From Pre-Sale to Installation: Customized Freight Options with Express Elevators & Lifts
A Message from our Sponsor:
This episode of Elevator Tools and Tech is brought to you by Express Elevators and Lifts, a “one-stop shop” providing various vertical transport solutions like passenger, freight, and custom lifts. For more information, please visit https://www.expresselevatorslifts.com/.
Intro:
In this episode, I interviewed the President and CEO of Express Elevators & Lifts, Puneet Mehta, to discuss the importance of customizing freight elevators, and the innovative solutions like zero-pit and modular hoistways that they offer. Learn how Express Elevators’ expertise in pre-sales consultancy and project management ensures that each elevator is tailored to fit specific operational requirements, making them the go-to partner for businesses across North America.
Transcript:
Puneet Mehta (00:00)
There is a lot of flexibility available, a lot of options available. We are known in North America as a one-stop shop for all freight elevating devices, say from a 250 pound dumbwaiter to a 25,000 pound freight elevator.
And what we bring to the table is, of course, our strength is the pre-sales consultancy. I don’t want to sound, beating our own drum, but we have pretty much seen every scenario, working with such a spectrum of clients, such beautiful industries that we serve, like from a daycare where you have the kids, to a very heavy, hazardous industrial environment, where it is explosion proof, like the glass industry, paint industry…
So we have seen those environments, any capacity for the elevator, any size, any type of product, then any kind of a finish, from as simple as painted steel elevator to complete galvanized cars, we have all the options. And you can take advantage of our pre-sales consultancy, our project management is articulate, whatever you want delivered on the right time, the after-sales service is there for you, and the product never fails.
Matt Allred (01:09)
Hello, and welcome to Elevator Tools and Tech, a special series from the Elevator Careers Podcast, where we spotlight the latest innovations, tools, suppliers and technology driving the vertical transportation industry. In each episode, we sit down with the creators, engineers, and solution providers who are helping elevator companies work smarter, safer, and more efficiently.
Matt Allred (01:31)
This episode is brought to you by Express Elevators and Lifts, a one-stop shop for custom freight elevator solutions. I interviewed the President and CEO, Puneet Mehta, to discuss the importance of customizing freight elevators, and the innovative solutions like zero-pit and modular hoistways that they offer. Learn how Express Elevators’ expertise in pre-sales consultancy and project management ensures that each elevator is tailored to fit specific operational requirements, making them the go-to partner for businesses across North America. You can learn more about Express Elevators and Lifts’ products and services at www.expresselevatorslifts.com. Now, let’s dive in.
Matt Allred (02:12)
Puneet, welcome to the show.
Puneet Mehta (02:13)
Yes, thank you very much, and hello to you.
Matt Allred (02:16)
Thank you. No I appreciate it. I’m excited to talk with you, and I wanted to find out, what was it that, I guess, got you involved with freight elevators?
Puneet Mehta (02:26)
Well, my journey in the elevator industry started in 1997. That’s when I joined Otis Elevator as a sales rep. And they were looking for someone with a technical background. And I had my degree in mechanical engineering, and I wasn’t too interested in doing hardcore engineering. So I pursued my MBA degree in marketing and that became a good fit for this job.
And with Otis being such an old and established company, everything was structured, and they had divided the product line into two categories. One used to be off the shelf, called model elevator. That’s where you had all the passenger elevators. But anything which was like, going in an existing shaft where you have a beam, which is not giving you the size required by Otis, or any kind of specialty elevator like a
service elevator, or a freight elevator, those were all called traditional elevators, or custom elevators. And they would require the sales rep to send the request to the design center and then obtain a formal quote, which would be technical specification and the price part. It’s just a human tendency, everybody wants to do stuff which is readily available off the shelf or standard, so
Many times, the salespeople, they were tempted that something which was there in the price guide, like the model elevators, they were faster to obtain course and faster to sell. And this whole thing about doing non off-the-shelf products, that became a longer lead time. But it so happened that I was getting more and more inquiries, which were all of custom nature, which were freight and service elevators.
