Rubbish collection services have been halted in many parts of the country after Australia's largest waste management firm grounded its entire fleet.

Transpacific operates rubbish and sewerage collection services in various cities across Australia.

The Queensland-based company is conducting a safety audit of its 2,800 trucks after a fatal accident in Adelaide on Monday.

A Transpacific truck smashed into three stationary cars at a busy intersection, killing a man and a woman, as well as critically injuring two others, including the truck driver.

Police are investigating whether brake failure or speed played a part in the incident.

Transpacific said the truck driver had undergone thorough safety training.

The company said it would continue to gather evidence and would cooperate with police and regulators.

Rubbish not being collected in Darwin, Perth, Geelong

Transpacific has over 100 municipal contracts in almost every state.

Darwin's kerbside collection service has been delayed and council spokesman Luccio Cercarelli said the city would be heavily impacted.

"At this stage we are talking about up to five suburbs, however as a result of a delay by 24 hours in collecting [Wednesday's] collection, that will have a ripple effect throughout the municipality," he said.

"All services will be delayed by 24 hours this week and we expect to be back to normal services by Monday."

Rubbish collections at tens of thousands of homes in Perth and in Western Australia's south-west has also ground to a halt.

Transpacific spokeswoman Megan Taylor said it was unclear how long the fleet would be grounded in WA.

"The vehicle will need to be deemed safe before they can return to the road," she said.

"In the meantime, there will be no rubbish collections."

Collections have also been missed in New South Wales.

The Mayor of Ashfield Council, in Sydney's inner-west, was unimpressed by the backlog of missed garbage in the area.

Lucille McKenna said residents would be dissatisfied once they realised their rubbish had not been taken away.

Sorry, this video has expired Rubbish collection suspended across large areas of western Sydney

"It is unsatisfactory that the garbage is at a standstill. If there's a possibility that trucks aren't roadworthy, that's a real concern as well," she said.

"So we've got two dilemmas here, we've got the possibility of [unroadworthy] vehicles and we also have the possibility of garbage being on our streets for prolonged periods."

In Victoria, no rubbish will be picked up in Benalla, in Victoria's north-east, or Geelong in the state's south-west.

There will also be no hard rubbish collections in the City of Casey. The City of Melbourne has not been affected.

At least two Adelaide council areas and some regional SA council areas have had their rubbish collection put on hold.

In Queensland, some regional cities including Cairns and Rockhampton are feeling the effects of the halt in services, and Somerset Regional Council in the state's south-east also has a contract with Transpacific for wheelie bin collection.

Suburbs in Moreton Bay Regional Council and Noosa Council have also been affected.

TWU raises driver safety concerns

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said the grounding highlighted its long-held concerns about the safety of drivers in the industry.

TWU national president Ray Wyatt said the truck involved in the Adelaide crash was 30 years old and the driver, 29, had only been on the job a week.

"He's been put onto one of our notorious stretches of road in an ancient vehicle, fully loaded, coming down a hill," Mr Wyatt said.

"If it's solely at the responsibility of the company because of lack of maintenance that is a shameful act.



"If there is anything wrong with the company and its maintenance programs then the full force of the law should be thrown at the company.

"This is an appalling situation that we need to wait until there's blood on the road, before a company would think that it needed to do this and that is really concerning."

Mr Wyatt said the accident had come as companies in the waste management industry were pressured to reduce costs.

"Within the waste industry, the squeeze on waste companies to win contracts and keep cost-cutting to win these contracts has been a concern for many years," he said.

Emergency services clean up at the scene of the fatal truck crash in Adelaide on Monday. ( ABC News )

"It's now come to boiling point where a tragic event where we have a number of dead people and people with critical injuries that has led to this grounding of a fleet, it is really concerning."

Mr Wyatt said councils were fuelling that pressure.

"Local councils that dish out the contracts are looking for the cheapest denominator when they're awarding the contracts," he said.

"That puts absolute pressure on companies that provide the service and its really unfortunate that we have had these fatalities."

TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said truck driving was Australia's most dangerous job with 330 people killed every year in crashes.

"That pressure is killing truck drivers, and its killing motorists and pedestrians," Mr Sheldon said.

Mr Sheldon said economic pressure on drivers could be addressed through action in the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, a national safety watchdog which sets safe rates of pay and conditions in heavy vehicle transport.

"The RSRT can act to stop economic pressure on drivers and help save lives," Mr Sheldon said.

"The Tribunal is presently examining cash-in-transit, where drivers can be at risk from armed robbery, and oil fuel and gas following recent tanker cashes in Sydney and rural Victoria."