Italian companies within the heavy transport sector have voiced their concerns over the regulatory framework that is not only pushing the costs up but also causing unnecessary project delays. 

European association of abnormal road transport and mobile cranes (ESTA) noted that its Italian member association ANNA and the heavy transport and lifting company, Fagioli have already filed a complaint to the authorities over the illogical and excess bureaucracy. ESTA has followed suit with a letter to the authorities in support of ANNA and Fagioli.

Among the issues causing concern is an Italian regulation that only the owner of a mobile crane can apply for a permit. This causes difficulties for cranes that are leased – as the legal owner is not the user who needs the permit, but the finance company responsible for the lease agreement. In its letter, ESTA said that “it sees no valid grounds for this restriction…no other EU country requires this”.

Companies have also objected to the “excessively large” number of permit issuing organisations in Italy, leading to confusion, delays and unequal treatment of permit applicants. Of further concern are the repeated technical reviews of bridges needed for the application of permits over a certain gross vehicle weight.

ESTA said: “We are not contesting the necessity of this rule, however we are contesting the repeated calculation of the same bridges being crossed by the same vehicle configurations simply because there is a new transport application.”