Latest / The Elevator Careers Podcast / Advice from 31 Years in the Elevator Trade | Troy Tilleraas

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Advice from 31 Years in the Elevator Trade | Troy Tilleraas · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Today our guest is Troy Tillerock.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Troy is the vice president of field operations with Schumacher Elevator.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Troy's been in the elevator industry for over 30 years, and about 21 of those years were in the field.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Troy loves what he does and is passionate about the industry.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it be parts, tooling, or information, Troy's mission is to get the field personnel what they need so they, the company, and the customers succeed.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Troy, welcome to the show.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Matt.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm excited to uh to talk a little bit more about your career and and Schumacher Elevator.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh you uh you're definitely in a kind of a unique spot out there in the Midwest.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh it's gonna it's gonna be a lot of fun.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the the question I want to start with is how did you get started in the elevator industry?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my brother-in-law's brother, who worked for Montgomery at the time, was home 4th of July, and he was working out in Los Angeles.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: He came home and asked if I needed a good job, and at that time I was uh divorced and uh needed to find a different career path, so I said yes, and he said, Well, if you can be in LA on Monday, we'll get you working on Tuesday.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I took some guns and some other stuff that I had to put together enough money for a one-way ticket to LA, hawked that stuff on Saturday, flew out to Los Angeles, stayed uh with him for a couple of weeks, uh, went to the Union Hall on a Monday and was working on a Tuesday in Chinatown.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So your first assignment sounds like uh construction related.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is it helped?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was on a construction job, uh downtown LA, hydraulic elevators, but uh it was uh still in the big city, if you will, from uh an Iowa farm boy that uh hadn't been to that uh big city or to any major city other than maybe Des Moines or Minneapolis.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it was quite a change.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So how long were you in that role as a as a helper and doing construction and what that looked like?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was uh a helper for the first six months, and soon as I got to become a helper, the day that I turned uh 70%er, I went directly to a temporary mechanic.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was working in uh uh Santa Barbara at a uh big mall up at there at the time, and putting in uh hydraulic elevators, we had escalators and uh some big freights up there.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I spent three years out in LA with Montgomery, put in a transfer from there to get back to the Midwest, uh, and moved back to Milwaukee with Montgomery at the time, did some escalators at the convention center, and when that job got uh completed, I uh got a uh job with Schindler Elevator in Minneapolis, St.
• 3:56
  unknown: Paul.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right on so how long were you with with Schindler then from there on?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was with Schindler for 20 years total.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I spent seven years in the field doing uh repair and modernization, did a little stint in service, and then I took uh my boss's job at the time in repair and modernization.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: I became the modernization superintendent.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was that for 13 years at Schindler in Minneapolis, and then uh after that uh I met Jeff Schumacher at a uh modernization walkthrough and flat out told him that you're either gonna hire me or I'm gonna start my own company and gave him about a 48-hour ultimatum, and uh the rest is history.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: If you say he uh he made me a job offer, and uh so then I uh was the branch manager of uh a freshly started office up in Minneapolis for Schumacher at the time.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we had one service guy and one modernization crew, and uh I was up there for seven years and we grew that to uh about uh I think we had 13 crews when I left there and uh four or five uh service routes.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me just a little bit about your your motivation at you know, after the time with Montgomery and 20 years at Schindler, you you you came to a point where, like you said to to Jeff, you're either gonna hire me or I'm gonna start my own.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: What was kind of behind that?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it sounds like there's uh obviously a lot of thought, a lot of uh passion to do something different.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the the passion of meeting people uh doing modernization, you got to meet a lot of the customers directly, uh, building managers.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we did a lot of hospital work and got to meet all the building engineers.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um basically I like to find a fix to their problems of their elevators to get them uh upgraded or find a solution to why they're having so many breakdowns and what have you.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I just uh kind of a people person just wanted to facilitate and make uh make their lives better through through their uh world of uh elevators.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it sounds like you you didn't necessarily think you could do that where you were, and so you needed a new uh new venue in which to make that happen, is that right?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean working for one of the majors, you you're left to doing your job and maybe nothing more.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you got different different compartments, if you will.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: You stayed in your lane and uh, you know, one compartment does construction, one compartment does modernization, one compartment did service, but they necessarily didn't overlap, and you were you got your hands in everything.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: So working for an independent, uh like Schumacher.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um one day I can be helping out the service department side of things, and next day I can be doing the uh construction side, whatever it may be.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it does sound like you got a chance to to definitely wear a lot of hats and and uh you know maybe be that that point of contact for your your customer that that could really look at all sides of the of the issue and work work through you know get a lot of calls from different uh consultants, you know, asking for you know budget numbers or thoughts, ideas on how they could present a project that uh the customer wants to do, but they don't want to have uh the downtime, or maybe they've got a challenge on getting the equipment in, but they don't want to disrupt their building.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, they come right out and ask, and I'm all about helping them out.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm curious who who are some of your biggest mentors as you got into the to the elevator industry and and uh needed to needed help and needed to ask questions of others.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh probably my biggest one was probably my boss at Schindler.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he's retired now, Gary Anderson.