So I started digging into it, and then somehow I started liking it. It was more of a mature selling, where you would go understand all the details from the customer, try to perceive that, and then explain that to your head office of the design center, then obtain a quote. So that’s how the journey started, and I had no experience in elevators going back almost 30 years, and it was fun to learn all those things. And it so happened then I…
started going deeper into freight elevators.
Matt Allred (04:45)
Gotcha. Yeah, you kind of found that custom niche to be your space then.
Puneet Mehta (04:50)
Indeed, absolutely.
Matt Allred (04:52)
Yeah.
Well, and honestly, until you and I spoke, I didn’t realize that freight elevators are as custom as they are, right? I’d heard the term, but I just really didn’t comprehend and haven’t been a sales rep, so I wouldn’t have known. Yeah. So let me ask you this. What do most people, even inside the elevator industry, misunderstand about freight elevators, and why does that misunderstanding cost projects time and money?
Puneet Mehta (05:07)
Exactly. Yeah.
See, I can answer this question in many ways, but I would say one thing that they miss is the opportunity. Because when you are buying a passenger elevator or even a small handicap lift for that matter, sometimes you don’t have many options. You are told that you’re gonna get this size, this capacity, this speed. And by the way, even the car operating panel or the hall button, everything is pre-finished. We have a certain set of buttons.
If you want a different faceplate, you can’t have it. If you want, you know, a circular button against oval, you can’t have it. But freight elevator is unique that way. So it’s pretty much like, you go to a tailor and you want a tuxedo. You, ask them what you want. You want a seam a certain way, you want a stitch a certain way, you can have your choice of buttons. So that is one opportunity that they miss. Because when somebody calls me,
and asks for a freight elevator, I basically ask them, how heavy are you lifting, how big are you lifting, and whether you’re going to hand-bomb the stuff into the elevator, or you’re going to use a manual pump truck, or you have a large forklift truck, because the load is that heavy that you will be using a forklift to enter it. And then that gives a complete configuration. And with that, we have the choice of doors, and with any kind of a finish too.
So once all this data is given to the person who is preparing specifications, you can get a unique product with custom fixture requirements.
Matt Allred (06:57)
Right, right. Well, and I mean, it sounds like in some respects, not only do they maybe not recognize the opportunity, but it’s complex enough that they may not know which questions to ask. And so somebody like you that understands every single option and not just the options, but what would be in their best interest is very valuable. And obviously talking about freight elevators being completely custom and unlike the mass produced passenger units, you know, we
Puneet Mehta (07:16)
Indeed.
Absolutely.
Matt Allred (07:25)
We call those cookie cutter, right? What would you say is the biggest operational risk that contractors face when they assume a freight is just a big passenger elevator? Does that happen?
Puneet Mehta (07:27)
Indeed,
It has happened. In fact, it has even happened with people that have dealt earlier, like you sell somebody a 3,000 pound elevator, next time, his requirement was 4,000, but they thought, you know, Hey, last time it was 3,000. So they will kind of go as per that, and they would keep the size as per that. But then, when that contractor goes to his end user, he says, no, I have a certain skid, which is larger and heavier. So I want 4,000 pounds. So
the biggest thing is, ask the question. Like, we have very detailed and very neat, to the point, RFQ forms, requests for quotation. Those can be obtained from the website or they can be emailed to them. Just fill it as much as you can, send it back to us, and we’ll make sure that we read them thoroughly. If there are rebounding questions, you will receive a phone call or an email. And that’s when we do the complete specifications. Yes.
Matt Allred (08:32)
Yeah, thank you. So I’m just going
to throw one question in here that’s just going through my mind, and that is, is there some kind of scale that you use to know? Because I’m just assuming, if I’m loading loads, I don’t know how heavy they are necessarily, but what do they use to kind of make sure they’re not overloading the elevator?
Puneet Mehta (08:49)
Indeed.
