Restrictive regulations in Italy

Companies in Italy are complaining that illogical and excessive bureaucracy is seriously hindering the heavy transport and lifting sector, pushing up costs and causing projects to be delayed unnecessarily.

Italian industry association ANNA and leading transport and lifting company Fagioli have lodged complaints with the Italian authorities. European transport and lifting association ESTA has written in their support.

Among the issues is a regulation in Italy where only the owner of a mobile crane can apply for a permit. Leasing companies are very often that legal owner but they are not the equipment user who needs the permit. They are the finance company responsible for the lease agreement.

In its letter, ESTA said “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.

ESTA added, “The slow and opaque processing of applications leads to unnecessary costs and delays which in turn incentivises companies to drive without a permit at all.”

Of further concern are the repeated technical reviews of bridges needed for the application of permits over a certain gross vehicle weight. On this ESTA commented, “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.”

ESTA offered to discuss the situation directly with the Italian authorities and at the time of writing on 22 September 2022 was awaiting a response.