How to win with a

Express Exterior Car Wash

There are many different types of car washes for our customers to choose from: Self-Serve, Automatics, Full-Service and Express Wash.  The wash everybody is talking about throughout the Southeast is the Express Wash with free vacuums. The beauty of the Express Wash is the wash base.  It is attractive to all levels of income customers.

The wash packages starts from $3.00 to $5.00 on the low side to $9.00 to $11.00 for the upper packages and the average dollar per car is around $6.25 to $ 6.50.   What makes this wash attractive to the average customer is the FREE VACUUMS.  Some owners allow their customers to vacuum as long as they wish and some put a time limit of approximately 9 to 11 minutes. This will prevent customers from tying up the vacuum spaces on busy days for long periods of time while other customers would have to wait.

Another nice marketing tool for the express wash operator is the customer can come in and receive a complete exterior wash with triple foaming conditioner, underbody wash, clear coat sealant, as well as tires and rimes cleaned and a tire shine applied in 3 minutes or less. It seems like we are all so busy throughout our day to day lives, time is very valuable to us, and to an extent the express wash owner is giving his or her customer a very good quality wash in just a few minutes thus giving the customer back some very valuable time. With the wash time very minimal and the prices very competitive you will see a lot of repeat customers. Some owners like the idea of a tunnel wash with out having to deal with a lot of labor.  They still have employees but not like a full-service wash where there may be 15 to 45 employees coming in an out each day. In an express car wash they typically will have 2 to 3 employees working at any given time, there may be one employee at the point of sale helping the customer choose which wash package would best suit the customer or explaining how the express pay terminals work.  Another located at the entrance to the tunnel helping the customer onto the conveyor, making sure that the customer places the car in neutral, windows are up, antennas are down then telling the customer not to brake or steer while in the wash at this point the attendant will send the car thru the wash. The third employee on busy days may be walking around talking to people or handling any customer related issues. With using less labor this may make it more attractive to some operators.  

  SITE SELECTION: What makes a good location? For an express wash you would like to have at least 1 acre of land or more, “check with local zoning officials to make sure the property is zoned for a car wash”, the ideal traffic count 25,000 to 35,000 or higher (preferably commuters and shoppers) with high visibility, it’s best if the site is on the going home side of the road, also a plus is near a red light or 4-way stop. The ideal population in a 3 mile radius is 45,000 or higher. Howco would prefer to come inspect the site with the owner to make sure the location is good as well as gather information (traffic counts, Demographic) to create a proforma for the customer on the specific location. Howco can assist not only with the site selection but will also work with architects, meet with contractor,

 subcontractors, and help the customer all the way through their project.

 For more information on how to get started in the express car wash business, call Howco Inc. today. 1-800-633-3912