Now see, that’s a good question. Most of the loads that we have in North America, that’s either on the pallets, which are 40 by 48 or skids, right? 40 wide, left to right, and 48 depth, front to back. And you maneuver them on the shop floor or inside the elevator using a pump truck, right? Or the forks of a forklift truck. So that’s where you have…
a standard point. So when we are designing these freight elevators, we are asking our customer how busy the operation is. Do you want to carry one skid at a time, or do you want to carry two skids? And if you are carrying two skids, are you keeping them side by side? That means now you need a wider elevator, or you can keep them one after the other. Now you need a deeper elevator, right? So those basic things we ask and some industrial applications are so busy
that they say no, they want to carry four skids at a time. I’ll give you a small example. I mean, if you are planning an elevator in the heart of New York City, downtown core or in Chicago, there when the truck comes to a grocery store, or to, say, a pharmacy store, they cannot make that truck stand for too long because it’s downtown, they probably have a next truck coming in, you can’t park two trucks at the same time. They have to…
Matt Allred (10:12)
blocking traffic and yeah.
Puneet Mehta (10:17)
unload that box on the earliest possible basis. There, definitely, you would wish you had an elevator that was going down into the basement or to the top level, where you could have thrown in multiple skids and taken it fast, right? Whereas now the same store, same company, you take it into the suburbs of Chicago or New York or any city. There you have lot more time to breathe, right? So there you can even go with the simple one.
So those are some of the very simple but practical aspects.
Matt Allred (10:47)
Sure, sure. And you’ve got to be able to answer those questions. And obviously the company has to figure out what it is they’re going to do so that they’re following their own rules, as it were, and not overloading and all of that. So let’s talk a minute about lead times as a major differentiator. You had mentioned that a lot of US contractors are waiting 16 to 24 weeks for freight shipment. And what are the real-world
Puneet Mehta (11:00)
Absolutely. ⁓
Matt Allred (11:16)
real-world consequences of a delay on a job site, for example?
Puneet Mehta (11:21)
Right. See, I’ll say that I strongly believe that you can control more things at the office at the shop level. But sometimes on the site level, you don’t have much control. And that’s why we say that the shop, and the designing before the project time has to be articulated. And the lead times do matter. The fact of the matter is that the elevator installation can only begin when the masonry or
Matt Allred (11:32)
Mm-hmm.
Puneet Mehta (11:47)
the trade, or the concrete trade has done their part. That means you have a shaft which is ready, right from the bottom all the way to the top, that is watertight. That means no water is pouring in. Then you have the pit which is dry. There’s a drain there. You have electrical supply available, the basic three-phase, the single-phase to start running your motor. So because of those requirements, sometimes the actual installation of the elevator is not the first thing in the building.
So by the time we arrive, the site is fully mobilized, all the trades are working. Some trades are actually completing their work. So the site troopers are already under stress. Now, they are already 60%, 70% of the project. And now a new trade comes in, which is a specialty trade. And then if you see, we pretty much touch every trade. I mean, we are going to touch electrical, we are going to touch the sprinklers, we will require the mechanical trade with the drain pump.
And also the masonry guy to secure the door frame, et cetera. And that’s why, at times they are waiting for us to complete their work so that they can complete the project. And that is why when you are asking 16 weeks for the material, and before that you’re asking four weeks or five weeks for the drawing, now you just ate up almost five, six months because you also have to give them two, three weeks to approve those drawings. And now the project has already started. That’s where
Matt Allred (13:08)
Sure.
Puneet Mehta (13:12)
You know, they are getting nervous. If they are getting nervous, they are not very civil to you. That’s a typical construction word. So that’s why I feel, if you can minimize the drawing submission timeline, your four weeks, if you can give that in one week or sometimes even faster, right? Then a Zoom meeting like this, or, where you can send the drawings before, give them a couple of days to review.
Tell them to get all the questions ready, and then in a meeting or in-person meeting is even better, have that drawing approved. So, your intent should be to commit the job to production on the earliest possible basis, as we call ASAP, right? And then even in production, instead of taking like 20 weeks, 22 weeks, how about if you could even do it in 12 weeks or in 10 weeks? Now certainly you have expedited the material to the job site, and you can start
at least with the mechanical installation, have the guide rails ready, rails plumb, you can have the hydraulic cylinder set up, the machine room set up, or your traction motors set up. That’s how you can really expedite the project and kind of take away most of the unknown from the project.
