Finding an appropriately sized elevator contractor for your building(s)

Over the last year we have been hearing from building owners and managers about their issues with their current elevator company.  The concerns may be that they never come, they come for 6 minutes, they come irregularly, the office never gets back to them, etc. After seeing some good and bad parts or larger companies and good and bad parts of smaller companies on sales calls I thought this would be a good topic to touch on.

A very important item for a building owner or manager to look at is finding an appropriate sized elevator service provider with the correct competency for your building.  Some important items to ask yourself is how much communication do you want with the office, how often do you want an elevator technician at your building, what is their competency[traction elevators, hydraulic elevators, escalators, residential lifts, etc] and if you had a catastrophic issue would the elevator company be able to respond adequately[or your interpretation of adequately].  Full disclosure I work for a small to mid-sized independent elevator company which services low to mid rise commercial elevators.

Large Accounts – This would be campuses of 12-100+ elevators; which could include condominiums, apartment buildings, office buildings, colleges, hospitals, etc.  Both independent and OEMs[Otis, Schindler, Thyssen, Kone] are able to take care of these accounts.  The most important item for building owners and managers to consider is a elevator service provider is the staff that will be working with you at your buildings.   You will want to interview both the office staff that will be working with you as well as the mechanic(s) that will be your primary point of contact.  You can have a fabulous elevator technician and a horrible office point of contact that changes every six months or the reverse a terrible technician and a great office point of contact.  Larger accounts typically have a larger mix of equipment, this is also something that needs to be discussed, what is the replacement parts availability [will take a day or two to get, will be available onsite, in the office ready for delivery, etc].  If you have all proprietary equipment and are considering an independent company for a cost savings option, make sure they have a competent mechanic and the equipment to troubleshoot and maintain the elevator equipment.  Also, when drafting your contract if you have 50 elevators and want each elevator to be visited each month[every other month, quarterly, etc], make sure you include how much time you want the company to spend on the elevator.  There is a huge difference between a 6 minute visit and a 30-45 minute visit.  The dynamics of elevator maintenance is changing and as a elevator industry most companies are reducing time that the technician is allowed to spend on the elevator to give a competitive price.

Case – A building owner with about 60 elevators wanted to have a mechanic at each elevator for 30-45 minutes each month, wanted testing of fireman’s recall each month, wanted the contract to cover the once a year fire testing with the fire panel company and a few other requirements that required a mechanic to be onsite performing a function.  The building owner also did not want to pay for travel time on overtime calls.  The building owner eventually got a maintenance contractor to give them what they wanted for $130.00 per elevator per month.  That is a very competitive price for the services they are requesting.  While the company may agree to the price and the scope of work, I would be surprised to see that the service provider was following through with the scope the building owner requested.  If you want to have a service scope that demands X time in a building, you will need to expect to pay more and should not shop solely based on looking for the “best deal”.

Responding to significant issues - I was at a building where a smaller service provider had an elevator out of service for 6 months and I found that they had delivered an elevator door operator and just set it on top of the elevator and it had been there for a sometime because they did have the man power to complete the installation.  If you want quick responses to equipment failures make sure the company has adequate personnel for remedying the issues.

Smaller Accounts – A smaller account would be buildings with 1-12 elevators.  Both OEMs and independent contractors can take care of these buildings.  Typically the smaller accounts would like more communication and have different expectations as they have a closer connection to the dollars that are leaving their account than larger portfolios.   In my experience you will have a better experience with an independent firm as there is typically more clarity with their product offering.  In the Chicago area there has been a good amount of consolidation where the independent firms have been purchased by OEMs.  We hear “I like the way XYZ operated but after they were purchased we lost the feel that they cared and never see the maintenance technician”.  The question a building owner/manager should ask is do you want to be a small fish in a large pond or a large fish in a small pond.  Independent contractors should be more responsive and personal than a larger company.  This is not saying that all independent contractors are responsible, you should have the same questions as a larger customer; who is my maintenance person, what experience does he have, who is my point of contact at the office level, what is the companies resources, have a I received a commitment from the company that they understand our needs and what we want.

[A larger companies response to a ongoing oil leakage issue - small fish in a big pond]

There are pros and cons of going with a smaller or larger contractor, my recommendation for building owners is to work with a company who understands what you want from a service provider. The most important part of the relationship is to be comfortable with the company, if you are not, do not know who you are dealing with or generally get the run around, that probably is not a good fit.  Remember not all elevator companies are equipped for every portfolio or every customer.

If you have an questions or would like information from Colley Elevator you can go to www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.