Elevators aren’t all the same and not every business needs the same type of elevator. An elevator for passengers only may not need to be carry any more weight than that of the maximum number of people it will happily carry. At the same time any lift that will carry passengers needs to be made and maintained to the highest levels of safety. Some passenger lifts of course need only carry two or three people at a time such as those in apartment blocks, often a smaller lift will also have been chosen because it can be retro fitted into an older building more easily often going into the space where a chimney stack of laundry chute would previously have been.
Goods lifts usually will take passengers as well but will be designed to carry a lot more weight so that heavy boxes can be carried without any problem. Of course in some occasions a lift may be for very specific items that are always going to weight the same and so may be made to the standards needed. The more a lift has to carry weight wise the more it will generally cost, for example breaks need to be bigger and cables need to be thicker. If a lift will be used for passengers more safety features will be added and a greater margin between the maximum weight at which the lift will refuse to budge and the weight it will actually safely hold will be used.
