Lesson 3 of 3Maintenance and inspections
Measuring lift performance.
A maintenance contract is easier to judge with a few clear numbers. Here is how to work out availability, call-outs, repeat faults and response times from your own records, with worked examples.
Why measure.
Good maintenance is hard to see: the lift just works. A few numbers, collected the same way every month, show whether it is working well, warn you early when it is not and let you talk to your contractor about facts rather than impressions.
NHS guidance on lifts puts this as a duty: it is the duty holder’s responsibility to check the competence and effectiveness of the maintenance contractor from time to time. It adds that the thorough examination report under LOLER, while not an absolute confirmation, “can give an indication” of whether maintenance is being carried out properly.
The European Standard on maintenance indicators, BS EN 15341, applies to all kinds of physical asset, including buildings. BSI’s summary says such indicators “should be used to” measure the current state, compare, diagnose strengths and weaknesses, set targets, plan improvements and track changes over time.
Engineer’s note
There is no single standard set of indicators for lift maintenance. The ones below are common contract practice. In our view, a handful of indicators, defined clearly and reviewed regularly, is worth more than a long list.
Availability.
Availability is the share of the time a lift was needed that it was actually in service. BSI’s summary of BS EN 13306, the maintenance terminology standard, puts it at the heart of maintenance: “to ensure the availability of the item to function as required, at optimum costs”.
The sum is simple: take the hours the lift was needed, subtract the hours it was out of service, divide by the hours it was needed and multiply by 100.
Describe this diagram
A calendar for a 30-day month starting on a Monday. The lift broke down on day 6, out of service for 6 hours, and on day 17, for 3 hours. On day 23 it was out of service for a 4-hour planned repair. The lift was needed 24 hours a day, so for 720 hours. Not counting planned work, availability is 720 minus 9, divided by 720: 98.75%. Counting planned work, it is 720 minus 13, divided by 720: 98.19%.
The same month gives two different figures, depending only on whether the planned repair counts. That is why the definition matters as much as the number.
Guaranteed availability
Some contracts guarantee a level of availability. NHS guidance on lifts describes a performance guaranteed maintenance contract, which “guarantees a percentage availability of a lift during agreed periods of time”. Its example is theatre bed lifts needed from 10.00 to 13.00 and 14.00 to 17.00 every day, with 99% availability: “up to 22 hours of lost service in a contract year”. Six hours a day for a year is 2,190 hours, and 1% of that is just under 22 hours.
If the availability is not provided, the service charge is reduced by an agreed amount, “for example, 5% of the monthly service charge for every hour lost above the agreed percentage”. The guidance notes that this type of contract can be more expensive.
Definitions to agree
- Which hours count: 24 hours a day, or only the hours the building needs the lift.
- When time out of service starts, for example when the fault is reported or when the monitoring system detects it, and when it ends.
- Whether planned maintenance, thorough examinations and planned repairs count as time out of service.
- How to treat misuse, vandalism and repairs the building has delayed, for example while a quote waits for approval.
- Whether the figure is for each lift or for a group of lifts. In our view, report each lift separately: an average can hide one unreliable lift.
Out-of-service times can come from your lift logbook and your contractor’s reports. Where a lift has remote monitoring, LEIA’s code of practice notes that it can provide “basic monitoring of the equipment and whether it is in service” and “gathering of data on the reliability and performance of the equipment”.
Call-outs and repeat faults.
A call-out is a visit to deal with a fault, a breakdown or a trapping, on top of the planned visits. Count them for each lift, each month or each quarter. A busy lift will usually have more than a quiet one, so compare each lift with its own history and watch the trend.
Group call-outs by cause. LEIA’s code of practice says the scope of call-out attendance should be defined in the maintenance agreement, and that any exclusions, such as call-outs for misuse or vandalism, should be clearly specified. Keeping those apart from equipment faults gives a fairer picture of reliability.
Repeat faults
A repeat fault is the same fault on the same lift within an agreed period after it was fixed. In our view, it is the clearest sign that a fault has been fixed for the day but not cured. When one appears, ask your contractor what the cause is and what will stop it coming back. Our guide to lift faults explains the common ones.
Count trappings separately and ask for the cause of each one. Every trapping matters, however rare.
Response and fix times.
Three times tell you how well call-outs are handled:
- Response time: from the fault being reported to the engineer arriving.
- Fix time: from the fault being reported to the lift being back in service.
- First-time fix: the share of call-outs where the lift is back in service after the first attendance.
Compare the actual times with the targets in your contract. Take the times from your own logbook as well as from the contractor’s reports. Our guide to choosing a lift maintenance company covers the response times to expect in London, and suggests asking a contractor for its actual average last quarter, not just its promise.
A long fix time is not always the contractor’s doing. Parts for older or proprietary lifts can take time to arrive. In our view, record time spent waiting for parts separately, so the figure shows where the delay lies.
