The short answer
If you are comparing ABM against a guard vendor in the United States, start with a fact that most comparison pages get wrong: ABM no longer sells security guard services in the US.
ABM Industries completed the sale of its Security Business in October 2015 for $131 million in pre-tax proceeds. That business employed roughly 13,500 guards and was one of the ten largest security service providers in the country. The buyer was Universal Protection Service, part of Universal Services of America, which merged with AlliedBarton in August 2016 to form Allied Universal. If you were an ABM guarding customer, your contract's lineage runs straight into the largest contract security firm in North America.
ABM itself is still a very large, very healthy company. It reported record revenue of roughly $2.3 billion in its fiscal second quarter of 2026. But its current service lines are janitorial and facility solutions on one side and engineering and infrastructure on the other, and its reportable segments are Business & Industry, Manufacturing & Distribution, Aviation, Education, and Technical Solutions. Security is not among them.
Calvis is a marketplace, not a security agency. You describe the coverage you need, and Calvis matches you with independently licensed local agencies that have already been vetted, then shows their flat hourly rates side by side before you book. The guards are employed and licensed by those agencies. Calvis does not employ guards and does not hold the guard license.
So the real comparison is not "ABM's guards versus Calvis's guards." It is a more useful question: should the guarding line item be bundled into your facilities contract at all? ABM is the best available case study for answering it, because ABM ran that bundle at national scale and then chose to exit it.
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What happened to ABM Security
It is worth laying out the timeline plainly, because stale pages still circulate.
ABM Security Services was a genuine top-ten US guard provider. Legacy ABM marketing described a network of 61 branch offices serving 40 states, uniformed and plainclothes officers, and SAFETY Act certification from the Department of Homeland Security. Those pages are still findable. At least one of them still carries a 2013 copyright notice, which is a good reminder that a live URL is not the same as a live service.
In October 2015, ABM completed the divestiture. The guards, the branches, and the client relationships transferred to Universal Protection Service. Ten months later, in August 2016, Universal Services of America and AlliedBarton finalized their merger and relaunched as Allied Universal, then the largest security services company in North America with over 140,000 employees.
The practical consequences for a buyer today:
- •If you are searching for ABM security guards in the US, the successor relationship you are actually looking at is Allied Universal. Our Calvis vs Allied Universal breakdown and Allied Universal alternatives guide are the relevant comparisons.
- •If you hold an old ABM guard agreement, you are almost certainly holding an Allied Universal agreement now, with whatever assignment and renewal terms came with it. Read it before you renew.
- •If a vendor, broker, or directory is currently pitching you "ABM security guards" in a US market, ask directly which licensed entity would employ the officer and what its state license number is. That is a fair question in any situation, and it is the specific question this history should prompt.
What ABM actually sells today
ABM's current US offering splits cleanly into two families.
Facility Solutions. Commercial cleaning and sanitation, cleanroom and cold storage services, construction services, mailroom, waste management and recycling, and a large parking and transportation practice covering parking management, valet, shuttle, curb management, passenger services, and customer service ambassadors.
Engineering & Infrastructure Solutions. Building engineering and maintenance, HVAC, electrical engineering, lighting, EV charging, microgrids and power storage, UPS and battery maintenance, industrial operations and maintenance, and engineering, procurement and construction work.
It serves a wide industry list including commercial real estate, aviation and airports, healthcare, education, data centers, manufacturing, sports and entertainment, and multi-family.
One distinction matters when you read that list. Roles like customer service ambassadors, passenger services, and curb management are front-of-house staffing. They put a uniformed person in a lobby, on a curb, or in a terminal, and buyers sometimes mentally file that alongside a guard post. It is not the same thing. Licensed security guarding is a regulated occupation with state-issued agency licenses and individual guard registrations, and in most states an armed post requires a separate firearms permit on top. When you are scoping a post, decide explicitly whether you need a licensed officer or a staffed presence, because the two have different legal, insurance, and liability profiles. Our guide to vetting a security guard company covers what the licensed version requires.
Outside the US the picture differs. ABM's UK and Ireland business does still provide security guarding and public space CCTV monitoring across its site portfolio and holds SIA Approved Contractor Scheme status there. That is a real offering, in a different regulatory system, and it is not available to a US buyer.
ABM's genuine strengths
A comparison that pretends the other company has no case is not worth reading, and ABM's case is strong in its lane.
Scale and stability in facility services. Multi-billion-dollar revenue, a national footprint, and public-company reporting discipline. For a portfolio of buildings that needs one janitorial and engineering vendor across many states, that is exactly the profile you want.
Deep aviation and parking expertise. ABM's aviation and parking practices are specialized businesses in their own right, not side offerings. If your site is a terminal, a garage, or a mixed-use property with heavy curb and valet operations, that experience is difficult to replicate with a local vendor.
Real integration between cleaning and engineering. Building engineering, HVAC, lighting, and EV charging under one accountable vendor genuinely reduces coordination overhead. When a system fails, there is one number to call and no argument about whose scope it was.
Honest focus. Exiting guarding was, arguably, good discipline. A company that concentrates on what it does best usually serves customers better than one holding a line of business it is not committed to. Buyers who lived through a divestiture rarely see it that way at the time, but the underlying logic is sound.
If facility services, engineering, parking, or aviation support is what you need, ABM belongs on your shortlist and this article is not arguing otherwise. It simply cannot be your US guard vendor.
