Hiring a machine with an operator or without: who is responsible for what?

A mini excavator in a backyard, hired both ways

Take one job: a landscaping business wants a mini excavator in a backyard in Sydney for a weekend. The machine can come two ways, with an operator from the hire business in the seat, or with no operator, arriving on a trailer with the running left to whoever booked it.

The hiring side carries duties from before the booking. SafeWork NSW’s code of practice for managing the risks of plant in the workplace asks a hirer to assess whether the machine suits the use it is meant for before hiring it, and to consult the machine’s owner about hazards the job could meet, because responsibility for the plant’s safety is shared between the two of you rather than carried by either alone.

The business hiring the machine out carries duties too. SafeWork NSW’s code describes a business that hires or leases plant to others as holding two roles at once, a supplier of plant and a person with management or control of it, and across those roles it must make sure the machine is safe to use and properly maintained, so far as is reasonably practicable, and pass on specific information with the machine about running it safely. In most cases, the same code says, it is the supplier rather than the hirer who inspects and maintains the machine.

With an operator on the machine

• The licence check comes first where a class applies. In New South Wales, a business must not let a worker carry out high risk work unless it has seen written evidence from the worker that they hold the relevant high risk work licence, the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 says, and SafeWork NSW’s plant code restates the rule for the businesses it covers. Where the machine is one a class covers, that evidence belongs in hand before the operator starts.
• Supervision has its own rule for a trainee. A person training towards a licence may carry out high risk work without one under a licence holder’s supervision, and the Regulation requires a business in New South Wales to make sure that supervisor gives direct supervision, with one exception: direct supervision is not required where the nature or circumstances of the task make it impracticable or unnecessary, and the reduced level of supervision will not put the supervised person or anyone else’s health or safety at risk.
• An operator arriving with the machine does not take the workplace duties off the hirer. In New South Wales, the WHS Act asks a business, so far as is reasonably practicable, to provide the information, training, instruction or supervision needed to protect people from risks to their health and safety that the work creates, and the plant code says when that duty starts: before workers or anyone else uses the machine, a business must give them information, training and instruction and organise ongoing supervision as the risks require.

With no operator on the machine

• With no operator supplied, the hirer answers the ticket question before anyone climbs on. SafeWork NSW’s page on excavations and earthmoving plant puts the duty plainly: you must ensure that an operator of the plant is competent and is provided the appropriate information, instruction, training and supervision to work safely. For a mini excavator that check is usually about competency rather than a licence class, because the NSW code of practice for excavation work says a high risk work licence is needed for some kinds of powered mobile plant, while, in most cases, earthmoving machinery needs no licensed operator when it is used for the purpose it was originally designed for. Which machines fall on which side of that line is the subject of its own guide: Do I need a licence to drive an excavator or a bobcat in NSW?
• The machine itself gets checked too. SafeWork NSW’s plant code asks a hirer to check that the supplier has inspected and maintained the machine to the manufacturer’s specifications, with the logbook or the maintenance manual as the evidence. On a long hire the routine can be shared: you and the supplier can agree how the machine stays in order through the whole lease, either by the supplier coming out to service it or by you looking after it on site, and which arrangement suits depends on whether you can inspect and maintain the machine the way the manufacturer’s specifications set out.
• A hired machine comes with information, and the NSW plant code names two lots: the specific information the supplier has to provide about how to operate the plant safely, and the manufacturer’s information about what the machine is for and how to use it properly. The checks that come before a machine digs are in a guide of their own: What must I check before a machine digs?

The part that does not change

The arrangement decides who does what, not whether anyone carries a duty. SafeWork NSW’s plant code gives both sides of a hire the same instruction: make sure the machine is safe to use, so far as is reasonably practicable. The NSW WHS Act adds that a business with a health and safety duty must consult, cooperate and coordinate with the other duty holders over the same matter, as far as that is reasonably practicable.

There is a third arrangement worth knowing, because it settles who counts as a worker: an operator supplied through a labour hire agency. SafeWork NSW’s page on contractors and labour hire treats anyone engaged through a labour hire recruiter or agency as a worker, with the same obligations to look after their own and their co-workers’ health and safety, and it puts a duty on the host organisation, the business whose site the operator works on, to keep those workers safe from risks.

Once the machine is on the job, two more questions come up: whether it may stand on the street or footpath, and which noise hours apply at a home. Each has its own guide: Can a machine stand on the street? and Noise hours at a home.