Rubbish collections at tens of thousands of homes in Perth and the Goldfields have ground to a halt following a decision by Transpacific Industries to cease operations pending a safety review.

Transpacific has grounded its entire fleet of 2,800 trucks nationwide and rubbish collections have also been halted in Darwin, Sydney and parts of Victoria.

The decision was taken after one of its vehicles was involved in a fatal crash in Adelaide on Monday.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, but police are looking at whether brake failure or speed played a part.

Transpacific, which also owns Cleanaway, is the largest domestic waste collection company operating in the state.

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

"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.

"We are having meetings today to try to thrash out more details, which hopefully we will be able to release later today."

State secretary of the Transport Workers Union Tim Dawson said Transpacific has contracts to collect domestic rubbish for many councils in the metropolitan area and parts of the south-west.

The company also has contracts to collect industrial waste from a large number of businesses.

Mr Dawson said he was seeking further information from the company about what impact the stoppage will have on his members.

WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard said 13 councils in Perth, were affected by the grounding of the fleet, as well as Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Mandurah.

The metropolitan councils affected are Bassendean, Bayswater, Belmont, Gosnells, Kalamunda, Mundaring, South Perth, Victoria Park, Cottesloe, Rockingham, Armadale, Joondalup and East Fremantle.

"As soon as a truck is cleared following inspection they will put it out for service," Mr Pickard said.

"Apparently that started this morning, but there is effectively a trickle of trucks re-entering the collection service and there will be significant delays in waste collections for the metropolitan area and down the south-west over at least two or three days."

Mr Dawson said Transpacific operates up to 200 waste collection vehicles around the state.

"It would be almost impossible to inspect their entire fleet of 2800 vehicles in a timely manner," Mr Dawson said.

"I commend the company for taking the action it has. The company is taking this action to ensure its fleet is safe and they are also protecting their workers and the public, so they should be applauded."