Video or Not?

[Earl Weiss]

Most if not all conveyor operators have had occasion where the customer inspects the vehicle after the wash and finds one or more marks they believe happened in the wash.

Now, it is only natural they did not inspect the vehicle before the wash and it may have been quite a while since they inspected it and the dirt may have hidden the marks.

Those of us in the industry know that certain types of marks are not caused by the conveyor wash process. For example:

A few short marks going across (Side to side) on a small section of the hood, roof or rear deck. No equipment washes only a small portion of the car and the forward motion of the vehicle makes marks directly from side to side impossible.

Another example would be an up and down mark on the small part of a side or front / rear of the car. Once again, nothing does just an isolated part, and the material wheels that do the Vertical surfaces would make horizontal marks along the length.

Similarly a continuous Horizontal mark on a vertical surface would not be made by a wheel spinning at 60 RPM since the offending spot on the wheel would leave intermittent marks as the vehicle moved forward.

So, would a video highlighting how car wash equipment does in fact and does not contact vehicle surfaces help us educate the public who mistakenly believes some mark happened at the wash?

I know, I know, there are some people who will never believe their own eyes, no matter what you show them.

 

[BBE]

I think it's a great idea....but I don't think it would make a bit of difference. There is a great blog post from Tommy's that is all about swirl marks, and I actually took bits and pieces of that and made a nice write up title "did the carwash scratch my vehicle??" and I now hand it out to any customer who either has a question about it, makes a comment about it, or fills out an incident report about it. But at the end of the day, the only thing you would hear IMO from something like that would be "well all I know is that it wasn't there before I went through the wash, and now it is."

 

[DiamondWash]

"well all I know is that it wasn't there before I went through the wash, and now it is." OMG I have heard that line a number of times and the best part is when you review the video to find out it was there before they washed and it's still there after they washed. vehicle documentation cameras are well worth the money time and time again.

 

[rph9168]

I know the analogy has been used before but do you really care how a dry cleaner cleans your clothes? I managed a chain of full service washes that were touchless. On very rare occasions people would inquire about the process. On several occasions when people complained about possible damage we would show them the equipment or explain the process. In most cases they were not even aware that we were touchless and some of those customers were fairly regular ones. Not sure that a video that discusses how the equipment touches or washes a vehicle would be worth the effort. People that complain about damage most likely would not be convinced one way or the other and very few customers really care about how the vehicle is washed. All they want are good results - a clean, dry vehicle without any damage.

 

[Robert2181]

Signage is key. Because by the time it may or may not get in front of the judge, you know what can or cannot damage a car. The judge does not. ( Use at your own Risk),

 

[Earl Weiss]

Signage and Video are great. Here is an example. 1995 BMW and customer says we took off the rear spoiler and other damage. My signs say "Not responsible for damage to or caused by non Factory Equipment and anything on any vehicle 10 years old or older." I check the video and write the guy a letter after he fills out an alleged incident report.

Letter says we are not responsible because he was aware as stated on the report because : 1. That year and model did not come with a factory Spoiler; 2 The vehicle is more than 10 years old; and 3. See attached photo of your vehicle entering and it did not have a rear spoiler when it came in.

 

[rph9168]

Great Earl. The cost of a video set up is paid for when you can avoid a damage claim like this. I know it would have made my life a lot simpler when I was a GM of 5 tunnel washes. Didn't have those available back then. I can't imagine anyone operating without one now.

 

[Earl Weiss]

It has been great. Guy complains we broke hisp wiper. Video shows him tunr the wipers on going thru. Ask him if h thought it was a good idea to tum wipers on. "Oh, I would never do that" Well I have video from 3 cameras showing you did. "Oh, my wipers go on automaticaly" - Welll there is an off setting and you need to have them off. "Oh, the wash grabbed it and I turned it on trying to save them."

Had a similar one where the vehicle came out of the track "I had it in Neutral" You can guess the rest.

 

[hkim310]

Earl, are you able to see scratches on cars clearly with the CCTV camera system you have at your facility? We bit the bullet and purchased some HD Samsung cameras and an NVR and built an arch similar to how the N Spex Vehicle Inspection System is setup. It is placed before entering our wash tunnel and gives us a good view of the car. Unfortunately, it does not allow us to see everything. I think you would need a ptz camera to really be able to zoom in on vehicle paint to see EVERY scratch. Unfortunately, those cameras run $1500 - $2000 a piece......

 

[Earl Weiss]

Often the scratches or marks could be seen on a clean car only in the right light, at the right angle with your face about 18 inches from the surface. I highly doubt they would be seen by the naked eye at that distance on a dirty car let alone with a camera. I do run 1080P camera system. Since the issue is usually described as above i won't even check the cameras for that.

 

[MEP001]

Earl, are you able to see scratches on cars clearly with the CCTV camera system you have at your facility? We bit the bullet and purchased some HD Samsung cameras and an NVR and built an arch similar to how the N Spex Vehicle Inspection System is setup. It is placed before entering our wash tunnel and gives us a good view of the car. Unfortunately, it does not allow us to see everything. I think you would need a ptz camera to really be able to zoom in on vehicle paint to see EVERY scratch. Unfortunately, those cameras run $1500 - $2000 a piece......

You don't need PTZ cameras for that, just hi-res with either a variable zoom lens or a replaceable one you can get a fixed zoom lens for.

 

[hkim310]

I don't know if we maybe purchased the wrong camera's, but our's are 1080P Full HD and we still are not able to see EVERYTHING on the vehicle. MEP001, do you have any recomendations on camera's / variable zoom lens that you have used that allow you to see just about everything on the vehicle? I somewhat agree with Earl's statement that many of the things that you would want to see need to be seen right in front of the scratch in the right light on a clean vehicle......

 

[MEP001]

I've never had to get that kind of detail.

Just a thought, you might get better coverage using 1080P cameras turned sideways, since you'd have the wider field of view covering more vertical area and you could zoom in more.

You'll need lots of light for the cameras to get a crisp un-blurred image.

 

[mjwalsh]

I am pretty sure an over 4 megapixel camera strategically placed with the best possible lighting would be better than 1080P cameras. How often it would catch that level of detail is something that one of us should immediately volunteer to test. I have several IP cameras 4 & 5 megapixel but none of your 1080P cameras to compare with. The recording compression & a potential frame dropped from time to time is also a factor.

mike

 

[MEP001]

Of course a 4 megapixel camera would be better than a 1080p camera, because 4 megapixel is higher resolution than 1080p, but it would be useless if the device can't record higher than 1080p.

 

[mjwalsh]

Of course a 4 megapixel camera would be better than a 1080p camera, because 4 megapixel is higher resolution than 1080p, but it would be useless if the device can't record higher than 1080p.

Blue Iris Software that we have been using for almost 2 years ... seems to be more than able for recording higher resolution than most video servers. There are many variables such as Gigabyte ethernet & the host computer's specifications etc. when it comes to the best possible video recording. The nice thing about IP cameras you can add just a few & run them independently of another system ... such as from Sam's, Costco or whoever.