Matt Allred (14:24)
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like some multitasking, some planning ahead and making sure, like you said, you can solve a lot of the problems in the office before it ever gets to the job site. as I recall, yeah, in our last conversation, you had talked about that Express can deliver drawings in eight to 14 weeks instead of 24. And obviously, you just talked about that. But what enables you to move that fast and maybe others can’t?
Puneet Mehta (14:29)
Absolutely.
See,
We always say that each project is unique for us, right? So by that standard, each job should be custom. But as you said in the beginning, there are certain yardsticks. Like these freight elevators, as I said, either they are meant to carry single skid or two skids or four skids. Or if they are carrying carts on wheel, they come in certain sizes too. For condominiums, if they are carrying garbage bins, they are typical sizes.
If they are carrying automobiles for the automobile dealerships or other warehouses, condominiums, we know they are usually 10 feet by 20 feet. So having said that, we have a huge amount of spanning last 20 years, 25 years where we have done so many jobs which were all, though unique, but they were similar in nature. So that really empowers us like,
Most of the jobs, unless there are really some new requirements, we are able to give drawings anywhere, say, in one to two weeks. Now, this is where we need to know from our customer, even if one to two weeks sometimes is, you know, longer for them. I know, especially the retail world is most time sensitive. For example, they are opening a store. Let’s say any pharmacy chain, or any grocery chain, right?
Matt Allred (15:49)
Nice.
Puneet Mehta (16:05)
They always take buildings in existing subdivisions, where they have established neighborhoods. So if I’m opening a grocery store or a pharmacy store, I have a set traffic of footfall coming in. So they have an established start date, could be before Christmas or before any other big, Thanksgiving or stuff like that, right? So we really have to meet those dates. And what we do, since we have so much data,
we can give those drawings we have done like in one or two weeks. I recall a project where we were doing an elevator for an operation theater. So they had to let go of the two elevators because they were surveying the operation theater on a certain date. And we literally worked backwards. We gave the drawing in matter of couple of days. The material was given literally in about 10, 11 weeks. And that gave us plenty of time for installation. Because that we are not
under any kind of a negative stress to complete these jobs. So that’s where I put a lot of emphasis, first of all, is in the pre-sales consultancy. Before you are giving that quotation to the customer, you should be sure you have heard them fully. If need be, go to the site required, ask for the drawings, ask as many as questions, write questions, and then prepare a proposal which meets the requirement. Give you an example, if I’m working for food industry,
Matt Allred (17:05)
Yeah.
Puneet Mehta (17:31)
or pharmaceutical industry, sometimes they want to wash down these elevators every six hours or end of the day. So you need to give them everything which is NEMA 4X, watertight electricals. You need to give them a specialized stainless steel elevator car, the flooring, the walls and ceiling, and even the buttons are also watertight. So once you have understood all this, then give them the right code so that…
Matt Allred (17:37)
Wow.
Puneet Mehta (17:58)
when it comes to drawing preparation, that’s a reflection of the proposal. And once the drawings are approved, there should not be any ambiguity. You don’t go into production, till you have received a comprehensive drawing approval.
Matt Allred (18:13)
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like because you specialize in freight elevators, you’ve seen so many applications that, it sounds like it’s easier to know what you need to do. And like you say, you’ve already got examples, you’ve done it. And so it’s just a matter of understanding the requirements and putting it together. And so you can be really quick with that. So you mentioned a minute ago, you know, visiting the site and
Puneet Mehta (18:31)
be.
Absolutely.
Matt Allred (18:39)
the fact that sometimes there are odd shaft conditions or unique load requirements. What are some of the common design mistakes that you see in the US market and how do you correct them?
Puneet Mehta (18:51)
See again, the one word is observation. Like sometimes the customer would say that they want something, but then you need to understand who really needs that. I mean, this is not only limited to elevators or sales for elevators, this is to any commodity. That’s the job of a consultant, he has to help the customer or the client identify between their needs and wants. For example, one common scenario I see,
Again, very standard as a thumb rule, any pallet, unless it is a highly specialized industrial product, usually all the pallets, they are like no more than 2,000 pounds, 2,200 pounds. Even if you have a pump truck, that’s another like 200 pounds. So having said that, 2,500 pounds should be adequate capacity for a freight elevator, right? And you take factor of safety, you go 3,000. You’re a little more conservative, maybe 3,500.
