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.

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 28, 2020

Otto Rettenmaier, German entrepreneur and founder of the Transporter Industry International Group (TII), passed away on July 23, 2020, just a few days before his 94th birthday. Rettenmaier was born in 1926 in the Swabian town of Holzmühle. After studying business administration at the Technical University of Stuttgart, he joined his parents' company, Faserstoffwerke J. Rettenmaier & Söhne (JRS), a market leading company in the plant fibre sector.  He famously said that he pursued the take-over of Scheuerle in 1988 - the specialist in heavy-duty and industrial vehicles and a company already operating internationally - "out of technical fascination”.

For a full obituary, go to ESTA News here

July 21, 2020

This year’s ESTA Awards of Excellence will be staged online on 24 September and combined with a short conference, led by keynote speaker Wim Sarens, CEO of Sarens Group. Registration for the event is free and will be open soon at www.khl-group.com/events/esta/

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

July 10, 2020

Klaus Meissner, one of Europe’s most respected crane industry experts, has confirmed that he has stepped down from his position with Tadano.  Meissner was Director of Product Safety, Engineering Systems and IPM for Demag Mobile Cranes, part of Terex Cranes until the latter was sold to Tadano last August.  Announcing his move, Meissner wrote: “Effective July 1, 2020, I will have left Tadano but will be working case by case as an independent engineer and appointed crane expert. “  For more, go to 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 14, 2020

ESTA Director Ton Klijn and Senn AG CEO Jörg Senn represented ESTA at the ninth meeting of the International Crane Stakeholders Assembly in Las Vegas on March 12 as the organisation debated standards, safety and new guidance in piling/extraction applications. For more information, go to the ICSA section here

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.

March 20, 2020

ESTA is sad to report that Horst Felbermayr Senior - for many years the driving force behind the  Austria-based international company bearing his name - has died at the age of 75 after a serious illness. An obituary is in the ESTA News section here

March 13, 2020

The finalists for the ESTA Awards 2020 have been announced by the jury of experts. There are a maximum of four finalists in each of the ten categories.  With 24 different companies from 13 countries, the 2020 list of finalists once again shows how the awards have become a major pan-European event. For the full list go to the Awards section of this website here

February 28, 2020

ESTA’s long-running campaign for the introduction of heavy transport and abnormal load corridors across Europe has received a significant boost from the European Commission which said that the idea of “dual-use” requirements for the roads has made “great progress”.  Go to ESTA News here for the full story. 

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.

January 30, 2020

The finalists in each of the ten categories of the 2020 ESTA Awards will be announced on March 13, with the winners revealed at the ESTA Awards dinner in Amsterdam on Thursday, April 23. ESTA has received a record number of entries for this year’s event. For more information, or to book your place, go to the awards page on this website here or www.khl.com/esta. 

January 28, 2020

Laso Transportes from Portugal has become the latest organisation to join ESTA.

The company has been accepted as a Special Member. The news means that the number of ESTA members, affiliates and supporters is at its highest-ever level - 80 organisations from 22 countries.

The International Crane Stakeholders Assembly is working on two new position papers – on the transport and erection of large wind farm components and the use of cranes on barges.