In 1975 the German and French crane associations began to show a mutual interest in sharing their experiences and concerns. They met in Frankfurt in October and in Zürich in November 1975, invited by the Swiss Crane association PneuKran and the ASPA.
The Memorandum of Association, as shown at the picture page, was drawn up and endorsed by 6 countries.The memorandum was signed in German and in French. The text was quite pompous along the lines that “conquering transport problems has always been a big factor in human history and that is was a condition for the development of human society”
“ The technical standards achieved and the extremely revolutionary developments in technical progress” of the time hastened the birth of the ESTA. The national associations chose to unite and contribute to harmonizing in peace and safety.
In December 1975 the Belgians and the Dutch were invited by the Belgian FNBTR, to join them for a meeting
in Brussels. The Dutch association for road transport, was NOB-Wegtransport which later became the TLN.
The statutes were drawn up by the end of 1976 and the subscription fee was set at 1,000 DM per year (500 Euro).
ESTA had 11 members from 7 associations in 4 countries. For Switzerland it was now Benno Maechler from Welti-Furrer who represented the ASTAG from Bern.