But I’ve had scenarios where somebody wanted a 2,500 pound elevator, a freight elevator. They went with 8,000 pound freight elevator. And the price goes up exponentially. Now your elevator cab itself is getting beefier, heavier. You need a much bigger motor. The cylinder’s a lot heavier and everything is more bulky like a brick house. But when I asked why this happened, and the good part, I was able to drill down.
Matt Allred (19:58)
Ouch. Yeah.
Puneet Mehta (20:18)
to the complete hierarchy of that company. End user wanted 2,500. The shop guy said, give me 3,000. My job is secured. The boss who was sitting in an air-conditioned office, said 4,000. Went to management. Somebody scared them. They said double the capacity. So if they hired a good consultant, because in the world of elevators, when we say 3,000 pounds, we mean 3,000 pounds.
Matt Allred (20:35)
wow.
Puneet Mehta (20:44)
There are factors of safety built in every system, whether it’s mechanical, hydraulic, electrical, the redundant circuits in the controller too, which makes sure that you’re getting a safe and, you know, field proof product. So you don’t need to overbuild to this extent. So that is one common mistake I see. Second I is the speed, because when you are buying a passenger elevator, speed is of a consequence. But when you are buying a freight elevator, speed is not much consequence.
Reason being our topography in North America is that most of the sewage places they are, you know, either down in the basement or mezzanine one, mezzanine two. So usually the elevators are two floors, three floors. So they are only going 20, 30 feet. Now, when you’re going 20, 30 feet, whether you go at 30 feet per minute or 50 feet per minute, even 75 doesn’t make much difference because passenger elevators, their doors are lighter.
And they horizontally slide much more fast and swift. The freight elevators, or the material lifts, the doors are either swinging, which are largely manual, or they are vertical sliding, which again could be manual or power. So when you do that, there is so much inertia with these doors. You’re taking a lot of time opening, closing these doors. Besides, when you are handling a 200 or a 2,000 pound pallet on a pump truck,
the freight handler is going to exercise a lot of caution loading and unloading. Neither the boss who’s standing next to him or her will push them to work faster, right? Because it’s the question of safety, ergonomics. So you’re taking time loading and unloading. You’re taking time opening, closing the door. Actual flight time is inconsequential. It doesn’t make a But…
the code dramatically changes from 30 feet per minute to 50 feet per minute. Because if we look at our elevator code, the section seven of ASME 17.1, which is also CSAB 44 in Canada, if you are at 30 feet per minute, you can design as a material lift. Now you go 50 or just above 30, it has to be a full freight elevator. Then you require lots more bells and whistles, you require integration to the fire alarm, you require a phone line
Matt Allred (22:41)
Interesting.
Puneet Mehta (23:04)
for autodialer, you require a pit with a drain and sump pump. Now you just exploded the scope of the project. So likewise, sometimes a customer may want a power door instead of a manual door, or they would want an automatic door. And we can recommend them a power door. Again, this is also very interesting. Automatic door is when you reach your landing, the door should open on its own.
Matt Allred (23:12)
Interesting.
Puneet Mehta (23:33)
Whereas a power door is when you reach a landing, the door can only unlock and then you can gently open it yourself. In the world of freight, when the freight handler is, say, handling a garbage bin, which is, give or take, three and a half feet by seven feet. So those are physically capable people who are moving garbage bins. They can always open a door by themselves, right? But changing an automatic door to a power operated door, again, it’s very easy on your pocket.
Not only that, it’s faster to install, easier to maintain. So we give solutions which are supposed to last for 25, 30 years as a minimum. If maintained properly, you can go up to 35, 40 years. And that’s what you have to see. Bring the scale of economy, bring something which is long lasting. And also weed out any problems. I mean, there could be more scenarios, but these are some of the common things that I’ll say. The choice of doors,
the choice of speed, and the load capacity.
