Article
Freight Elevator vs. VRC: Which Do You Need?
By David Scelfo, Director of Marketing
If you're pricing a freight elevator to get pallets up to a mezzanine or a second floor, the first thing to settle has nothing to do with capacity or travel height. It's whether anyone needs to ride with the load.
If someone does, you need an elevator. If nobody does, a vertical reciprocating conveyor (VRC) will usually do the same job: a material lift built to the conveyor standard instead of the elevator code. That one difference carries through to the permit, the inspection schedule, the building work and the price.
The Question That Decides It: Who Rides?
ASME A17.1, the safety code for elevators, defines a freight elevator as one "used primarily for carrying freight and on which only the operator and the persons necessary for unloading and loading the freight are permitted to ride." The code also lets a freight elevator built to its additional requirements carry employees, provided the public can't use it. Either way, people are part of the design.
A VRC is the opposite. ASME B20.1, the safety standard for conveyors, covers vertical reciprocating conveyors in Section 6.21. Riding one is forbidden to all personnel, and warning signs saying so go up at every point of access. ASME's own interpretation of the standard puts it flatly: B20.1 vertical reciprocating conveyors "do not allow for the transport of passengers or operators."
The elevator code steps aside on purpose. Section 1.1.2 of A17.1 lists equipment the code does not cover, and conveyors within the scope of B20.1 are on that list. Think of a VRC as a conveyor that happens to run vertically. The dividing line between it and an elevator is whether a person ever travels on it.
Freight Elevator vs. VRC, Side by Side
| Freight elevator | VRC | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can ride | The operator and the people loading it; employees too, if built for it and closed to the public | Nobody |
| Standard | ASME A17.1, the elevator code | ASME B20.1 Section 6.21, the conveyor standard |
| Who regulates it | The elevator authority | Depends on the state: the elevator program in some, the local building department in others |
| Periodic inspection | Interval set by the authority; once a year in many states | Depends on the state |
| Shaft enclosure between floors | Required (IBC 3002.1) | Required (IBC 3004.3.1) |
| Serving a mezzanine | Ask the building official about the shaft | Ask the building official about the shaft |
| Counts as an accessible route | No; that takes a passenger elevator | No; it carries no people |
| Where it fits | Freight that moves with people alongside it | Pallets and carts between a floor and a mezzanine or upper level |
Why a VRC Is Never Used as an Elevator
OSHA has no standard written specifically for VRCs. It has leaned on B20.1 instead since at least 1984, when it said in a letter of interpretation that it considers employees riding a vertical reciprocating conveyor a violation of its general machine guarding rule, 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(1).
What that looks like when it goes wrong is on the record. In a case decided by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an employee was killed in 1996 on a VRC that was "in use as a freight elevator." The employer was cited under the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act, the citation was affirmed as willful, and the judge held that the B20 standard was enough to show the hazard was a recognized one.
That's why a VRC has an interlocked gate at every level. The gate can't open unless the carriage is stopped at that level, and the carriage can't move until the gate is closed. It's also why nobody rides one up to check a load at the top, even once. If your crew will be tempted to send someone up with the pallet, plan the work so nobody has to go: a person at each level, or the stairs landing right beside the lift's upper gate.
Shafts, Pits and the Building
It's easy to assume a VRC skips the building work an elevator needs. Between real floors, it doesn't. The 2021 International Building Code requires elevator hoistways to be shaft enclosures (Section 3002.1), and it requires the same of "conveyors and related equipment connecting successive floors or levels" (Section 3004.3.1). If the lift passes through a floor slab, plan on an enclosure either way.
A mezzanine is where it gets murky. The IBC treats a complying mezzanine as part of the story below (Section 505.2) and permits vertical openings between a mezzanine and the floor beneath it (Section 712.1.11). Whether that relieves a lift serving the mezzanine of the shaft requirement isn't something the code text settles, and building officials don't all read it the same way. Put the question to the building official before the design is fixed. For how the code decides what counts as a mezzanine in the first place, see what is a mezzanine floor.
The VRC's savings are in what sits around the lift. It needs a sound slab underneath, power to the unit, and on some designs a shallow pit. When it serves a mezzanine, it's planned into the platform structure from the first drawing. An elevator brings the elevator code with it, and in states such as Washington, Texas and California, a licensed or registered elevator contractor to do the work.
Permits and Inspection
A freight elevator is permitted, inspected and maintained as an elevator. A17.1 leaves the inspection interval to the authority having jurisdiction, and many set it at once a year. Washington, Wisconsin and Texas all do.
