Video Message regarding COVID 19 by IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto

Welcome to ESTA, the leading European association for the abnormal road transport and mobile crane rental industry. We represent national trade associations whose members are mobile crane and access platform, rental and abnormal road transport companies.

Individual companies can become special members if there is no appropriate national association from their country. ESTA also welcomes affiliate members from relevant clients, government departments, regulatory bodies, service companies and all organisations active in our markets.

In addition, ESTA has recently created the category of “Supporter” for companies that are members of their ESTA’s national associations but who want to become more directly involved in ESTA’s work.

October 5, 2020

Talks are underway with organisations in Germany, Ireland and Spain to establish mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) between the national crane operator licencing authorities and ESTA’s European Crane Operators Licence.

In addition, five more training institutes have applied to join the European Crane Operators Licence system – three from Belgium and two from Germany.  Full stories are in ESTA News here

September 25, 2020

Italian company Fagioli and Netherlands-based Mammoet Europe both took home two of the top prizes in this year’s delayed ESTA Awards. Click here for the full list of winners and finalists. A full recording of the event is  here . The awards - and the accompanying webinar – were run online for the first time due to the COVID19 pandemic and attracted more than 400 registered delegates. The event was jointly organised by ESTA and International Cranes and Specialized Transport.  It attracted record numbers of entries from 13 countries and was sponsored by Kässbohrer, Liebherr, Spierings and Tadano Demag. (Photo is from Fagioli's winning entry for its work following the tragic collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa.)

October 2, 2020

ESTA Director Ton Klijn has made a direct appeal to British companies and associations not to let the Brexit debate divide – and weaken -  the European heavy transport and lifting industries.

July 29, 2020

European transport companies will have to deal with new rules for driving and rest times, cabotage, secondment and the introduction of the smart tachograph 2 after the European Parliament approved a new range of Mobility Package proposals on July 9. Full story here

July 29, 2020

ESTA Director Ton Klijn has written to Wind Harmony – the project funded by the European Commission with the aim of improving safety in the fast-growing wind industry – to call for greater emphasis on lifting and transportation safety during the construction of onshore wind farms.

July 15, 2020

The European Crane Operators Licence has signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with the British Columbia Association for Crane Safety (BCACS) from Canada following a meeting of the ECOL Expert Committee in May. The expert meeting – held electronically due to COVID-19 – agreed to an alignment of standards between ECOL and the BCAS.  The two sides then signed a formal MRA, a process that was completed on July 8.  The agreement means that an ECOL licence and a BCACS licence will be interchangeable and operators holding them will be able to work in both territories. Full story is on the ECOL website here

July 13, 2020

ESTA and Dutch member TLN have written a joint letter to the German authorities raising serious concerns about changes to the VEMAGS permit issuing system that were introduced at the end of June. For more, go the ESTA News here

June 18, 2020

ESTA’s long-running campaign to harmonize international marking and lighting regulations for heavy transport and abnormal loads has received a major boost. The proposals have won the backing of the VDA, the influential German automotive industry association and will now be presented to the UNECE committee responsible for administering international conventions on traffic regulations in October. Full story is here

May 14, 2020

ESTA is calling on its members and supporters to encourage the wind industry to adopt its new best practice guide and improve the sector’s safety record. The new guide can be downoaded for free from this website for a limited period here . The Best Practice Guide discussions were lead by ESTA with the support of VDMA Power Systems, the part of the German Engineering Federation whose members include the major turbine manufacturers, and the crane manufacturers through FEM, the European Materials Handling Federation. The full story is here

April 30, 2020

Crane & Logistics Partner has been certified as the first German-based examination institute for ESTA’s new European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL). 

April 2, 2020

Liebherr has completed the process of becoming an approved European Crane Operators Licence training centre and has carried out the first three German language ECOL examinations in Ehingen at the Liebherr Schulungszentrum.

March 30, 2020

ESTA has published a new best practice guide in an attempt to cut onshore wind farm accidents. For a limited period, the Best Practice Guide for the Transport and Installation of Onshore WTG Systems is available to download free of charge from a special section on this website. Further details are here and the report is here

March 23, 2020

ESTA’s new European Crane Operators Licence is to sign its second Mutual Recognition Agreement with the British Columbia Association for Crane Safety (BCACS) from Canada following a meeting in the Netherlands last month.

February 10, 2020

Support for ESTA’s new European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL) could be given added impetus by a new directive from the European Union due to come into force this summer. Go to ESTA News here for the full story.