Elevator Inspection
Elevator Inspection
[Two Cueball-like guys and Ponytail, lifting her arms above her head, are in an elevator. Cueball standing next to the door reads the sign above the control panel.] Cueball: It says here that the elevator inspection certificate is on file in the building office. Friend: Whoa, cool! Let's go look at it! Ponytail: That sounds fun!
[Caption below the panel:] Industry tip: Building owners know this never happens. Those signs mark elevators which have never been inspected.

This was the first of Randall's Tips , that was not a pro tip but more specific an Industry tip.
In the United States, all elevators are subject to building codes and must be inspected on a somewhat-regular basis by city officials. After the inspector runs his rounds, the elevator's passing grade is noted in a certificate which is visibly placed in the elevator. Alternatively, it can be dumped in a filing cabinet in the building office where the owner can forget about it, and a placard is given to the elevator letting the passengers know where the certificate is (usually the aforementioned building office).
This comic is portraying a scenario which supposedly never happens. No-one is ever actually interested in seeing the elevator's certificate, and nobody gets this excited about going to a building office. So, as the caption humorously suggests: many elevators start using the placards for elevators that have not been inspected. No one cares enough to go to the building office and search the files for the certification. And as the title text says, even inspectors themselves get bored before they can get to the building office.
The moral of this comic is if you see an elevator with a notice that says that the "elevator inspection certificate is on file", you do not really know whether the notice is true, and so building owners use the certificates as substitutes for the bother and expense of actually getting their elevators inspected. The flaw in this logic is that, if an elevator were to fail catastrophically, the inspection certificate would almost certainly be retrieved and examined as part of the investigation. If the elevator had not been inspected as required, there would be very serious legal consequences.  Hence, failing to carry out regular inspections would carry substantial risks.
[Two Cueball-like guys and Ponytail, lifting her arms above her head, are in an elevator. Cueball standing next to the door reads the sign above the control panel.] Cueball: It says here that the elevator inspection certificate is on file in the building office. Friend: Whoa, cool! Let's go look at it! Ponytail: That sounds fun!
[Caption below the panel:] Industry tip: Building owners know this never happens. Those signs mark elevators which have never been inspected.
