Winners of 2012 IAPAs announced in Rome

Brazilian rental company Mills Rentals was the winner of Rental Company of the Year at this year's International Powered Access Awards.

Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Gerhard Hillebrand, IPAF's Italian representative and, posthumously, to Lars-Petter Godenhielm who was a past president of IPAF and managing director of Dinolift.

The award ceremony took place on 29 March at the Sheraton Hotel in Rome, Italy and was attended by over 400 industry professionals from all over the world including Europe, North and South America, Russia and the Far East.

Other winners included Alimak Hek for the Access Project of the Year on the Garibaldi Porta Nuova project in Milan and Nationwide Platforms for Contribution to Safe Working at Height.

The four Product of the Year categories were won by Manitou for the 280TJ telescopic boom; Edmolift for the Air; Ruthmann for theT330 truck mount and Geda for the Multilift P18S hoist.

The IPAF Safety Champion Austin Baker of AFI-Uplift, while the award for After Sales Service was won by TVH.

The IAPAs are jointly organised by Access International and IPAF. Headline sponsor for the awards was Italian manufacturer Co.Me.T Officine; supporting sponsors were Henderson Insurance, Hinowa and Platform Basket while Genie sponsored IPAF Training Instructor of the Year and JLG sponsored the IPAF Safety Champion of the Year.

The IAPA awards also include two awards targeted at IPAF members only.

In these categories, the winners were Kevin O'Shea of Mastclimbers LLC (IPAF Training Instructor of the Year), and Spanish company Maquinarias Paco (Best New IPAF Training Centre).

The new award for Access Photograph of the Year was won by Uwe Schneider of German rental company Mateco for a shot of one of the company's Teupen XTG 230s cleaning the glass roof of the Medical Association building in Hanover, Germany. The work is being carried out by Hayko May Cleaning Company, based in Einbeck Germany.

The full list of the winners, and the citations from the judges, were as follows:

Mills Rental, Brazil (Access Rental Company of the Year)
The winner in this category has been chosen for its outstanding work in developing an access rental company in a young market. This winner has made a significant contribution to encouraging its country of operation to embrace powered access and safety. It is helping to expand the market with a disciplined approach to a growth in a rapidly developing region.

Lars-Petter Godenhielm and Gerhard Hillebrand, (Each a winner of Lifetime Achievement Awards)

Lars-Petter Godenhielm a great entrepreneur and good to do business with as well as being a huge supporting force to the industry, through his work with industry regulations and with IPAF.

Gerhard Hillebrand a nurturer and guiding hand to all those in the industry, giving generously of his time and knowledge to support the development individuals and companies in powered access and building IPAF Italy into an very active organisation.

Austin Baker - AFI-Uplift (IPAF Safety Champion)
The judges chose this year's winner for the work he has done with IPAF and for his commitment to promote safety. The judges were particularly impressed that, despite his own life's challenges, this year's Safety Champion is willing to share his experience, effort and expertise to create solutions for the common good and not for his own, or his company's gain.

Nationwide Platforms, UK (Contribution to Safe Working at Height)
This year the judges chose to give the award to a company, which promotes the safe use of platforms at all levels with service, internal and external training and innovation.

Alimak Hek - the Garibaldi Porta Nuova project, in Milan (Access Project of the Year)
The judges said of the winner "They have provided an elegant solution to a complex engineering challenge, which required the use of a broad variety of equipment."

Manitou - 280TJ telescopic boom (Product of the Year - Self Propelled (booms, scissors, atrium lifts)
The judges thought that this carefully designed machine made it a class leader, which demonstrated top levels of engineering.

Ruthmann - Steiger T330 (Product of the Year - Vehicle/Trailer Mounted)
The judges felt that the outstanding precision engineering, R&D, stress analysis and materials work that contributed to getting such an impressive working envelope on a 7.5 tonne chassis made this machine a worthy winner.

Geda-Dechentreiter - Multilift P 18 S (Product of the Year - Mast Climbing Work Platform/Hoists)
The judges said that they chose this product because it is an innovative solution for end users.

Edmolift - Air (Product of the Year - Low-Level Access)
The judges chose this winner because they because they believed the company has successfully fulfilled its ambition of producing an outstanding product designed specifically for non-industrial end users.

TVH (Award for Outstanding After Sales Service)
The judges said that the winner is an easy company to do business with. Its logistics organisation is amazing and now the access industry enjoys the same availability of parts and levels of service that forklift industries have had for years.

Uwe Schneider of Mateco, Germany (Access Photograph of the Year)

It was chosen, not just for its artistic merit, but because it demonstrates the increasingly broad scope of applications in which professional access equipment is employed.

IPAF AWARD CATEGORIES

Kevin O'Shea Mastclimbers LLC, USA (IPAF Training Instructor of the Year)
Of this winner the judges said, "He shows tireless energy and dedication to the development of the USA market and a huge commitment to safety and IPAF and AWPT training.

Maquinarias Paco, Spain (Best New IPAF Training Centre)

The judges chose this company because it leads the way in IPAF training in its own country and trains operators from a number of different counties and cultures helping to promote IPAF safety and training worldwide.

The judges were: Wayne Lawson, JLG vice president and managing director of EAME as well as being IPAF president; Gordon Leicester managing director and owner of Facelift and designer of the revolutionary ZT Safety Systems harness; Andy Studdert, chief executive officer of NES Rentals, Richard Tindale, former global sales and marketing director of Snorkel and Mikael Kämpe director of group fleet at Finnish rental giant Ramirent.