift until the tool is retrieved, the policy is real.

Pre-task integration. The simplest way to embed the policy into daily practice is to add a single line to the pre-lift check: "Hands-free positioning tools present and checked?" This takes thirty seconds and makes the policy a pre-task action rather than a background document.

Tools that are fit for purpose and accessible. Push/pull poles stored in a central store three hundred metres from the lift site will not be used. The tools need to be in the rigging kit that travels to the job.