Lifts and escalators tender writing support for public-sector bids

Check the assets and service boundaries

Review manufacturers, models, age, usage, condition, locations and known defects. Identify proprietary systems, access restrictions and specialist tools or parts. Clarify the condition information available and what the buyer expects you to accept at transfer.

HSE's thorough-examination guidance distinguishes examination from maintenance. The examining competent person needs sufficient independence and impartiality; this does not always require a separate company. Define the actual arrangement and responsibilities in this contract rather than describing every service visit as a statutory examination. HSE also distinguishes lifts used at work from escalators: LOLER does not apply to escalators, which have separate provisions. Check the asset and use before applying a lift-specific requirement.

Evidence to gather before writing

Choose material that matches this service and the buyer's questions. Check that it is accurate, state the period it covers and confirm you have permission to use it externally. Your technical team and writer can start with these records.

• •Asset-type experience, engineer coverage and any specialist or manufacturer support needed
• •Comparable breakdown data defining attendance, restoration, availability and the period measured
• •Maintenance, parts, defect and examination-action records showing how issues were resolved

Separate attendance from restoring service

Use the buyer's definitions for call acknowledgement, attendance, entrapment response, temporary action and full restoration. Explain call handling, engineer allocation, escalation and the information given to building users. Show how cover works when several faults occur together.

Identify the practical limits to repair speed, including specialist diagnostics and parts lead times. Explain how alternatives, escalation and communication work within the agreed scope. Avoid using a fast attendance metric to imply that every outage is resolved within the same period.

Build a credible maintenance and parts plan

Link planned activity to the portfolio and contract requirements. Describe how recurring faults, examination reports and engineer observations inform investigation and proposed work. Identify who authorises additional repairs and how completed actions are recorded.

For ageing equipment, show the process for identifying obsolescence, checking stock and advising the buyer about options. A claim to hold critical spares needs a relevant stock or supply arrangement, not a general statement about supplier relationships.

Price the cover and exclusions consistently

Check which components, repairs, call-outs, working hours and damage events are included in the price. Reconcile engineer cover, travel, specialist attendance and reporting with the service levels. Ask for clarification where the schedule leaves a material ambiguity.

For modernisation, align surveys, design approvals, outage periods, access, testing and handover with the programme and estimate. Explain how the building operates during the works and how completion is accepted before the lift returns to the agreed service.

Example: a portfolio with one critical passenger lift

An illustrative response would identify the effect of that lift's failure on building users, explain the agreed notification and response arrangements, and show the relevant engineer and parts support. It would keep planned outages coordinated with the buyer.

The evidence should define availability and any exclusions, with a reporting period. Describe a comparable breakdown or modernisation and the actions your team controlled. A fleet-wide average can hide poor performance on the most important asset.

Working with a lifts and escalators tender writer

Give the bid team the full tender pack, pricing schedule, clarification updates, portal instructions and deadlines. Start by checking eligibility, whether you can deliver the contract, gaps in the evidence and how much time your contributors can give. For an agreed bid, Bidgen can plan the response, interview your specialists, draft the answers and run reviews until the bid is ready to submit. Your business approves the price, technical claims, risk and final response.

Check this guidance against the current tender documents and the rules that apply to your activity and jurisdiction.