The solutions to reducing the number of lift breakdowns should not be confined to increasing the pool of lift technicians or pumping in more funds ("Call for more technicians to tackle lift problems"; Feb 3).

Rather, the authorities need to develop a set of stringent qualification and evaluation criteria for lift vendors and review the process of selecting the vendors.

For a start, are the vendors ISO9001 certified?

Do they have quality management systems, a culture of improvement and training within their organisations?

Their track record should also be reviewed, with a focus on the number of breakdown complaints, how capable their technical staff are, and what customer segments they have served.

Even after selection, the town council should evaluate the lift vendors' performance using a quarterly assessment scorecard.

Should their performance be found wanting, it could translate into fewer work contracts awarded by the town council.

Such qualification and assessment systems are widely adopted and prevalent among vendors to ensure they always deliver top notch quality and service.

The town councils should take this approach, too.

Lee Kek Chin