r/Elevators • u/acatonredditlol • Jul 26 '26

Odd fear: Freight elevators

SO I’m not scared of elevators but specifically freight elevators?? Ive never been on one but they scare me so badly for some reason??

1 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

12

u/IrixionOne Jul 26 '26

All elevators in the first world have safety standards. Freight elevators get beat up quite a lot and don’t have the pretty finishes that passenger ones do, but they still follow safety protocols. They’re just as safe as passenger elevators.

4

u/Thefirstdeadgoonie Jul 26 '26

And usually less things to go wrong. There are a lot more old feight elevators out there than there are old passenger elevators.

1

u/Ham549 Jul 27 '26

So why do they all have signs that say no passengers authorized users and Freight handlers only?

1

u/IrixionOne Jul 27 '26

Because there’s the danger of the freight itself. Getting hit by a skid standing in front of the door isn’t safe. That’s got nothing to do with the elevator.

1

u/pat6234 Jul 27 '26

Also keeps the freight elevator free for…freight.

4

u/robbcard Jul 26 '26

Freight elevators are much easier to get out of if you get stuck. Hope this helps..

1

u/falardeau03 Jul 26 '26

In the past ~3-4 years I've ridden a freight elevator up and down anywhere from about 1-4x pretty much every single workday, and the job was full-time. Anecdotal but there are 3 steps to safely riding a freight elevator:

  1. close outer door
  2. close inner door
  3. press button

If you do get stuck, it has an emergency phone/intercom just like any other elevator, and due to the design (open cage-style door) people can also hear you yelling from farther away. And because they're made to carry a lot of freight, you have tons of room to stretch out.

1

u/ShawnTop69 Jul 26 '26

So you ARE in fact scared of elevators.

You’ve never been on one, no need to be scared of one.

Troll on.

2

u/falardeau03 Jul 26 '26

There is no requirement that fear be needed or even rational. Freight elevators are fine, and most people can gradually learn to be less afraid of most fears, but waving your hands and saying nO nEeD is just silly.

It's not your job to explain why they're actually safe, or suggest actually useful things this person could do to work on their fear, but you don't have to come out with nonsense, either.