Rent aerial work platforms in Catania – plus forklifts and telehandlers

For projects in Catania, Luibl Rental provides aerial work platforms, forklifts and telehandlers and delivers them with its own low-loader fleet straight to the job site. Sicily's second-largest city, with just under 300,000 inhabitants, lies between Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea. Semiconductor manufacturing, the port, fruit growing on the plain and a baroque centre of dark lava stone determine which equipment is needed. On top of this comes a factor found only here: ash from the volcano, which regularly falls on roofs and streets. Read which machines prove themselves in Catania, which Italian obligations apply to hirers and how we deliver.

Four sectors generate most of the demand for rental equipment in the Catania area.

Electronics and high-tech. In the south of the city, STMicroelectronics operates a large semiconductor plant around which other technology companies have settled; in Italy this is called the “Etna Valley”. In clean rooms and plant rooms, zero-exhaust electric drive at the job site and clean tyres are what count.

Agriculture of the Piana di Catania. The plain south-west of the city is a centre of citrus growing, known for the Arancia Rossa di Sicilia blood orange. During the harvest season, packing houses and cold stores work with many forklifts at the same time.

Port, airport and Zona Industriale. Containers, ferries and cruise ships pass through the port, and just to the south lies Fontanarossa airport, the busiest in Sicily. In the adjoining Zona Industriale, logistics companies, building materials dealers and workshops line up, using forklifts and scissor lifts in continuous operation.

Baroque centre. After the earthquake of 1693, Catania was rebuilt in baroque style; the centre is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. Restoration work is constantly under way on churches, palazzi and the arcades of Via Etnea.

Catania is a city of contrasts: smooth hall floors in the business park, dense baroque buildings in the centre and steep streets on the foothills of Etna in towns such as Misterbianco or Gravina. The range of platforms we keep available for this is correspondingly broad.

Scissor lifts are the tool of choice for indoor spaces with level floors of adequate load-bearing capacity. Electrically driven, they reach 8 to 18 m and are suitable for installation work under hall roofs in the Zona Industriale or in shopping centres on the outskirts.

Anyone who needs to reach over cornices, balconies or trees uses articulated boom lifts. With more than 35 m working height and a movable jib, they are in demand for restoring baroque facades where projections block the direct route upwards.

For great heights with sufficient set-up space, for example on port buildings, hotel facades on the coast or light masts at the airport, we recommend telescopic boom lifts.

Mast lifts are suitable for shops, church naves and offices with narrow passageways.

Two particularities from practice on the volcano: lava stone paving is rough and often uneven on slopes, so we check outrigger areas and gradients in advance. And after an ash fall from Etna, gutters, solar installations and flat roofs are cleaned; platforms with long lateral outreach are practical for this because they do not load the roof itself. Our platforms come mainly from Haulotte and Genie.

Customers in Catania rent handling equipment mainly for three purposes.

In the packing houses and cold stores of the citrus companies, electric forklifts run for many hours; after the season the company simply returns the machine. On the open areas of building materials dealers and logistics companies, diesel forklifts take over, and on gravel and soil in the plantations, rough-terrain forklifts.

On construction sites, especially on the slopes of the Etna municipalities, telehandlers show their strength: they place loads forwards onto floor slabs or roofs without a crane having to be set up. The Manitou MT 730 H manages 3,000 kg load capacity at 6.90 m lifting height. Manitou, Merlo and Magni are available as manufacturers.

You rent by the day, week or month. A construction project that needs a platform and a telehandler receives one combined quote from us.

For work equipment on Italian construction sites and in companies, Titolo III of D.Lgs. 81/2008 (Testo unico) is decisive. For you as the hirer, this results in clear answers to four questions.

Who may operate the machine? For mobile elevating work platforms (PLE) and forklifts with a driver's seat, Article 73 paragraph 5 requires an abilitazione under the Accordo Stato-Regioni of 17 April 2025. An IPAF certificate serves at most as supplementary proof.

Is this proof sufficient on its own? No. Under Article 73 paragraph 4, the employer additionally owes machine-specific instruction and practical training (formazione e addestramento).

How often are inspections carried out? Aerial work platforms and telehandlers undergo an annual verifica periodica under Allegato VII; the first is carried out by INAIL.

What happens at handover? If you rent without an operator, we certify under Article 72 paragraph 2 the proper, maintained and safe condition of the machine and receive from you a self-declaration on the training of your operators, which we keep for the entire rental period.

On site, we explain operation, emergency lowering and protective devices to your team (istruzioni all'uso). We do not provide drivers or machine operators; the machine is operated by your own staff.

We bring every machine with our own low-loader fleet straight to the job site, whether to the Zona Industriale, to a wine estate on the slopes of Etna or in front of a church in the centre. In the preliminary discussion we clarify access, clearance heights, ground conditions and unloading area; for narrow old-town streets we plan a smaller machine. We also look after your projects in Messina, Palermo or in Bari.

A comparison of all types, from scissor lifts through articulated boom, telescopic boom and mast lifts to tracked and truck-mounted platforms, can be found under Hire a lifting platform – all platform types at a glance, along with the most important factors for the rental price.

Tell us what is coming up in Catania: working height or load weight, ground, job site and period. Contact us via the form or by phone; you will receive a machine proposal with price. Further locations throughout Italy are shown on the Italy country overview page.