Welcome 2025! This is our 11th year doing the blog; our first post was 2/28/14. We had a great 2024 at Colley Elevator so this is a quick recap of our year as we move forward to the next. For me it is a great way to see where we came from and where we want to go. I’m lucky to have such great people around as we enter our 117th year of being an independent elevator contractor. Thank you to everyone that was part of our 2024 year!
Annual reflection – This year we saw our maintenance portfolio grow from 2350 to over 2522 elevators. We had some bigger portfolios come over but a majority of our new customers are buildings with one or two elevators. We have switched our main hydro controller to Alpha Elevator with still a good amount of Smartrise and using MCE as our main traction elevator controller. We have had major headaches from GAL with shipping and have had to start ordering bulk from their local office. This has been a large learning curve for us. In total we probably bought 110 door operators, 80+ fixture packages, 60+ power units and a few packages[MEI & Canton]. We purchased 30-40 cylinders for ITI & EECO along with some from Custom and Hydraulic Elevator.
Colley Cares, our philanthropic outreach, gave out over $12,000 to philanthropic organizations ranging from substance abuse to food depositories. The Colley team came together to help out Toys for Tots this fall/winter with a truck load of gifts and food to help out those in need. We work with incredible people who made this all happen and our average employment is about 10 years. I’m proud to work side by side with everyone here and that we have a culture of openness at Colley that helps get everyone done at a high level! Thank you to our coworkers, customers & suppliers for being great! In 2024 Elevator World let us participate in their Annual Ellie “best in area” contest and we brought home the 2024 Best Contractor of the North[making it our 4th win].
Post reflection – Take a look at the great catalog of blog posts in 2024, go back and read some.
1/7/24 – Elevator 101 continuing education – CEUs – Morton Grove, IL
1/14/24 – Chicago Elevator Association – Alpha Elevator Control – 2/1/24 6:30pm
1/21/24 - Cold Weather Elevator – Deep Freeze 2024 - Chicago
1/28/24 – Elevator 101 – CAMICB CEU approved Course – Morton Grove, IL
2/11/24 – Elevator picture hall of fame 2024 – Superbowl of Elevators
2/25/24 – Hydraulic elevator modernization – Norridge, IL
3/10/24 – CAI – Community Association Institute – 42nd Annual Winter Expo
3/17/24 – Elevator Contractors of America – ECA – Annual Meeting – 2024 – Port Charlotte, FL
3/31/24 – NAEC Spring Conference – 4/14-23-4/17/23 – Miramar Beach, FL
4/7/24 – Chicago Elevator Association – April 24’ Meeting – Rath Janus Avire
4/21/24 – A17.1 Elevator 2 Way Communication – High Rise Requirements
4/28/24 – IUEC Safety Standdown 2024 – 4/28/24
5/27/24 – Elevator Maintenance – Hydraulic Elevator – Car Tops
6/2/24 – Hydraulic Elevator Modernization – Downers Grove, IL
6/9/24 – Identification of Elevator Equipment – Labeling Elevator Hoistway Door Frames- A17.1 2019
6/18/24 – Hot Weather & Elevator Machine Rooms Will Affect Your Elevator’s Ability to Service the Building
7/3/24 - Oak Park, IL New Elevator Certification Process
7/13/24 – Traction Elevator Modernization – Indian Head Park, IL
7/22/24 - Elevator picture Hall of Fame 2024 – Volume 2
8/3/24 – Vote Colley Elevator for Elevator Worlds 2024 Best Contractor - North
8/19/24 – State of Illinois Fire Marshall Elevator Division 8/13/24 Meeting
9/2/24 – Schindler 330 Inverted Piston Roped Hydraulic Elevators MCP Update Notice
9/15/24 – Giant Passenger Elevator Construction – Traction – Canton Elevator
9/29/24 – NAEC 75th Elevator Convention – Atlantic City, NJ
10/13/24 – Hey Illinois! Here Comes Your New Elevator Code A17.1 2022
10/29/24 – Traction Elevator Modernization – Palatine, IL
11/12/24 – State of Illinois Fire Marshall Elevator Safety Review Board Meeting 11/7/24
12/2/24-12/24-24 – 12 Codes of Christmas Days 1-12[12 posts]
Blog reflection – 41 posts in 2024[that is a lot of words, pictures and time], over 74,400 views, over 365,016 views in the blog’s history.
Most popular blog posts of 2024
1. Elevator Electrical, Fire Alarm & Other Work By Others[WBO] – Elevator Modernization – 3,260 views
2. Year in Reflection – Colley Elevator Blog – 2021 Elevator Blog – 2,750 views
3. Elevator Disconnect Auxiliary Contacts – Elevator Controller Emergency Battery Lowering – Rescuevator – 1,480 views
4. Elevator Independent Service – Movers Using the Elevator - 686 views
5. End of Life/Obsolete Elevator Equipment – Dover DMC Elevator – 569 views
6. Guide for Elevator New Construction for General Contractors and Building Owners – 529 views
7. Smoke Detectors, Sprinklers, Heat Detectors and Shunt Trips in Elevator Environment – 456 views
8. Elevator Cable Rouge – 409 views
9. State of Illinois 5 Year Elevator Fireman’s Recall A17.1 2019 Modification Requirement – 349 views
10. Comprehensive Elevator Door Restrictor Wrap Up – 315 views
Elevator resolution – This year I would like to take the opportunity to encourage everyone to go past their ceiling, giving the tools and time to do great things in their particular position. Industrywide there is too much cannibalism for short term gains which diminishes our jobs and how we are looked at.
FAID inspections– The FAID inspection have been a big challenge for everyone. We are doing a great job. We have gotten a pretty good system going but have a lot to work on in 2025. If you don’t have your FAID done yet on your hydro, lets get it set up for 2025!
2024 projects/relationships – In 2024 we have seen an up tick on projects and have had some project flow challenges like any elevator company, but we have bottle necks that we've been working out. We are working with a lot of portfolios as well as a lot of single elevator buildings.
Competitive market – We have seen a decline on our OEM’s maintenance programs. I call it NO LIFE GUARD ON DUTY – NO MAINTENANCE BEING PERFORMED. We have doubled down on our Pits and Car Tops program by encouraging our maintenance mechanics to do great things with the time they have at the building. We have also had the opportunity to work with more elevator consultants this year and working with more buildings on Turn Key solutions.
Suppliers – We have some incredible suppliers that deliver every day, all day, all year. Thank you! On the other hand we have seen some of our historically great suppliers do incredibly terrible things trying to implement corporate modeling, hiring marketing clowns and implement new software programs. A message for some of our suppliers who have forgotten what made the companies they work for great, do better! You aren't going to value engineer, restructure or sell your way to more profit or a to a better company. You will trip, fall and ruin good names and legacies. Don't forget your roots and where you came from.
Thank you for everyone who took the time to read the blog. Work safe, getting better, do great things and make our industry a better place for everyone.
