Lift maintenance in Switzerland: what you actually pay for
A maintenance contract is not a product but a set of services whose content varies widely from one offer to another. The price shown therefore says little about the real cost. What can be compared is the structure of the annual invoice: flat fee, visits, parts, out-of-contract interventions and remote monitoring.
The question comes up at every general meeting: how much should the maintenance of our lift cost? The honest answer is that there is no single reference price, because a maintenance contract is not a product but a set of services whose content varies considerably from one offer to another.
The structure of the cost, however, is perfectly well known. Understanding its components makes it possible to place an offer, spot an anomaly and above all compare two proposals that do not look comparable.
The contract: what you are actually buying
The annual contract amount covers a number of preventive visits, a level of breakdown service and, depending on the case, coverage of certain parts. Two contracts at the same price can differ on each of these three points, in significant proportions.
- Number of preventive visits per year and duration of each visit
- Breakdown service hours: office hours only, or extended service
- Guaranteed response time, possibly modulated by area
- Coverage of wear parts, defective parts and electronic components
- Whether remote monitoring is included in the package
Out-of-contract interventions: the item that escapes control
This is almost always where the gaps hide. A repair is not included in the contract, so it is billed separately. Multiplied over twelve months and several installations, this line can represent a considerable share of the real budget.
The signal to watch for is repetition. Two interventions on the same door within six months do not signal bad luck, but a setting issue or a component at the end of its life. As long as the cause is not treated, the bill renews itself indefinitely.
What makes the price vary from one installation to another
- The age and technical generation of the unit
- Parts availability: an old unit costs more to maintain than to modernise
- The number of stops and the travel height
- Actual traffic, which determines wear
- The brand and the degree of standardisation of the components
- Accessibility of the machine room and building access constraints
How to compare two offers seriously
The method is to build a table in three columns: what is included, what is billed as an extra, and what is not mentioned. The third column is often the most revealing, because a contract can remain silent about a service you will need.
One external data point must be added: how much your installation actually cost over the last three years, outside the contract. That figure, not the displayed price of the contract, is your operating cost. Until you have calculated it, any comparison remains theoretical.
When cost becomes a signal
When the annual cost of maintaining and repairing an installation approaches the annualised cost of a modernisation, keeping it as it is stops being a saving. This tipping point is not intuitive: it is calculated, by comparing not the annual amount with the investment, but the operating and unavailability cost over the remaining service life.
This is precisely the calculation we produce for our clients, installation by installation, using the figures of their own portfolio rather than market averages.
Go further
Would you like a reading of your own situation (contract, quote, installation or an entire portfolio)? A first conversation is usually enough to identify what is really at stake.