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Gary worked for a company Loger Quist Elevator, which was eventually bought out by Dover.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um he came and it was our boss at uh Schindler, gave me a lot of insight on not only doing my job but preparing helpers to become great mechanics, um, communicating with service guys so that you weren't just a lone ranger and come in there and fix their one problem.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you kind of asked them if there's anything else that you could do to help their project uh become better since you're there anyway.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um he was probably the major one.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's some other guys out there when I was out in LA.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: We had uh our construction superintendent is Tommy Bowden.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um he was the superintendent that I had when I was up in Santa Barbara that basically set me up as a TM.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh very hands-off kind of guy, but uh was always there.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you needed something, uh he he answered his phone, you know.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's a big thing in even in today's world is to be being able to have somebody pick up the other end.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: So sure.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: That that sounds like such a small thing, but but to hear you talk about it, uh it's a huge thing, you know.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: When when you need help, you need help, right?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean we have all these forms of communication, but how many times do you you know, you send an email, you send, you pick up the phone, but nobody's there.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, usually if the guy is calling, he's got a problem and he's probably got it, he's got that issue now.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't he needs it answered, you know, in the short term.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I appreciate that.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I hear I hear you talking about, you know, just a second ago, you were talking about uh your boss at Schindler and how he would reach out to people and and just ask questions.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Something as simple as communicating, saying how can how can we support you in that project?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: How can we make things better?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, do you do you worry sometimes that that maybe people are sent out on projects and just don't have the support or the communication that they need to do a good job and feel good about what they're doing?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's I I can't speak for everybody, but I think there's a lot of people out there that are just uh given the uh box of equipment and say there, you're an elevator man, you got an M on your card, go install it.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, in today's world with the smartphone, uh they can look up a lot of things, but if we take those excuses away and give them all the information, um more information is better than not enough.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been accused of putting a lot of paperwork in in the job packets if uh if I know that there's something that's a little bit uh off, that's not a common thing that they've done.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um another thing is having these superintendents talk to the their field guys and finding out what they want to do in five years, ten years, you know, what what's their what's their life goals, you know, really getting to know them rather than just assuming they're a mechanic that they want to stay turning a wrench their whole career.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Talk me through that a little bit.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: What what have you seen come about as you get, like you say, a superintendent talking to the mechanics and say, hey, what what do you want?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: What is your long-term plan look like?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: What have you seen come of that?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them have said, you know, wow, I've never given it a whole lot of thought, and the next guy may have said, you know, um, I want to do something different.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the kids are out of the house now.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't have to do XYZ.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to, you know, see what type of uh part of the career can take me in.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if I get out of the field, maybe I can work 10, 12 years, uh maybe a little bit longer than I was planning on working just at 58 until if I turned a wrench that whole time.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can save my uh back, my body from uh stacking rails, climbing scaffold.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, uh a lot of them have given it some thought.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're fortunate enough at Schumacher, we instill that into our uh manpower.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and we've got two guys that are in our office right now that are within the last six months that one's a field engineer and uh the other one's a uh construction and mod superintendent, which both came from the field.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's interesting you say that because I know with a lot of my clients, there's a there's a just a challenge to get people to leave the field, but but it's so valuable to have them in in the office, especially you know, leading others or or maybe it's running projects or like you said, engineering.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um what what is it do you feel like needs to happen to help people make that transition easier?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think you have to be up front and and tell them that um, you know, they are gonna have to get paid accordingly.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: You can't expect somebody to uh lead a six-figure career and come into the office and go backwards, but you have to be realistic and show them what the other benefits are.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everybody's got a 401k that you know now the company will match up to a certain percentage of their income.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you've got company vehicle that you can use for personal, which is a huge item if you start putting, you know, paper and pencil to it, what that actually is worth.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when you start putting all these benefits to that, I think that companies would realize that some of their best resources are people that already work for them.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the nice part about it is their fellow co-workers can call on them and they know in a superintendent's role that they know the part, they know how to put the part together, they know how to take it apart, they know how to uh how long it should take, uh, what they would may be missing.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, rather than hiring somebody completely out of the field into a and then put into a supervisory role, you're not gonna learn that in three, five, maybe even ten years if you don't actually turn a wrench.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I think a lot of them are missing the boat.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it sounds like giving them the opportunity and and obviously giving them fair pay for what they know because obviously they've learned a lot in the field and and have a lot to bring into the office with them.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we had a I was in the parts room here a couple weeks ago and had a uh one of the major four companies had called in to our parts office and uh they said uh sent a picture along with an email and said that we need this shoe mocker roller guide.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the parts man showed it to me and I said, that's not a shoemacher roller guide.