Matt Allred (24:34)
Yeah, that makes sense. So let’s talk a little bit about, zero pit, no machine room, modular hoist ways. These are major, cost producers. Why do you think more companies don’t offer these solutions and what are some of the barriers you’ve had to overcome to engineer them?
Puneet Mehta (24:51)
Well, the engineering challenge was only once, when we were designing it. Now I think we have mastered this art. And I would say that 50% of the freight projects that we are doing, instead of doing a full freight elevator, we can do a material lift, right? And this material lift is not as per the B20 code of US, which is the material handling code where you have a material lift and a person can ride on. This is actually…
the section seven of ASME 17.1 where you can have a ride around. Again, what I repeated just a few minutes earlier, we are blessed in North America. Unlike Europe and Asia, we have a huge landmass. As a result, our houses are bigger, our cars are bigger, our workplaces are For the warehousing, we are not going multiple levels. We are making single story buildings. We may have catwalks there.
And we are either storing in the basement or one or two levels above, unlike Europe and Asia, where they have actual factories or workplaces, which are six, seven stories. Over here, I’m yet to visit a factory which is six, seven stories. There could be a single building with a catwalk. So with this, the code’s a lot more liberal lenient. You can actually give a material lift.
And what a material lift does, it could be with or without a rider, as I said, depending upon the codes we pick. And you can have a lot of leniency and you can also have a turnkey approach. If I start from the very bottom, every elevator you require a pit, which typically is say, 36 inches, 48 or 60 more probable. But with these material lifts, you don’t require any pit.
So essentially when the platform of the lift is coming down, it won’t be flush with the floor. So we make that platform with a unique design, which could either be half or three quarter inch steel plate, or for bigger capacity, say up to 5,000 or 6,000, we make the platform only with one inch and a half section, which is like an engineering expertise that we have. And when it comes to the bottom landing,
Matt Allred (27:00)
Wow.
Puneet Mehta (27:07)
It is gently floating in the air, it’s only quarter inch above the floor because you don’t want it to bottom out. So essentially now the elevator platform is inch and three quarters above the floor. So we can provide a gentle ramp and we follow the building code. That means every gain of one inch, go 12 inch horizontal. If I’m gaining inch and a quarter or two inches, my ramp is about 24 inches.
And with that, you know, it’s the full width of the entrance. And the result is phenominal because now you’re not cutting the floor slab. Like for example, if this is a food plant or other sensitive area to dust, if you are cutting the floor slab, it itself could be, at least a few thousands of dollars, if not more. You have to basically cordon off the entire area, dust nuisance, noise nuisance, and so on.
Matt Allred (27:49)
Yeah.
Puneet Mehta (28:00)
So you prevented that, you go right on the platform itself. This is one part that we offer as a part of a turnkey. Second, instead of telling the customer to engage a general contractor and make the hoistway shaft out of masonry or concrete, we provide the hoistway enclosure out of steel panels. So you’re going to have hollow structural steel tube for each corner.
Then you have the in-between cross members, again out of hollow tubes or channels or I-beam. And then you can clad the whole enclosure either with a solid steel or with a mesh enclosure. So having said that, customer didn’t have to cut the floor to make a pit. And we gave them the shaft, and even the hydraulic power unit, instead of them making the dedicated enclosed room,
Matt Allred (28:41)
Gotcha.
Puneet Mehta (28:54)
you basically put that in a steel cage called the lockable enclosure. So if you see from the customer point of view, they are thrilled because they had a guy visit them or speak to them over the phone, understood their requirement, gave them the freight elevator, no pit, no shaft required, no machine room required. So all they cut is one check, one PO, and they bring the electrician. And all he’s doing is giving us two disconnect boxes, one three-phase to run the
Matt Allred (28:58)
OK.
Puneet Mehta (29:23)
elevator motor and then one single phase for the controller cab lighting. So that’s a happy scenario for the customer, and we do this anywhere from 500 pounds up to 6,000 pounds. We have designs where we can even enhance that, but usually when you go higher than 6,000, now you need beefier platform, so you require it thicker, so it kind of defeats the and
Matt Allred (29:31)
Yeah.
