My dear friends,
It’s always an honour to welcome so many good friends of our industry and I want to thank you all for coming to the ESTA Users’ night this evening, during the RAI show rental in Amsterdam.
We have the great honour to welcome Mr Gérard Déprez – President of ERA Association and Mr Leon Schoepping from Shell Company, which is the first customer to join ESTA as a member. We see, as users, that our clients together with the manufacturer share the same problem to build a safer industry in Europe.
Thank you also to the manufacturers who are with us this evening, and especially the five big sponsors of this ESTA Users’ Night: Liebherr – Mr Christoph Kleiner; Kobelco – Mr Tatsuo Maruo; Manitowoc Grove – Mr Philippe Cohet; Tadano Germany; Terex Cranes – Mr Thomas Schramm, and also KHL Press Group – co-organiser of this event in the person of James King – President. I also wish to thank Graham Anderson from KHL for organising this evening together with Gino Koster and his team. They displayed very great efforts.
I must say that apart from Conexpo, there was no real big show for cranes this year in Europe. The RAI Rental show is very important for all sorts of equipments and for transport actors. I thank all our cranes members to come to the annual Users’ Night, as there were no cranes present at the RAI show. Tonight, we are more than 300 participants.
With regards to our branch of activities, the year 2007 was indeed very active and profitable for each one of us in Europe.
2008 shows a little weakness in some countries, mainly for the smaller cranes. I do hope the sub-prime crisis effect will not alter our business and that we can keep on growing for many years.
I am also somewhat worried about the increase of the fuel which can affect the profitability of our industry. Unfortunately, the users have not yet been in a position, up until now, to increase their prices at the same speed level as the manufacturers have been doing it over the last years. We are far away.
We are also partners and we must be reasonable as I have always been told “the trees never reach the sky”. I hope 2008 will still be a good year.
The important years for ESTA Users’ Night are the years when the two major events, Intermat and Bauma, take place. Last year, more than 500 attendees’ members honoured the Bauma Esta Users’ Night.
In 2009, ESTA will organise an important convention in Paris, as well as the ESTA Users’ Night, during Intermat on Thursday night 23rd April 2009 where we expect 800 participants.
It is always difficult to anticipate the numbers of participants and to deal with hotel problems. In order to facilitate the organisation of this big event, I would like to ask you to reply quickly to the request of reservation for hotel and Users’ Night you will soon receive, in order to provide a great evening for our industries.
2010 will be the Bauma show, always planned on the Thursday of the week show that will take place on Thursday, 22nd April 2010.
The first very important aim is to upgrade our industry by improving safety and security. Today, we are too individualistic in our industry.
We need a behavioural change from the users and the clients to improve security. Accidents don’t just happen, most of the time they are caused, 90% of the accidents are due to human faults. The role of ESTA is to work closer together with the manufacturers and the users, to standardise safety standards through Europe, to create a unique drivers’ licence and to define a same driver training as the cranes are becoming more and more complicated.
We need 100% commitment from the top to the bottom, from everyone, to reach the target of zero accidents.
A big step will be made, and ESTA will be a powerful association, when we all realise that sharing experience, upgrading our service activity by safety improvement is profitable for each one of us.
With higher standards of quality and safety, the capital of our companies will be much more revaluated.
This evening we will sign a Safety Declaration for ESTA members to commit themselves to develop a safer working practice in our industry.
It is also the reason why we will organise, together with KHL, the World Summit Safety Conference next October 2009 in Amsterdam.
The second aim is to provide a Pan European similar General Working Conditions and Best Practice Guide together with a same unique attachment form to be used all over Europe which will be recognized by ESTA members, by insurers, by clients and by the major industries of each European country as a label of quality. ESTA must be a label of quality for all its members.
The role of ESTA is to provide all the information and recommendations to improve security and the Best Practice Guide.
The analysis of the discrepancies on the national General Working Conditions between European countries is currently proceeding. We noticed today, during the working groups, that there are no huge differences between our countries.
We live in a world of globalisation. To improve security, our clients need to know that they will find, in every country in Europe, an ESTA member with whom they will work, with similar rules, similar liability, similar contracts and similar standards of safety. Clients need to know their rights and also their duties.
ESTA’s creation of awards also gives every company in Europe the opportunity to see how the best companies operate in terms of safety, how they evolve and show their qualities.
The manufacturers also benefit from ESTA. They meet all their customers, they share their experience, to provide, I hope, in the future, the same equipments all over Europe in conformity with the road European standards to provide more security.
We had a very interesting meeting today about the new LMI EN 13000 norm on cranes, that eliminates the [manual override] key switch. We decided as ESTA to join the meeting with the manufacturers, where the US association SC&RA will also be present, in October, to find a compromise to create a unique safety system on cranes to increase safety all over the world. That will be a huge progress if we achieve it.
Now we know the manufacturers have plenty of time… as they have oversold their production for the next three years. They will have time to help us to upgrade our industry together.
As you can see, there are many objectives I wish to reach, with all of you, before I get too old when I leave ESTA in next Bauma. [Vernazza’s three-year term as president ends in two years].
Our activity must be an industry of services, renowned all over Europe, with clear rules, clear liability, and enforcement of the security standards to become a safer industry for the benefit of our companies, of our employees, of our customers and of our manufacturers’ partners.
I need your support and I count on your active participation and involvement so that we can all be proud of our industry and our companies.
I wish you a pleasant evening and I hope you enjoy ESTA’s Users’ Night.
Thank you for your attention.
