Premise
Italcertifer's activity is within the broader framework of European rail transport liberalization. The European Union, since the early nineties, has also included among its objectives the promotion of a common rail transport market. In this regard, it initiates a series of important reform processes which, through the liberalization of the individual national railway markets, aim to create a single large railway market on a European scale, as free as possible from regional norms and particularities and above all interoperable between the various member states.
One of the cornerstones of market liberalization is the assessment of compliance, with the TSIs (Technical Interoperability Specifications) and the safety requirements applicable to the various subsystems that make up the railway system run by an independent third party qualified by Member States in based on criteria defined in the sector Directives.
History
Italcertifer was founded in 2001 as "Italian Institute of Railway Research and Certification" and has initial partners RFI, Trenitalia, Milan Polytechnic and the Universities of Florence, Pisa and Naples. In 2007, the FS Holding joined the company acquiring all the shares of RFI and Trenitalia. In 2011, Italcertifer is transformed into a joint-stock company, also adopting a new statute. The constant growth of the company led Italcertifer, in 2013, to organize for independent operational divisions between them. In 2015 the entry of the Tuscany Region into the share capital further strengthens the Company and signals the strong link with the territory of its highly specialized activities.
Third party compliance assessments in the railway sector are the main activity of the company, which Italcertifer can carry out by virtue of the many awards obtained by the various regulatory and control bodies. In 2007 it obtained the Notification at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructures as a Body authorized to carry out the conformity assessment procedure in the context of interoperability pursuant to Directive 57/2008 EC. In 2008 it obtains the recognition of VIS (Independent Security Auditor), which becomes definitive in 2012, in the course of issuing the qualification guidelines. In 2010 he obtained accreditation from the single Italian institution (ACCREDIA) as Certification and Inspection Body as well as in the railway sector also in the design verification for validation purposes (Legislative Decree 163/06). Since 2013 it has been recognized as the Certification Body of Goods Wagon Maintenance Managers (ECM) pursuant to Regulation (EU) 445/2011 of the DM 21/12/2012.
In November 2014, Italcertifer became the first Designated Body for Compliance with National Technical Standards in the Railway Sector in Greece, after being designated by the Greek Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks.
Italcertifer today
Italcertifer is a company owned by the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, but completely independent of it, from which it inherits the enormous know-how in the railway field. Together with a strategic synergy with 4 of the most prestigious Italian universities (Politecnico di Milano, University of Pisa, University of Florence and University of Naples), also part of the corporate structure, it further extends its range of skills by creating a pole of excellence for everything concerning the verification of compliance and safety in the railway sector.
Strengthened by a more than consolidated experience and thanks to its articulation in operational divisions, Italcertifer is projected into the future, increasingly expanding its sphere of action also in sectors such as pleasure boating and as a Learning Service Provider of maintenance courses. of the safety organs of the rolling stock that makes available in an accessible and impartial way to all the interested operators present on the market.
The current Italcertifer CEO is Carmine Zappacosta
