An age that bears witness to a proliferation of relentlessly higher buildings denotes a necessity for more efficient elevator services. This paper presents a scheme that improves elevator efficiency and passenger comfort by reducing waiting and travel times. The proposed system utilises a background subtraction process to estimate the extent of crowding inside the elevator car, allowing a full elevator to bypass hall calls. Furthermore, using a similar detection technique, the system is capable of estimating the number of patrons waiting on every elevator floor. This information can be relayed to an elevator controller, improving traffic flow by setting higher priorities for busy floors.