To Building Owners in Georgia: Your Elevators Are Whispering for Help
Hi. We’re Georgia Lift Solutions, a couple of real Georgians that have been keeping people moving safely in elevators for over a decade. We don’t advertise on billboards. We don’t have a jingle. We don’t spend money on advertising at all. As a matter of fact, most days, you’ll find us in elevator pits at 3 a.m., covered in hydraulic oil, because someone pressed the alarm button and a child was crying inside Car #2.
We’ve serviced hundreds of elevators across this state, and right now, we’re a bit scared. Not for our business— we are doing fine. But we are concerned for your residents, your employees, your liability, and yes, for the reputation of every honest building owner who’s trying to do the right thing in a broken elevator system.
Here’s the truth we can’t say on an invoice: Georgia’s elevator inspection backlog isn’t just inconvenient. It’s a ticking time bomb wrapped in red tape and it keeps growing.
We routinely see state certificates that have been expired for months. This is not because the owners are reckless—they are hard working Georgians that care about the folks that ride their elevators. They usually spend every dime keeping their building safe. The problem? Every qualified inspector within 200 miles is booked solid. And the state has not come through with needed inspectors to keep up with the demand. Keep this in mind, the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner has exactly 32 state elevator inspectors for 32,000+ units. That’s one inspector for every 1,000 elevators or so. To put it in perspective that’s like one pediatrician for every 1,000 kids in Georgia and you’ll understand the math.
We’re not here to scare you with horror stories, but we should all be concerned. Why? Because we are talking about old folks in hi-rises, children in schools, hard working men and women in business complexes, and countless others riding in elevators that have not been inspected lately.
So here’s our plea—owner to owner, technician to decision-maker.
1. Stop waiting for the state to save you. If your elevator fails, whether the state has looked at it recently or not you are still responsible. The state is definitely behind, but that does no mean you are off the hook. You still need a qualified elevator technician to check on and repair your elevator and they must keep records on the elevator. Try your hardest to get on the inspection list. We’ll help you if we can.
2. Treat routine maintenance like chemotherapy, not aspirin. Preventive maintenance isn’t a luxury; it maybe the only thing standing between you and a seven-figure lawsuit. Some owners look at the bottom line try to trim expense on maintenance. That is the wrong place to cut. You might be able to save a little bit, but one small elevator accident and all of a sudden it costs you thousands more.
3. Modernize your elevator—yesterday. The technology of current elevators is unbelievable. They can have monitoring and settings that will make your elevator safer and more efficient.
4. Document everything like your freedom depends on it. Because it does. Especially, with so many elevators with expired licenses you need to make sure you document everything you can on your end. If your current elevator tech is not keeping records fins a new tech. Heaven forbid there is an accident but your stack of preventive-maintenance records is the only thing that says, “I cared more than the law required.”
5. Partner with a service company that will tell you the truth. Not the one that low-balls the contract then ghosts you when parts are on 18-month backorder. We’ve lost bids because we tell the truth, even when its bad news. We’d rather lose your business than set you up to fail.
Keep in mind that no elevator company is perfect. Sometimes even we are late. Sometimes a callback takes three hours instead of two. But we truly care about safety and your elevator. Building owners, you’re not the enemy. You’re our partners in keeping people safe.
So if you need more information about inspections, pick up the phone. We want to help.
