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Thursday, July 27, 2006

Best Elevator in Vancouver: A Feature Report

Couriers do not work alone in the struggle to produce on time deliveries. An aid in this constant battle is the modern elevator. A Service Failure can occur any time for any number of reasons.
But, a bulwark in the success of on-time deliveries is an efficient, and well thought out elevator system. Couriers rely on these well-designed systems in times of stress, when literally, seconds count. Will your elevator be there when you press the button? Just how long will I have to wait and worry about the customer and his time sensitive document? Once on board will it take me quickly to my intended destination
These are crucial thoughts racing through the mind of a courier as he heads relentlessly towards his destination.. He is only seconds away from a Service Success or Service Failure. His confidence is buoyed by his knowing if the bank of elevators that he has now encountered will not let him down, or perhaps diminished by the sight of a failed system...

The above was my introductory piece for my elevator story which I present now. I am somewhat dismayed as I type this story for you because I had occasion to discuss this important topic with some of my courier colleagues, and, quite frankly, they did not seem to think that this was any burning issue for them. Needless to say, I was somewhat disheartened to hear their remarks because I sincerely thought that elevators, being the companions that they are would have engendered a more favourable response. But, it did not as I report to you now.

The main thing about good elevators is their consistency. You simply come to know which ones are reliable and which ones are not. You can feel better about your work and the job that you perform by knowing how these aids treat you during the course of your employment. They are like seeing eye dogs or even police dogs, for that matter. They are simply part of the job, and in many cases, you just cannot perform your task without them. You are not going to run up 30 stories just to deliver an envelope now are you?
But, even in the smaller structures you rely on them as well. The ones in the suburbs and in the Southside where many medical buildings are located, for example. Couriers do not usually run up 4 or 5 flights of stairs, they rely on elevators.
This leads me to my first criticism of some elevator sytems. And, I mention this West Broadway corridor in the Southside area as an example where you are going to run into many bad elevator experiences. They will be negative because of the structure of these elevators and the type of servicing that they do. Medical building in this area, for example are chronically slow and this is due primarily to the joining together of elevators that take you upwards from a lobby area, but at the same time can take you downward to parking levels. And, the more parking levels there are the more time consuming these elevator systems become. Some building are thinking a bit and separate the elevators. One goes down to parking levels while others simple go upwards. These are more efficient layouts.
My other criticism involves modern elevators in newer buildings that have elevators that can best be described as tortuously slow. Why? Why would any modern day designer of elevators put an obvious poor performer in a modern sleek building? It happens more often than you would expect. People have expectations and needs and they want them met. There is no reason for them not to be met, in my opinion. And, believe me I am not alone in my opinion of a tardy elevator system. I listen to the complaints as well.

I am not going to criticize the downtown core and its offering of elevator systems. I rank any high rise building about the same. They are all good and they have big jobs to do. Sometimes they are under stress and you can feel it, particularly in the morning and especially when the lunch crowd goes back to work. You simply have to wait sometimes. You cannot be overly judgemental under these conditions.

What I am striving to do though is to pick out the elevator, that in my opinion is a solid performer over time. I am not going to compete with highly capable machines in the downtown core because we are talking apples and oranges here. I am looking for that specimen which has never in my recollection let me down. When I press the button to open the elevator, it opens. And, it beckons me in. And, in less than a minute I am at my destination. And, it is waiting for me when I get back too. The winner is a simple two story building, sporting two elevator banks. Why is this important? Because, sometimes you can encounter a building with more levels with only one elevator. And, that elevator might also be serving the underground parking. I think you are starting to see what my values are when it comes to elevators. The winner of the best elevator in Vancouver is actually in Richmond at 5611 Cooney Road.




Now, just for contrast right across the street is a nortoriously slow elevator system. I show you the following picture so that you can compare the size of the two buildings. Our winning elevator system is located in the building in the foreground.




Compare the interior of the elevators and you can see how nice and simple the winning elevator system really is compared to its neighbour across the street.



Take note of the absolute simplicity of the design of this elevator. This system was born to serve and it also eager to perform when you ask it to. Compare this interior with the system directing across the street.



But, the elevator experience begins in this building even before you enter it. A treat for couriers is to have handy parking when you confront a structure as well. You don't want to waste time walking or going underground or parking in a lane or whatever. You want convenience and this building offers it. Look at the handy parking spot below.





Once inside the building of course you are immediately treated to the site of two elevators in a small building. What else could a courier ask for? Well, the answer is...a bathroom without a lock on it. Actually, I used to assign my private five star rating for this building because everything worked so perfectly. Courier friendly on all fronts. Except, I had to recently downgrade the full featured nature of this building because they have taken to locking their bathrooms like so many others. The reason given, so a receptionsist tells me was a break in and theft of a computer. A usual reason I suppose. I hope you like my pick for the winning elevator. That is all for now...

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey carl I dodn't think this is working????

Anonymous said...

well actually this is my third comment - not the first one.... I went to the PNE saturday opening day..... smile have a nice day.....

Anonymous said...

now that you mention it, yes ... this really is (was) a wonderfully courier-friendly building . the removal of the trouble-free urination station has, naturally, down-graded it's status, but only slightly, as the delightfulness of ms. campbell on the 2nd floor quickly eases most discomfort.

another very courier-friendly building is 4330 kingsway, where one can almost always secure an excellent parking spot, urinate freely, and quickly secure a fresh, quality cup of coffee at a reasonable price . it does often suffer from slow-elevator syndrome, mind you . i am going to think on this now ... is there a perfect building (from the couriers perspective), now that the restrooms have been locked at 5611 ? will advise if i come up with one .