How Do You Write a Site Logistics Plan?

A logistics plan answers the questions every new arrival asks: where do I park, where does my truck unload, where do I put my material, where is the toilet, and where can't I go. It is drawn by the GC, usually the superintendent, before mobilization, and it is read by subs, suppliers, the owner, neighbors and the city.

It belongs on the preconstruction meeting agenda. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering's meetings procedure invites to its preconstruction meeting not only the contractor and its major subcontractors but utility representatives and other city agencies such as transportation, police, fire, and building and safety: the people a logistics plan affects.

Most of a logistics plan is judgment. A few pieces are federal rules for construction in 29 CFR part 1926, and the plan is where you show you've met them:

• Crane swing radius. Where a crane's rotating superstructure could strike or crush a worker, the employer must "erect and maintain control lines, warning lines, railings or similar barriers to mark the boundaries of the hazard areas"; only where barriers are not feasible on the ground or on the crane may warning signs and high-visibility markings on the equipment take their place (29 CFR 1926.1424). Draw the barricade line on the plan.
• Fire protection. "Access to all available firefighting equipment shall be maintained at all times", and a fire extinguisher rated not less than 2A is required for each 3,000 square feet of the protected building area, with no more than 100 feet of travel to the nearest one (29 CFR 1926.150). Show the extinguisher locations, and keep laydown clear of them.
• Exits in occupied buildings. Exits must provide "free and unobstructed egress from all parts of the building or structure at all times when it is occupied" (29 CFR 1926.34). On a renovation where people still work, show which exits stay open in each phase.
• Housekeeping. Debris "shall be kept cleared from work areas, passageways, and stairs", and containers are required for collecting waste (29 CFR 1926.25). Show where the containers go and how they are emptied.

These are minimums, not a safety plan. The site safety plan and the trades' own plans sit alongside the logistics plan; check your state's OSHA plan and the city's rules too. It is not a substitute for a competent person on site or a qualified safety professional; states with their own OSHA-approved plans may differ.

The drawing shows where; the page of rules says how. Here are the rules for the structure phase of a made-up two-story medical office on a tight corner lot.

Notice the extinguisher spacing. Along a corridor with extinguishers 75 feet apart, the farthest point between two is 37.5 feet from each, well inside OSHA's 100 feet of travel. The count still has to meet one per 3,000 square feet; a house rule can be stricter than the minimum, never looser.

Tie each phase plan to the schedule: its start is an activity date, so the plan changes when the work does. See how to read a construction schedule, and bring the next phase's plan to the OAC meeting before it takes effect.

• One plan for the whole job. By the second month it is wrong, and people stop reading it.
• No delivery booking. Two trucks at one gate is how a street gets blocked and a neighbor calls the city.
• Laydown on the path of later work. Material stored where the next foundation goes is moved twice.
• Forgetting the crane's tail swing and the barricade line, and leaving a walkway inside the swing radius.
• Not sending it to the subs. A plan that lives in the trailer helps nobody unloading at 7:00 AM.

The rest of the GC's work before mobilization is in the general contractor's guide.

A site logistics plan is a marked-up site plan and a page of rules for each phase: gates, routes, deliveries, laydown, the crane, utilities, waste, fire and exits. Carry the OSHA minimums on it, share it before mobilization, and post it at the gate.

Conflo keeps the job's meetings, schedule and daily logs in one place, with the owner and the subs on the same project. Join the waitlist to try it.

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1. 29 CFR 1926.1424, Work area control — eCFR, Office of the Federal Register. Read October 22, 2026.
2. 29 CFR 1926.150, Fire protection — eCFR, Office of the Federal Register. Read October 22, 2026.
3. 29 CFR 1926.34, Means of egress — eCFR, Office of the Federal Register. Read October 22, 2026.
4. 29 CFR 1926.25, Housekeeping — eCFR, Office of the Federal Register. Read October 22, 2026.
5. Project Delivery Manual, 16.6 Meetings — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 22, 2026.