The finalists of the 2018 ESTA Awards have been announced. The winners will be revealed at the gala dinner in Paris on 26 April at the Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle, during the Intermat equipment exhibition. The full list of the companies shortlisted is in the Awards section of this website. One of the companies in each category will be a winner. More details of the shortlisted projects will be published shortly.

The awards are organised jointly by ESTA and International Cranes and Specialized Transport magazine. For more information, go to the awards section of this website at www.estaeurope.eu or www.khl-group.com/events/esta/

ESTA has joined the IRU – the international road transport industry association - as an affiliate member in a move to increase the organisation’s profile and influence with the European Commission and international road transport authorities.

Four organisations have agreed to take part in this month’s pilot – or test - run of the new European Crane Operators Licence scheme being launched by ESTA. Fagioli’s Corporate Academy from Italy and EUC Lillebǣlt from Denmark have signed up as have both SOMA and the Mammoet Training Centre from the Netherlands. 

New moves to reduce accidents and improve safety during the erection and transportation of on-shore wind turbines will be the focus of the third edition of the popular ESTA and FEM Experts Summit in Hamburg on March 6. The one day conference and reception, will feature leading industry speakers from across the sector and will follow up the work started at the 2017 event, especially on the development of new safety policies and best practice guides. Go to ESTA News for the full story. For further information please contact the ESTA main office or go to www.estaeurope.eu/summit.

New moves to harmonize standards and regulations governing lighting and marking on heavy transport throughout Europe are underway following the inaugural meeting of a new ESTA technical working group hosted by BSK in Frankfurt at the end of January.

Apart from ESTA and BSK, organisations on the working group were the Dutch association TLN; Tii Group; Hipertrans, Broshuis, Kässbohrer and Faymonville. Any organisations interested in joining should contact the ESTA office. For the full story go to ESTA News. 

This year’s ESTA Users Night and Awards 2018 will take place at the Hilton Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on Thursday, April 26, 2018, during the Intermat exhibition. The awards are run in partnership with International Cranes and Specialized Transport magazine and full details plus booking information are in the awards section of this website.  

ESTA’s General Assembly in October confirmed the following changes at the top of the organisation:

- Stijn Sarens of Sarens becomes ESTA Secretary 

- Alexandre Vernazza of Mediaco  has taken over as Vice-President, Section Cranes.

- Jens Enggaard of BMS, becomes ESTA Treasurer, taking over from Hendrik Sarens whose term has ended. 

Stijn Sarens and Alexandre Vernazza took over the positions vacated by Ton Klijn when he succeeded Søren Jansen as ESTA Director in the summer. 

Poland hosted the 2017 ESTA Autumn Meetings in Krakow on October 19 and 20 – the first time that ESTA has met in Eastern Europe.  Organised by the Polish Heavy Transport Association (OSPTN), the meeting and dinner attracted almost 250 ESTA members and guests from 25 countries. It was one of the biggest heavy transport and lifting events held in the country. In the evening, an official networking dinner was held 125 meters underground in the famous Salt Mine in Wieliczka. Go to ESTA News for more information.

Spanish transport authorities have backed down in their attempts to enforce changes in the country’s exceptional transport regulations that discriminated against international hauliers.

The move follows a series of complaints made to the European Commission and the Spanish government from ESTA, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and a host of national trade bodies. Go to ESTA News for the full story. 

You can download the latest ESTA Annual Review here