Surprise and anger from elevator industry professionals were ignited last year when the
TSSA decided to revoke a three-year-old order to upgrade single-speed elevators. Many felt the decision was made without industry consultation and raises questions about the basis for the order in the first-place that leaves the public’s safety at risk.
Since then, CECA has been working non-stop to express their views to the TSSA and to demand answers as to the logic behind the seemingly rash decision. The TSSA’s decision to revoke this order has also become a part of CECAs discussions on the Reliable Elevator Act.
Here is an update and summary of some key points that were discussed between CECA and the TSSA about the revoked Directors Order for single-speed elevators:
CECA is not pleased that a Director’s Order that we see as safety improvement work was revoked putting the riding public in general at risk but especially seniors and the handicapped.
CECA is not pleased that what we had understood as previously established protocol was bypassed (We had always understood that one of the primary functions of EDAC and FAC was to review both the content and wording of director’s orders before they are released to ensure that both the implementation and message delivery was optimised to maximise the enhancement of safety. Granted, there are situations where the urgent nature of a safety concern may not allow the luxury of the time required for a full review process, but this situation certainly does not fall into that category).
CECA is willing to help provide some more accurate numbers of the actual number of single speed elevators that have been upgraded since the ruling was issued and how many are left to do. It seems clear that the numbers that we have heard from TSSA and what is being reported in the media is quite inaccurate. The initial numbers from our members seem to indicate that about 50% of the single speed elevators that existed at the time that the order was issued have already been upgraded and made safer.
TSSA indicated in writing that in the future, the TSSA will give EDAC and or FAC the opportunity to participate in fine tuning the wording of new Director’s Orders.
TSSA indicated that the TSSA would give us this opportunity even if the TSSA again made a decision to issue a ruling that the TSSA clearly knew that contractors were opposed to.
CECA requested the data that the original order was based on and the new data that resulted in revoking of the order. The TSSA indicated that they would consider providing this and would get back to us. CECA is pushing for their data.
CECA also requested that the TSSA provide the list of installation numbers that TSSA’s database has listed as single speed elevators, so that we can give the TSSA some of CECA’s information to update the TSSA’s database. TSSA indicated that the TSSA would consider providing this and would get back to us. CECA is still pushing for their data.
CECA also requested that the TSSA provide the list of installation numbers that TSSA’s database has listed as single speed elevators, so that we can give the TSSA some of CECA’s information to update the TSSA’s database. TSSA indicated that the TSSA would consider providing this and would get back to us. CECA is still pushing for their data.
We will continue to work on behalf of our CECA members in this matter. Please continue to express your own thoughts and concerns directly to your connections at TSSA, because the committee is of the opinion that the TSSA did this partially because they figured that CECA and our members would give less push back than other stakeholders in this decision. Everything that we do to demonstrate to TSSA that we will not simply back down will help us be considered more seriously in future decisions.
FIELDBOSS is a proud and supportive member of CECA.
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