The final structure of ESTA’s planned European Crane Operators Licence (ECOL) scheme is taking shape, as the organisation readies for its launch later this year.
The voluntary group, chaired by ESTA director Ton Klijn, which has been responsible for project since its inception, will now be superseded by the ECOL Foundation, comprising a permanent management structure. This will include a supervisory board, a management board and an expert board.
The supervisory board will be chaired by Klijn as well as trade union representative René van der Steen from Het Zwarte Corps in the Netherlands and Steve Filipov from Terex Cranes.
According to ESTA, there is a growing recognition of the potential value of ECOL, including from Belgium-headquartered Sarens, which has become the latest company to apply for its facility to be an approved training centre.
Klijn commented: “There are very good signs that client organisations are also beginning to see the advantages of ECOL. Informally, we have already had strong signs of support from the wind industry and I believe there is growing interest in the oil and gas sector and engineering construction sectors as well.”
Klijn previously presented the ECOL system to an internal meeting of lifting experts from oil and gas company ExxonMobil and reported that processes have already begun to qualify the ECOL Foundation under ISO9001.