Planned work and compliance.
Some of the most useful indicators are about work that should happen whether or not anything goes wrong:
- Planned visits made: visits carried out against visits scheduled. Our lesson on SFG20 for lifts explains how a schedule sets the work.
- Examination defects closed on time: defects from each thorough examination report remedied by the date in the report. Our lesson on how to read a LOLER report explains those dates.
- Thorough examinations on time: each examination carried out by its due date.
For healthcare buildings, NHS guidance recommends a maintenance audit of each lift at least once a year, including “measurement of operating times (includes individual door-operating times, flight times, performance times and cycle times against an agreed schedule)”. Measured the same way each year, those times show whether a lift is slowing down. In our view, a similar audit is worth considering for any large estate.
Indicators at a glance.
| Indicator | How to measure it | Where the data comes from | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Availability | Hours in service ÷ hours needed, for each lift | Logbook, call-out reports, remote monitoring | A falling trend, or a gap between your figure and the contractor’s |
| Call-outs | Number for each lift each month or quarter, grouped by cause | Call-out reports | A rising trend, or many call-outs with no fault found |
| Repeat faults | Call-outs for the same fault on the same lift within an agreed period | Call-out reports | Any fault that comes back more than once |
| Trappings | Number for each lift, with the time to release | Call-out reports and logbook | Any trapping without a clear cause |
| Response time | From report to the engineer arriving, against the contract target | Logbook and call-out reports | Times outside the target |
| Fix time and first-time fix | From report to back in service, and the share fixed at the first attendance | Call-out reports | Long waits for parts, or repeated attendances |
| Planned visits | Visits made ÷ visits scheduled | Visit reports | Missed or shortened visits |
| Examination defects | Defects remedied by the date in the report | Examination reports and repair records | Any defect past its date |
Reviewing the numbers.
The figures come from four places: your logbook, your contractor’s visit and call-out reports, remote monitoring where it is fitted and your thorough examination reports. In our view, review them with your contractor every quarter, lift by lift, and judge the trend over a year rather than a single month.
Watch for common traps:
- An average across several lifts, which can hide one unreliable lift.
- A single bad month, which may be chance. Look for a pattern.
- Figures without definitions, which cannot be compared.
- Targets that reward the wrong thing. For example, closing call-outs quickly without curing the fault shows up later as repeat faults.
Our page on lift maintenance contracts explains what each level of cover includes. Our Plus contracts include a recurring fault review by a senior engineer.
Check your understanding.
Three quick questions on this lesson. Choose an answer to check it, or open the answer below each question.
-
A lift is needed 24 hours a day for a 30-day month. Breakdowns take it out of service for 9 hours. Not counting planned work, what is its availability?
Show the answer
A. 98.75%. The lift was needed for 720 hours (30 × 24) and in service for 711 of them. 711 ÷ 720 = 0.9875, or 98.75%.
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Your contractor reports 99.5% availability for a lift, but your own figure is 98.2%. What is the most likely reason?
Show the answer
B. The figures use different definitions, for example of planned work or the hours that count. The same month can give different figures depending on which hours count and whether planned work, misuse or waiting for parts are treated as time out of service. That is why the contract should define availability.
-
Which of these most clearly suggests that a fault is not being cured?
Show the answer
B. The same fault on the same lift leads to three call-outs in a month. Busy lifts usually have more call-outs, and planned visits vary in length. The same fault coming back is a repeat fault: it suggests the cause has not been found.
Sources.
The primary sources for this lesson. We checked them when the lesson was last updated on 18 October 2026. How we research and check our lessons.
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Related reading
Want figures you can hold us to?
Every Durant contract states response targets in writing, and Durant OS gives you live job status, visit reports and compliance documents for each lift.
Common questions.
Quick answers to common questions about this topic.
How is lift availability calculated?
Divide the hours the lift was in service by the hours it was needed, and multiply by 100. A lift needed 24 hours a day for 30 days is needed for 720 hours. If breakdowns take it out of service for 9 hours, its availability is 711 divided by 720, or 98.75%. The contract should say whether planned work counts as time out of service.
What KPIs should a lift maintenance contract include?
Common indicators are availability, call-outs for each lift, repeat faults, trappings, response and fix times against the contract targets, planned visits made and examination defects closed on time. There is no single standard list, so agree a few, with clear definitions.
What is a good availability figure for a lift?
There is no single benchmark, because it depends on the lift, its age and how it is used. NHS guidance on lifts gives an example of a contract guaranteeing 99% availability for theatre bed lifts during set hours. In our view, the trend for each lift and the reason for each outage tell you more than a single figure.
What is a performance guaranteed maintenance contract?
A fully comprehensive maintenance contract that also guarantees a percentage availability during agreed periods. NHS guidance on lifts describes one, with the service charge reduced if the availability is not provided, and notes that this type of contract can be more expensive.