Mobile Truck Wash Equipment

Future Truck Wash:

"Fleet Washing service will always be necessary, I think," said Paul Horsley, PWNA president. "Fleet owners can not afford the prices of truck wash. Wash their own units always looks good on paper but it rarely works. It may take them a year or two to come to the conclusion that it does not work. They have great difficulty finding and retaining people to work. The equipment rarely works well and people who use it are not trained properly. They did not expect the high cost of repairs and chemicals. These workers are generally underpaid and they do not care equipment. They usually have a high turnover during the year, especially during the winter months. Therefore, a mobile fleet service generally does well. "

Cleaner Times recently asked PWNA to better understand the field of mobile fleet washing and challenges the industry faces in the coming year. Several members who have PWNA washing trucks as part of their business plan have been consulted and have responded to our request for information.
The information starts at the top as PWNA President Paul Horsley, owner of pressure washing Scott Calgary, AB, specializing in mobile washing among others. Michael Hinderliter, another key figure in PWNA, has Steamaway Fort Worth, TX, and operates a fleet much washing. Scott Stone is the owner of a spirit of Detail in Mesa, AZ, and adds the fleet washing its list of services offered. Tom Bickett has Combines cleaning Princeton, IL. And Don Flory owns Envirowash in Baldwin, KS.
Thank you TC these industry professionals to take the time to help the article. Interviews are available below in question and answer format.
What has been the increase in fuel prices affected your business?

Horsley: Fuel prices are certainly affecting our operations, costs have increased by more than one hundred percent in recent years. We only expressed our ten per cent per unit price. Thus, it cuts the bottom line. We have had increases in our other suppliers too. Most are adding a fuel surcharge of five to ten percent. We've also added a fuel surcharge of five per cent for each invoice.

Hinderliter: We have not raised prices by more than five years and, in some cases, it has been over ten years. Sometimes people think I'm crazy when I tell them this, but we have been able to do so by the growth of the company. More to clean the site on a road means less time to travel and be able to buy larger quantities of low-cost means of supply. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to take advantage of these savings. Now we're micromanaging soap, fuel and other supplies.

Bickett: All our suppliers are lined on the cost of fuel and goods no longer free. So everything is done with oil or oil in it, permanently mounted in the cost.
Stone: Our fuel costs have increased about thirty per cent last year.

Flory: The rising cost of fuel is very frustrating. It has greatly affected our results. We played with different ways to keep pace. We have been passing on rate increases each year and always wonder if they are sufficient.
How has it affected the prices of other supplies?

Hinderliter: All our soaps have increased cost and many other supplies from twenty to forty percent.

Peter: I have not really noticed a significant increase in the cost of supply. I'm sure I'll see in the near future.

What do you adapt?

Hinderliter: We try to run the roads closer with less travel time. And look for other ways to reduce fuel costs as the lighter material and fuel economy.

Stone: One of the things we did was by a small truck.