Does bundling security into a facilities contract earn its premium?
This is the question ABM's history actually illuminates, and it applies to every integrated facilities vendor that still offers guarding.
The pitch for bundling is real. One vendor, one invoice, one account manager, one escalation path. When the overnight cleaning crew, the engineer, and the lobby officer all work for the same company, coordination problems get solved internally instead of landing on your desk.
The costs of bundling are also real, and they are less visible:
You lose price discovery on the guarding line. Bundled contracts rarely break out the guard hourly rate in a way you can benchmark. If security is a small percentage of a large facilities agreement, it tends not to get shopped, and an unshopped line item drifts.
Guarding is usually not the vendor's core competency. In an integrated facilities company, guarding competes for management attention against much larger business lines. ABM's exit is the clearest possible statement of what that competition eventually resolves to.
Concentration risk is structural. When one vendor holds cleaning, engineering, parking, and security, a strategic decision made in a boardroom you will never see can hand your guard force to a completely different company. That is precisely what happened to ABM's guarding customers in 2015. They did not choose Allied Universal. They inherited it.
Switching costs compound. Unwinding one line from a bundled master agreement is harder than ending a standalone contract, and the notice and auto-renewal terms usually favor the vendor. Our guide on how to switch security guard companies walks through doing that cleanly.
None of this makes bundling wrong. It makes bundling a decision you should price. Get a standalone guard bid alongside your bundled quote so you know what the convenience actually costs. If the premium is small and the coordination benefit is large, bundle with confidence. If the premium is large, you have just found budget.
Where a marketplace fits
Calvis addresses the guarding line specifically, and the differences from any bundled model are concrete.
You compare several vetted agencies at once. Instead of accepting whichever guard subcontractor your facilities vendor happens to use, you see multiple qualified local agencies for the same post side by side.
Rates are visible before you book. Each agency's flat hourly rate is shown up front, with unarmed, armed, mobile patrol, and specialized posts priced accordingly. That restores the price discovery a bundled contract removes.
No annual minimum to start. Book a single shift, a weekend, an event, or ongoing recurring coverage without signing a term to find out whether the agency is any good.
Verification happens before the guard arrives. Agency licenses and individual guard registrations are verified against state databases as a condition of appearing on the marketplace, and you can review each guard's credentials and GPS-verified patrol record in your dashboard. Every guard placed through Calvis holds a current state license issued to the employing agency.
No divestiture risk on the line you care about. Because the network is many independent agencies rather than one company's payroll, a single corporate transaction does not reassign your coverage.
What Calvis does not do: clean your building, maintain your HVAC, run your garage, or staff your terminal. If you need those, you need a facilities vendor, and ABM is a legitimate candidate. Treat the two decisions separately. See locations for current markets.
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Head-to-head
| Factor | ABM (US, today) | Bundled facilities vendor that still offers guarding | Calvis marketplace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provides US security guards | No, divested in 2015 | Yes, usually as one line in a larger contract | Guards supplied by vetted licensed agencies |
| What it actually sells | Cleaning, engineering, HVAC, parking, aviation, EV and power | Facilities bundle including guarding | Guarding only |
| Pricing visibility | Facility services quoted per contract | Guard line often not broken out | Flat hourly rates published before booking |
| Contract commitment | Term facilities agreements | Term, guarding tied to the master agreement | None required to start |
| Guard employer | Not applicable | The vendor or its subcontractor | Independent agencies employ and license their guards |
| Comparison shopping | One vendor, one quote | Guarding rarely rebid on its own | Multiple vetted agencies, side by side |
| Credential visibility | Not applicable | On request | Guard license and GPS patrol record in dashboard |
| Best for | Facility services, engineering, parking, aviation | Buyers who value one vendor over price discovery | Single-site, events, projects, short-notice coverage |
Read the table as a description of different designs rather than a scoreboard. ABM is excellent at what it currently sells. The middle column is a real and often reasonable model. Calvis optimizes for choice, price transparency, and speed on the guarding line specifically.
How to choose
You are searching for ABM security guards in the US
You are looking for a service that ended in 2015. The successor is Allied Universal. Compare it against regional agencies and against a marketplace before you assume the inherited relationship is the right one. Start with Allied Universal alternatives.
You already buy facility services from ABM and need guards
Buy them separately. There is no bundle to preserve here, which is genuinely convenient: you get to shop the guarding line on its own merits without disturbing an existing vendor relationship. For an office or mixed-use site, see commercial security.
Your current facilities vendor wants to add guarding to the contract
Ask three questions before agreeing. Which licensed entity employs the officer, and what is its state license number? What is the standalone hourly bill rate for this post, broken out? Can this line be terminated independently of the master agreement? If the answers are vague, get a competing standalone bid. Our comparison of national versus local guard companies covers the trade-offs.
Your need is an event, a project, or seasonal
A facilities master agreement is the wrong instrument for a ninety-day construction phase or a single event. Book the window you actually need. Emergency and short-notice coverage covers same-week staffing.
You need armed coverage
Licensing scrutiny matters most here. Confirm the armed registration and firearms permit are current for the specific officer assigned, not just for the company. On Calvis those credentials are visible in the dashboard before the shift starts.
The throughline: get the rate before the sales call, verify the license through the state regulator, keep the guarding decision separable from the facilities decision, and never assume a vendor still sells a service just because a page says so. For a broader view of the field, see the best security companies hub.
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