Santa Claus has flagged down a burning truck in Queanbeyan in southern New South Wales, while travelling home from work meeting lots of good boys and girls.

Santa was driving on Southbar Road, near the crossing with Lanyon Drive, when he noticed a paper and cardboard recycling truck's load had caught on fire from the truck's exhaust system.

Santa, who was travelling in his ute at the time of Wednesday's incident, caught the attention of the truck driver and alerted him to pull over.

When firefighters arrived the JJ Richards truck, which was nearly full, was "well alight".

Queanbeyan Station Commander Cory Wilkinson said firefighters sprayed water into the top of the truck, before calling in another fire engine for backup.

Firefighters asked the truck driver to activate the emergency dump system and drop the load on the side of the road.

Commander Wilkinson said firefighters were still monitoring any hot spots among the cardboard and paper.

He said when the fire was completely out, the recycling company would return with a large skip to collect the waste.