Puneet Mehta (29:46)
I would say this really helps in existing situations like where you are doing value addition or enhancement of existing facilities. This comes in really handy.
Matt Allred (29:56)
No, it sounds very turnkey, right? Because it’s like one phone call or however many phone calls, right? But it just kind of shows up and it fits. like you say, there’s not a whole lot of extra construction to accommodate it. So that’s amazing. I want to talk to you a little bit about, you’ve worked with dozens of AHJs across North America from New York to Hawaii and Puerto Rico. What’s the biggest compliance or inspection challenge
Puneet Mehta (29:59)
Exactly.
Yes.
Matt Allred (30:24)
that most installers are unprepared for?
Puneet Mehta (30:27)
See, I’ll give you a very candid answer to that. I mean, of course, all my answers are candid, but this one is, well, our industry is very accommodating and I like my industry because it also gives you time to react and prepare. My experience with AHJs, whether it is their office level or the inspector who visits the site, if you tell them, this is your requirement, that’s your intent, and it may or may not be following the code, they will help you
achieve that. But if you just try to be a maverick, if you say, is my way, I’m doing it without giving them any notice, don’t do that. So our approach is very, very simple. We follow ASME 17.1 to the T. But then, you know, every state has the authority to adopt the way they like. For example, the elevator code is standard for North America, standard for US all across, but how each state will adopt
That’s privy to them. And that’s what we need to identify. Like, you know, if I’m selling something in New York state, it may not be permissible in New York City, or it may be different in Texas. Like, for example, when we do material lifts, I’m going many years back and we did something in Georgia. It was good. And it came to Texas. The inspector said, this is good. I like it, but I want to see an additional car gate. When we went to Michigan, they said,
what you’re doing is good, but have this thing pre-approved. right? So we said, fine, you know, right now it’s the time to spend that time. So they took about, I think it was five to six weeks, went to the T with every design, everything was pre-approved, and then we were able to install. So that approach is a win-win because the customer is also not in the dark, and they know that this is part of the code.
And this is permissible, so they’re also not anxious in any way.
Matt Allred (32:28)
Yeah, well, and it sounds like just taking that responsible step to communicate ahead, making sure that they’re not surprised, they’re not worried that you’re trying to bring something in that is just not going to work. And if you communicate upfront, then, you avoid a lot of problems.
Puneet Mehta (32:41)
Absolutely.
and see,
Yeah, one in certain jurisdictions, the material lifts as per ASME 17.1, they can go up to five meters. In others, it can go up to 7.6. Now, what do you do if you have a job which is like 5.5 meters or six meters? Many times, if we just say that, hey, you have adopted this as per five meters only, which is 200 inches, but by the way,
Matt Allred (32:53)
Gotcha.
Puneet Mehta (33:09)
this particular state is already authorized and they’re allowing up to 7.6 meters, which is say, give or take 300 inches, 25 feet. And my building is already existing and they had an existing elevator, and that elevator is no longer reliable. So we are actually taking it, we are reducing the hazard and we are reducing the liability. So would you allow it? And the answer is usually yes, right?
If you are doing a new construction and then you are asking for a variance, then any authority or regulation, they are more curious. Like, why are you not able to do it as per the code? And then also if you have a rational reasoning, that gets attended to and listened to as well.
Matt Allred (33:55)
So, Puneet, you’ve completed work for universities, aerospace companies, manufacturers, retailers, and a lot of others. Across all these environments, what patterns do you see in how heavy duty facilities actually use freight elevators versus how they think they will use them when they’re in the planning phase?
Puneet Mehta (34:13)
Well, I think I’ll say that all these industries are highly knowledgeable. And the good part is, we feel that elevators are state of the art and they are rocket science, but once you break them down, they’re a lot simpler. And all these buyers, they are very smart people. And besides elevators, their facility has got so much other machinery and equipment, which is way more sophisticated and which is way more expensive.
It’s just that we as elevator people, sometimes we are empowered by the red tape-ism or being so structured. We appear to be like, I would say on the top. So that’s how I’ll answer this in a very candid way. And they have a set idea what they are buying. And I’ve also seen that the good amount of people, they do take some contingency for the future.
