Methodology

Where attributions come from

Every contractor name shown on a building page comes from a public record. We do not assert relationships in our own voice — every attribution carries a citation to the underlying source.

• Florida DBPR Bureau of Elevator Safety — statewide registry of elevators with each device’s registered service maintenance company. Source
• NYC DOB Elevator Permit Applications — elevator install, alteration, and modernization permits filed with the NYC Department of Buildings, naming the elevator agency that performed the work. Source
• Verified building-owner / contractor claims — relationships submitted via our claim form and reviewed against supporting evidence (invoice, contract page, work order).
• Additional jurisdictions in progress — Ontario TSSA, Texas TDLR, California Cal/OSHA, and federal/provincial procurement awards (SAM.gov, MERX, CanadaBuys) are being added.

How confidence is scored

Every observation carries a per-source confidence between 0 and 1. Sources that publish the maintenance contractor as a structured field (Florida DBPR, Ontario TSSA) carry a higher default than sources where the contractor is inferred (NYC DOB permits, where the most-recent permit-filer is a strong proxy but not the same thing as the current maintenance contract).

• verifiedAuthoritative regulatory record naming the maintenance company directly.
• inferred from permitsRecent permits at this address were filed by this firm; in NYC and most jurisdictions the permit-filer is typically the ongoing maintenance contractor, but contracts can change without a new permit.
• disputedMultiple sources have reported different service contractors at this address and we’re verifying.
• not yet verifiedWe don’t have a high-confidence record yet.

We never publish a contractor attribution we can’t cite to a public record. When confidence is low, we say so — uncertainty is part of the methodology, not a failure of it.

Re-verification cadence

Every observation has an expiry date. After expiry, the attribution is suppressed until re-verified by re-running the source ingest or via an updated claim. Authoritative records re-verify on an 18-month cycle by default; permit-derived inferences hold for 36 months; owner / contractor claims expire in 12 months.

Corrections and right of reply

If you’re a contractor or building owner / property manager and an attribution on this site is wrong, out of date, or you have a response to add, please get in touch:

• Email info@elevatoruptime.com with the building name, the corrected service contractor (if any), and any supporting evidence (work order, invoice, contract page).
• Verified corrections are reflected on the building page within one business week. Disputed records are flagged with a “disputed” label until resolved.

What we don’t publish

• We don’t publish aggregated contractor reliability scorecards (e.g., “Otis: 87% uptime”) at this stage. Those are different from per-building source-cited attribution and require a separate methodology and review process before launch.
• We don’t republish inspector names or other personal information from regulatory records.
• We don’t make claims about why an outage occurred or who is responsible. Outages are reported by riders or sourced from transit feeds; attributions to service contractors are independent of any specific outage.