CROSS-BORDER TRANSPORTATION OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT IN EUROPE January 2010 Introduction Construction equipment rental companies are services providers to many industries and various types of end-users, but mainly serve the construction industry. They provide their clients with any ready-touse equipment they require as and when they need it. While the activities of most rental companies remain local by definition, an increasing number of rental companies offer their services across the borders of EU Member States. In doing so, they are affected by national technical regulations on the transportation of plant. The implications of these technical regulations are that they sometime require rental companies to:
o unload plant at national borders and re-load it on to another vehicle complying with the regulations of the Member State across which or to which it is to be transported;
o in some cases, to arrange for a specific license and a convoy to accompany the vehicle, which can be delivered within two days in some Member States and in up to 60 days in others;
Such additional maneuvers entail a loss of time and are expensive. They are therefore preventing rental companies from taking full advantage of the potential of the internal market as they operate in a competitive environment that requires them to offer rapid solutions to the requests of their customers. The ERA’s demands While we understand that adequate rules need to be in place for the transportation of equipment to guarantee the safety of all road users, we believe that a number of measures could be taken in a the short and longer terms, which would greatly facilitate the transportation of equipment across borders and thus allow both rental companies and construction contractors to benefit from the internal market. Such measures could be: 1° For the delivery of exceptional transport authorizations o
Establishment of a harmonized deadline for national authorities to deliver exceptional road transport authorizations. In today’s world there is no rational explanation as to why the delivery of such authorization takes a maximum of 3 to 6 days in some countries and up to 60 days in others;