The states split on VRCs. Some put them under the same rules and the same agency as elevators. Others write B20.1 conveyors out of their elevator laws entirely. A sample, checked against each state's own code:
| State | VRCs under the state elevator rules? | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | Yes, permit required | Minn. R. 1307.0030 |
| California | Yes, covered by the elevator safety orders | 8 CCR §3000(c) |
| Nevada | Yes, operating permit | NAC 455C.434 and 455C.450 |
| Massachusetts | Yes, a chapter written for VRCs | 524 CMR 32.00 |
| Pennsylvania | Yes, permit required | 34 Pa. Code §405.2 and §405.3 |
| Kentucky | Yes, annual inspection fee | 815 KAR 4:010 |
| Florida | No, excluded | Fla. Stat. 399.02(3)(e) |
| Ohio | No, excluded | OAC 4101:5-1-01(J) |
| Colorado | No, excluded | C.R.S. 9-5.5-104(2)(e) |
| New Jersey | No, excluded | N.J.A.C. 5:23-12.1(e)1 |
| Illinois | No, excluded (the state act doesn't cover Chicago) | 225 ILCS 312/10 |
Cities can add their own layer on top: New York City adopts B20.1 with its own changes to the VRC gate requirements.
Being outside the elevator law doesn't mean no permit. The local building department may still want one, and a VRC going in with a new mezzanine rides along with the mezzanine's own permit (see mezzanine permit requirements). The table is a sample, not all 50 states, and rules change, so confirm against the state's own code for the address. We check the requirement for your site before we quote.
Accessibility: Neither One Is the Answer
If the mezzanine holds an office, a break room or anything else that might need an accessible route, neither lift gets you there. A VRC can't carry people at all. And the U.S. Access Board's guide to the ADA Standards is direct about the other one: "Freight elevators cannot be used to satisfy the requirement for an accessible route between floors." The elevators on an accessible route have to be passenger elevators.
Where an accessible route is required, the choices are a passenger elevator, a limited-use/limited-application (LULA) elevator, or a platform lift in the locations the standards allow one. Whether one is required at all depends on the building and how the level is used, which is a plan review question. Either way, people get up to the mezzanine and back down by the stairs.
When Each One Is the Right Call
A VRC is the fit when:
- The load travels alone: pallets, carts, totes, parts, finished goods.
- It serves a mezzanine, a pick module, or an upper floor that has no freight elevator.
- A pallet jack or cart can load it at the bottom and take the load off at the top.
A freight elevator is the fit when:
- Someone has to travel with the load as part of the job.
- The same car has to move staff between floors as well as freight.
The Short Version
If a person rides, it's an elevator, inspector and budget included. If only the load rides, a VRC does the job under the conveyor standard, and for moving product to a mezzanine it's usually the right call. Whichever you choose, take the shaft question to the building official and the permit question to the state before anything gets ordered.
We design and install VRCs as part of mezzanine and pick module projects, or on their own in an existing building. Our VRC page covers drive types, frame styles and what we need to quote, or send us the load and the travel height and we'll scope it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a freight elevator and a VRC?
Riders. Under ASME A17.1, the elevator code, a freight elevator carries freight plus the operator and the people needed to load and unload it. A vertical reciprocating conveyor (VRC) is built to ASME B20.1, the conveyor standard, and nobody may ride it at all. A17.1 leaves B20.1 conveyors out of its scope, so the two are built to different codes and, in many states, regulated by different agencies.
Can a person ride a VRC?
No. ASME B20.1 forbids riding a vertical reciprocating conveyor, and warning signs saying so must be posted at every point of access. OSHA has treated employees riding a VRC as a violation of its machine guarding rule since at least 1984. If someone has to travel with the load, you need an elevator.
Does a VRC need a permit or inspection?
It depends on the state, and sometimes the city. Minnesota, California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, among others, regulate VRCs through the same agency that handles elevators. Florida, Ohio, Colorado and New Jersey leave B20.1 conveyors out of their elevator laws, though the local building department may still want a permit. A freight elevator is permitted and inspected as an elevator.
Can a freight elevator or a VRC be the accessible route to a mezzanine?
Neither. A VRC carries no people at all, and the U.S. Access Board's guide to the ADA Standards says freight elevators cannot be used to meet the requirement for an accessible route between floors. Where an accessible route is required, the options are a passenger elevator, a limited-use/limited-application (LULA) elevator, or a platform lift in the locations the standards allow one.
Is a VRC cheaper than a freight elevator?
A VRC generally has a lower cost of ownership, because building to the conveyor standard rather than the elevator code means a simpler structure and a shorter install. The trade is that nobody can ever ride it. For either one, capacity, travel height, number of levels, car or carriage size, and the building work around it, including any shaft enclosure, move the price most.