Rent Aerial Work Platforms, Forklifts and Telehandlers in Venice

If you need to reach great heights or move heavy loads in Venice, you can rent the right machine from Luibl Rental: scissor lifts, articulating and telescopic boom lifts, forklifts and telehandlers, delivered by our own low-loader fleet. In Venice the challenge rarely lies in the working height, but in access – between the industrial port on the mainland and a historic centre without roads, conditions are completely different. This page shows which equipment makes sense where, which obligations Italian law places on the employer and how we plan the handover.

Around 250,000 people live in the municipality of Venice, most of them not in the famous historic centre but on the mainland. This division is decisive for the choice of equipment.

Mestre and Marghera lie on the mainland. There you will find residential and office buildings, shopping centres, Marco Polo Airport in Tessera and, above all, the Porto Marghera industrial and port area with its shipyard, logistics halls, energy and chemical plants. Roads, commercial sites and hall floors here allow any type of machine – from compact electric units to large diesel telescopic boom lifts.

The historic city on the islands has no roads, and many buildings stand on timber pile foundations with limited load-bearing capacity of floors and courtyards. Here, low dead weight, narrow dimensions and a solution for transport over water are what count. The Lido and the mainland districts of the municipality, by contrast, can be reached by road or by car ferry.

Economically, the mainland does not live from the port alone. In recent years numerous hotels and office buildings have been built around Mestre station, hotels in the historic centre are continually being renovated, and business parks along the A4 and A27 motorways serve the entire metropolitan area. For you this means: in addition to classic industrial maintenance, there is a lot of fit-out, facade and building services work in which aerial work platforms and telehandlers are needed at the same time.

Which platform suits your job in Venice depends above all on the location:

• Shipyard and industrial sites in Porto Marghera: For work on ship sections, pipe bridges, tanks and high hall walls, telescopic boom lifts with long reach are suitable. Where pipes, railings or extensions are in the way, use articulating boom lifts, whose jib arm reaches over obstacles.

• Logistics and commercial halls in Mestre and Marghera: For installing lighting, sprinklers or racking on level concrete, electric scissor lifts are the economical choice; they work in halls without exhaust at the point of use and offer a wide platform for materials and two people.

• Interiors, museums and exhibitions: For installations in palazzi or exhibition spaces, for example during the Biennale, narrow dimensions and low point load count. Mast lifts fit through doorways and put less strain on sensitive terrazzo and wooden floors than larger machines.

The core of our platform fleet consists of machines from Haulotte and Genie, each serviced to the manufacturer's specifications before leaving the yard.

A note for work close to the water: on quay walls, fondamenta and waterside paths, the load-bearing capacity of the ground is often unclear. Have it checked in advance; for this we provide the total weight and outrigger forces of the intended model, so that you or your structural engineer can assess the set-up.

The Port of Venice handles most of its freight at the Marghera terminals, supplemented by warehouses, freight forwarders and industrial suppliers. There, forklifts are in constant use: electric forklifts in enclosed halls, diesel machines on open areas and quays, rough-terrain forklifts on unpaved storage yards.

On construction sites in Mestre and the hinterland, telehandlers take care of materials logistics. They do not just stack, but place pallets of bricks, insulation or formwork over the parapet directly onto upper floor slabs. One example from our rental fleet is the Manitou MT 730 H with 3,000 kg lifting capacity and 6.90 m lift height. We also carry telehandlers from Merlo and Magni.

For port and industrial customers, a package is often advisable: forklifts for day-to-day handling, a telescopic boom lift for maintenance on the hall roof or crane runway – together in one quote and with a single delivery date.

For the use of rental equipment in Venice, the Italian law on health and safety at work is decisive, D.Lgs. 81/2008 (Testo unico), specifically Title III on work equipment (attrezzature di lavoro). This results in a clear division of obligations:

1. Us as the rental company: For rental without an operator (noleggio senza operatore), we confirm on handover that the machine is in proper, serviced and safe condition. At the same time, we obtain your self-declaration (dichiarazione autocertificativa) that your operators are trained, and keep it for the entire rental period (art. 72 c. 2).

2. Your operators: Anyone operating an aerial work platform (PLE) or a forklift with a driver's seat needs the operator qualification (abilitazione) under the Accordo Stato-Regioni of 17 April 2025 (art. 73 c. 5). An IPAF card may be held in addition, but does not replace this qualification.

3. You as the employer: In addition to the abilitazione, you owe your staff appropriate, machine-specific instruction (formazione e addestramento, art. 73 c. 4).

Aerial work platforms and telehandlers are also subject to an annual periodic inspection (verifica periodica) under Annex VII (Allegato VII); the first of these inspections is carried out by INAIL. On handover, we instruct your team in operation, emergency lowering and safety devices; we do not provide operating personnel.

On the mainland, we bring every machine with our own low-loader fleet directly to the job site, whether a shipyard in Marghera, a construction site in Mestre or a hall on the A4 motorway. For work in the historic centre, which cannot be reached by truck, we agree the handover point on the mainland with you in advance so that you can organise onward transport by water; low weight and compact dimensions of the machine are decisive for this. If you have further projects in north-eastern Italy, we also deliver to Padua, Verona or Trieste.

Not sure which type of platform your project requires? The page Rent a lifting platform – all platform types at a glance compares scissor lifts, articulating boom lifts, telescopic boom lifts, mast lifts, tracked platforms and truck-mounted platforms and explains how the rental price is made up.

A shipyard roof in Marghera, a hotel fit-out in Mestre or an exhibition in a palazzo – the better we know the location, the more accurate our proposal. Also let us know whether the job is on the mainland or in the lagoon, which heights and loads are involved and how long the job will last. Contact us via the form or by phone. If you are planning jobs in several regions, you will find all Italian city pages on the Italy country overview page.