Like for example, when we provide material lifts of elevators going into a mezzanine, they know they’re going to have an expansion phase two, phase three. So they may need another elevator, same capacity, say about a hundred feet away, or they may say, no, today I only want to lift 3,000 pounds, but I know for sure my pallets are going to be different. They’re going to be larger.
So give me something which is 6,000 pounds. Like just yesterday, I was speaking to a client and he wants a 4,000, but he knows he’s going to expand in the next two to three years. He has his business plan done, and he’s going with a 7,000 pound elevator. Because, these elevators are there for 30 years. And the good part is, we have spent that much time, me personally, in this trade. So something that we did like 20 years back, we are still maintaining.
Matt Allred (35:36)
Wow, yeah.
Well, OK.
Puneet Mehta (36:02)
We are seeing how it’s behaving. But largely I’ll say that, the right questions are asked and our buyers are knowledgeable and they are buying the right product. But what happens sometimes like, you know, the building may change hands. That’s when I have seen that, you know, you give them a passenger elevator. They don’t want that. Now they want a freight because
Matt Allred (36:11)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
Puneet Mehta (36:22)
The earlier owners, they were just an office, but now they are doing light manufacturing, assembly. So that requirement changes, and then you have to change the classification of the elevator, or altogether a different elevator. Yeah.
Matt Allred (36:36)
Gotcha. yeah.
Things definitely change, right? Building ahead is good if it’s gonna make sense. And so obviously there’s a of decisions to be made. So last question I wanna ask you is, as you as a company expand into the US more, what’s the number one message you want general contractors, elevator contractors, and end users to hear about selecting a freight elevator partner?
Puneet Mehta (37:01)
I would say just talk to us, because there is a lot of flexibility available, a lot of options available. We are known in North America as a one-stop shop for all freight elevating devices, say from a 250 pound dumbwaiter to a 25,000 pound freight elevator. A dumbwaiter is installed in a pathological lab, in a hospital, in a laboratory, more in restaurants, like where you have the dining floor on one level and the kitchen on the other level.
Matt Allred (37:17)
Wow, yeah.
Puneet Mehta (37:28)
Whereas a freight elevator, up to 5,000, 6,000 pounds, they are part of grocery stores, or they are part of, say, a manufacturing facility. Anything heavier, like 8,000, 10,000, 25,000, those are all like heavy industrial elevators where you are using a forklift truck to drive in and drive out. And what we bring to the table is, of course, our strength is the pre-sales consultancy. I don’t want to sound, beating our own drum, but
We have pretty much seen every scenario, working with such a spectrum of clients, such beautiful industries that we serve, like from a very clean manufacturing facility for food, a hospital, then to a very non-clean like a butcher house, right? Or working, say, for a daycare where you have the kids, to a very heavy, hazardous industrial environment, where it is explosion proof, like the glass industry, paint industry…
So we have seen those environments, any capacity for the elevator, any size, any type of product, then any kind of a finish, from as simple as painted steel elevator to 316 or 304 stainless steel or complete galvanized cars, we have all the options. And you can take advantage of our pre-sales consultancy, our project management is articulate, whatever you want delivered on
the right time, the after-sales service is there for you, and the product never fails. So.
Matt Allred (38:57)
Yeah, yeah. So if
somebody is at that point and they’re ready to start conversations, how would they get ahold of you?
Puneet Mehta (39:04)
Best is to visit the website, and that’s and then you can either fill out the RFQ form and send it to us, or there’s a phone number there, there’s an there’s a US number, there’s a Canadian number, and reach us by any means. Phone us, or email us, or visit our website.
Matt Allred (39:24)
Awesome. Puneet, thank you so much for your time. It’s been a pleasure as always, and I appreciate you being here today.
Puneet Mehta (39:29)
Likewise, you’re very welcome. Take care.
Matt Allred (39:32)
Thanks again for listening to Elevator Tools and Tech, from the Elevator Careers Podcast. Please remember to check out the wide range of products and services from Express Elevators and Lifts. You can visit ExpressElevatorsLifts.com to learn more. The link will be in the description below. Please like and subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.