A HOMELESS man sleeping in a skip was dumped into a rubbish truck and crushed by its compactor in a rude awakening on Saturday morning on Cairns Esplanade.

The 25-year-old man came away alive and largely unhurt but shaken in what police called a lucky escape after he was upended along with the contents of the lidded skip bin he was sleeping in into a Cleanaway garbage truck and then compressed.

Police closed the centre block of the Esplanade outside 61-76 next to the Coffee Club just as peak weekend traffic along the strip was gearing up before 6am, to assist the two Queensland Fire and Rescue Service units and paramedics who turned out to help extricate the man.

"The driver had just tipped it out and was about to load another skip here when he heard the man banging and the yelling from inside," Sergeant Simon Laverty said.

"It was still pretty early in the drivers' shifts, so they were fortunately quick to hear him and respond."

With a ladder, Fire and Rescue officers helped the man out of the truck before he was taken by ambulance to Cairns Hospital with multiple soft tissue and muscular injuries.

"I think the driver is feeling relieved," Sgt Laverty said.

"It's a very lucky escape for this gentleman. It's not something that has happened here in Cairns for a while, but it's something that can occur when you get wet weather, with people sleeping in the bins."

Transport Workers Union Queensland state secretary Peter Biagini said the experience would have been "very frightening" for the driver of the truck, who had to be "very skilled and organised" to do his high-risk job.

"It's a very frightening experience," he said.

"I can assure you for the next few months, he will be concerned every time he picks one up.

"These drivers are under a fair bit of pressure, they have to do so many bins per hour.

"The trucks are very large, they go into a lot of tight places, reversing and doing it all very quickly."

Mr Biagini said he would contact Cairns waste management companies about the incident, because it rarely happened in tropical regions and was more common in southern metropolitan cities where people were sheltering from cold weather.

"I would say it's very unexpected in Cairns," he said.

"In the bigger cities you hear of it, but very rarely have I heard of it in those warmer areas.

"I will be talking to TPI (Transpacific) and Cleanaway and will be making sure they toolbox this among employees to make sure they are aware of it and that it's possible in those areas ... to reduce the possibility of someone being crushed in the back."

Mr Biagini said new waste trucks were fitted with cameras at the back, in the bin and in the driver's cockpit.