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Service Lifts

Service Lifts are really the modern-day equivalent of dumb waiters and, whilst they are not as common as the other types of lift which we encounter in our day to day lives, they can be found in restaurants and indeed offices and are designed to make the life of workers easier whilst making the company in general much more efficient and smooth-running.

Service lifts can carry heavy documents or plates of hot dinners up several floors and thus cut out the need for staff to do heavy lifting or running about with hot plates- the health and safety people thus, naturally, love the idea of service lifts. However, it really isn’t as simple as liking the idea and then deciding that you want to get one; getting a service lift is something which may well be dependent on circumstances beyond your control, not least financial ones, but also whether or not you have a building which can structurally accommodate a service lift as well.

A service lift, in much the same way as a dumb waiter, would require a shaft to be hollowed out in between the floors which you wanted the lift to run between- this shaft would need to be in a place which was suitable for all floors- it’s all very well having a lift entrance on one level where you can put paperwork in, but if it comes out on the lower floor behind someone’s desk or in an unreachable part of the office then it really is no good. Such practical concerns really need to be addressed very early on in the process of deciding whether or not to get a service lift.

In restaurants, service lifts are very common although, as the fashion of the moment is being able to see your food being cooked or even having it prepared right in front of you, they have fallen out of favour in these establishments as well. They are still quite common in hotels, where room service dictates that hot food needs to be delivered quickly and swiftly between floors.

Service lifts are much smaller than passenger lifts or goods lifts and can thus be much more discreet. They come from a history of discretion, descended as they are from the dumbwaiter which was used at a time when servants needed to be neither seen nor heard. In much the same way, service lifts can now cut down on the people-traffic on the stairs and in the halls of offices as they allow paperwork to be quickly liaised between department and department.

One of the main things which people often fail to consider when they are considering getting a service lift is the fact that they are not very flexible- these days it is highly unusual to find a block of offices, all for the same company, which are stacked on top of one another; in the 21st century they are much more likely to be spread over one floor of a giant industrial complex.

Paper work will still need to be ferried from one office to another but  a lift will be of no use as there is no vertical travelling which needs to be done- if this seems like a good description of the office space which you and your business currently inhabits then it is most certainly the case that a service lift is probably not going to be of much use to you- in a similar way that a restaurant that has its kitchen on the same floor as its diners is not going to need a service lift to help it distribute food.

With lifts being such an expense to pay out for it really is worth debating whether one is really needed- if you already have a plethora of passenger lifts for example then paper work may well be able to be transported in these- or in goods lifts- and thus you may not need to invest in a new type of lift for your company.

If you do decide that a service lift is what you want then you should first take a look at the following articles which we have collected for you on this site and then go off and do your own research- try to find a company who is willing to do the structural work and the fitting of the lift as well as all the maintenance- this will save you a lot of hassle in the long run and should help you keep your business running smoothly.

A service lift is a big investment but, if done for the right reasons, it can really help you take your business to the next level and protect the interests of your employees and your customers at the same time as well.               

Service Lift Information Guide:

What are service lifts?	How does a service lift work?
How often should I get service lifts maintained?	Where would you install a service lift?