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's got shoe blue paint on it, so it might look like it's a shoemacher roller guide.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the controller on the job might have been a shoe mocker, but it's that's that's a Westinghouse roller guide.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's got four-inch uh face roller and a or a six-inch uh face roller and a four-inch side roller, the old style Westinghouse.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the serviceman even said, Well, how do you know that?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, you work in this industry for 30 years and 20 years of it turning a wrench, I you'll you'll know you'll pick up those things.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that was a a young service superintendent that worked for a major that all he had to do was, you know, if he would have had some more help on his end, why he would have been able to go to the right vendor, but we could still find the part for him, but it wasn't it wasn't a Schumacher part, but we helped him out.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, maybe maybe he knew he that he didn't know, but he but just by calling you guys, well, they'll know they can help me out.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and that then that is a lot of it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we do answer the phone, we ask the qu or answer the question, and uh we uh we don't uh we don't know it all, but uh we've got a lot of uh knowledgeable people that have come from different companies.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh we've put them together and we've got a fantastic team.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and to your point, it sounds like you know, there are definitely things that that can only be learned firsthand.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, having that experience of of being in the field is is uh invaluable when you you know you can help others figure out what part or figure out what what needs to happen with the uh the latest modernization.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I've heard you talk a lot about modernization, especially as you were um talking through different parts of your career.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um what what would you say is one of the uh your favorite modernization projects you've worked on?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, about five years ago, we did a project in St.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Paul called the James J.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hill Library.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh an uh early 1900s little elevator, probably 12, 1500 pound capacity, and they wanted to upgrade it and make it ADA compliant, but yet it's in a in an existing library with all the uh limestone walls, etc., old wood that was uh original.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we tore out one wall and uh worked with the general contractor and put in a rope hydro that went five floors and had a glass uh cab in it and wood cab, so the occupants of the building could see the workings of the elevator, if you will, and uh it still fit into the building like it was originally there from the 1920s.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of the uh custom units that we've done.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a fun job to work on.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of fun.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about Schumacher.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you've got your your service, you know, um, offices that you have around multiple states or whatever, but how did how did Schumacher get started and and what was it that kind of led them to actually start manufacturing?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Schumacher's a family-owned business, and the first items that they did were some farm equipment uh chicken coop uh delivery lift, if you will, and then they uh gravitated to a casket lifts for uh mortuaries and whatnot, and then they eventually just got into putting a lot of elevators uh into different buildings uh around Iowa.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I've witnessed and looked at some of them, and uh, it was before the days of ASME code, if you will.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of them have been.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Tore out.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them have been retrofitted.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: I actually retrofitted a unit here about four years ago in a uh mortuary where uh I think it was number, I want to say 36 that uh the number of units that they had done.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it was it was quite an old unit.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: It had an overhead uh traction single cable wind up uh lift on it, and uh the building had to occupy had changed it to a push button in the elevator while it didn't meet code, so we had to we went in and and modernized it and made it legal, and so it uh has quite a challenge to keep the existing customers that we've had that a lot of the units probably don't have code, but with uh a continuation of time, why the inspections department has caught up with them and now we've gotten to upgrade them as well.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say is is kind of the the place where where Schumacher excels?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're you're building uh I guess custom units, is that right?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: What um we build the units that uh a lot of companies don't want to spend the time of engineering with we make you have a hoistway size, we'll put an elevator in it that fits.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um we custom fit a unit for your space rather than we tell you what you need, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: We can do both both ways, but our niche is uh you got a XYZ space, we'll put an elevator in it.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool, very cool.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh some some odd shape, odd size, and doesn't matter, we'll make it work.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool, very cool.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: So start pegging a round hole.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, Troy, what makes Schumacher as an independent different from other independents in the industry?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Probably the biggest key is our own on-site engineering staff.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have our own mechanical engineers and electrical right here in the big town of Denver, Iowa.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't have to send out those items to get looked at.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: We manufacture our own equipment to whatever the spec is asking if there is a spec.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um we also have our own test tower for our hydraulics.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we we test all of our equipment before it's uh sent out.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Our electrical uh department has their own test stands that all of our controllers are hooked up to and they're verified that everything does function.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we sell a lot of units to other independent companies out there that buy complete units from us or maybe just a package.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have our own cab department where we provide the cab complete.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to go to a third party that just does elevator cabs, if you will.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if they want to purchase a complete elevator, start to finish, and they all they have to do is supply the labor to install it.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: We do that as well.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: You got it all right there in-house, then, huh?