Most of our truck wash accounts are set up on regular schedules.

There are many factors to deciding the frequency of truck washing – including the number of units, whether those trucks are local or over the road, how important is company image, and budget issues.  We occasionally have potential truck wash accounts want to be on an ‘as-needed’ basis, but they still want a per unit price that’s comparable to our scheduled accounts.

Many Denver Area Truck Fleets Wash More In The Winter

Many Denver Area Truck Fleets Wash More In The Winter

This just doesn’t work – and here’s why. Per unit truck wash pricing is based on how much time we typically spend on a given type of account.  Washing trucks ‘as-needed’ usually means extra dirty units – NOT typically dirty units.  This reduces us to one of two options:

1.  We spend as much time on the truck wash as allowed by the amount we charge per unit and don’t guarantee the quality.

OR

2. We loose money trying to provide typical cleaning results on extra dirty units by spending too much time truck washing to our normal standards.

 

And since we’re in the truck wash business to make a profit, neither of these choices are acceptable.  We understand customers wanting to save some money by making their own judgement call on when their fleet needs a truck wash, but we can’t provide our usual guaranteed work to these customers unless they pay an hourly rate rather than a per-unit rate.

The Big Problem With Waiting Too Long Between Truck Washes

Customized Denver Area Truck Fleet Washing

Customized Denver Area Truck Fleet Washing

The biggest problem with waiting more than a couple weeks between truck washes is even though the truck or trailer might not appear to be too dirty, it has a layer of dirt on it. And the longer that dirt sits on the unit, the more chances it has to get wet and then dry and become bonded to the surface rather than just sitting on top.  This means that even a thin layer of road grime can take twice as much effort and time to remove after a long period between truck washes than if it gets washed on a frequent basis.

We tried to work with a large trucking company on an ‘as-needed’ basis and per-unit pricing.  About 25% of our washes got complaints, which we tried to make right and follow through on our guarantee.  After the last complaint, we took a look at how much time our crews had to spend to do the job right and found with this particular account we would have to charge a 50% higher rate than our usual per-unit price.  After discussing the problems with them, they agreed to set up scheduled truck washes every other week.

If you have a fleet with your company name on it, it is important to keep your trucks and trailers clean for both your company image and for advertising.  If you don’t have a good system for keeping them clean already in place, consider a mobile pressure washing company that does truck washing on site. It might save you money as well as enhance your image with your customers.

 

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