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: We have our own wholesale department that uh we've got one guy that handles primarily the east coast, we've got another gentleman that handles the west coast, and we have one in-house person here in Denver, Iowa that handles wholesale calls that come in just to uh our office right here in Denver.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're talking about wholesale, you're talking about, as I understand it, um, a non-proprietary elevator.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody says, hey, I want to, you know, whatever, put you know, put in this elevator, you'll sell them the whole package, they can install it.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you're you're providing all the pieces.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're providing we're providing everything from the rail brackets to the rails to sling and platform.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: If they want to purchase their own controller, or they tell us that they've got a certain controller that they like to purchase from uh a different third party than us, they certainly can.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: We'll put the we manufacture our own our own fixtures, or if they want to supply their own, or we incorporate what company they like to use, we can do that as well.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you consider Schumacher N OEM, or how do you uh think of it?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: We are a manufacturer, but we supply a non-proprietary controller using our own controller, but it's all third-party components to it.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that's proprietary on it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, anybody can work on it, right?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's PLC based.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it has the landing system is used by other elevator companies, so it's very uh user-friendly.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Very cool.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what what is it that you love most about the elevator industry?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when I was turning a wrench, the part that I liked the most on that side of things was something different every day.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one day you could be stacking rails, the next day you are uh putting together the uh slang.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Another day you could be wiring, next day you could be doing carpentry work.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: So in the field, that was something new.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Every every two, three days was something different.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: In the office, it's kind of the same way with the hat that I'm wearing.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I work uh with the service department, with the construction department, with modernization, with uh all our people in the office, with the engineers.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a variation of people and then also our clientele, customers, direct customers, uh, universities, consultants, just to find a common uh common problem or common solution to their problem.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever uh that's the part that I like is just problem solving.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it sounds like it uh never gets boring.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Something something new every day.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Something new every day is right.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: If uh I'm gonna ask maybe just a couple questions before we wrap up as we're kind of um running out of time here.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, first question is if you could maybe wave a magic wand and change any one thing in the industry, what would it be?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: The elimination of the MRL traction elevator.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've gone, in my opinion, we've gone backwards.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're taking that unit, and now we're making a confined space on top of the elevator where if the field tech is on top checking out the machine, he has or she has gone up there by themselves.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if they lose power to that building, it's a confined space, even if it's if they don't lose power, it's still a now we've introducing a confined space on top of the elevator.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if they can't get down for some reason, did they put a ladder on the escape hatch inside the cab?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, did they remember to open the doors so that they can eliminate the restrictor if they do come down the escape hatch on the ladder and can push the car doors open and get out?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: All of these things in a uh in that type of setting that I don't think are really needed just to prevent uh the owner from maybe three more feet on top of the roof to give a person a full overhead traction elevator.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So looking out for safety, sounds like uh you're you're identifying a place where maybe we could uh have a little more space and just be I think we have to we have to look at it on the on the big scheme of things on how long that building is going to be around.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're all all the general contractors are given a budget.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that, but they have to go back to their building owner and say, you know, if this building is gonna last you 80 years, putting a direct overhead standard traction elevator compared compared to an MRL, what are the cost savings going to be?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how much are you really saving over a period of time?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, makes sense.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: So last question I want to ask you is what advice would you give to somebody who's maybe starting out fresh in their elevator career and and um doesn't have the perspective of of 30 years?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say to them?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a uh field tech, ask questions, ask questions and always stay busy.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you can always push the brew, clean.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um do stuff on your own time.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh when I first was came into the office, I didn't know how to do too much on a computer.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I took computer classes on my own.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh not everything is going to be IUEC trained.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you need to go and take another electrical class so that you become better at it, uh some of your own initiative uh to further your career is going to be beneficial in the long run.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're a person in the office, a salesperson or whatever, ask questions, ask if you can go along with your construction and modernization superintendent to get a uh hands-on and look at what you're actually selling.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I try to take a young service person, salesman, saleswoman along when I do my mod walkthroughs or uh construction site visit, just so they can see.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of them have told me that I learned more today than I have in the last three months.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's beneficial.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's they can see what you're talking about.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a video only does so much until they get out there in the real life.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Troy, I appreciate you being on with me today.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the conversation.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Wish you the very best.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Matt.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the All Red Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please subscribe, and until next time, stay safe.