Running an IBA as a Full Service

[Bartmart]

I am new to the forum and have already learned a lot since being here. I am considering buying a car wash that has 2 IBAs (touch-free). The current owner is running it as a full-service car wash and the typical wait time is 45 minutes for full service cleaning. The place does have an interior waiting room, but the wait time seems too long. Because it's has touch-free IBAs, the employees are spending a lot of time pre and post wash on the exterior of the car (in addition to the 6 min it sits during the wash). Eventually it would be great to replace one of the IBAs with a mini-tunnel from Sonny's (or something similar) but I wouldn't be able to afford that for at least a couple of years.

I am really close to doing this deal and am interested in owning and operating a full-service car wash but am a little hesitant because it does seems to have the wrong equipment. I would really appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Waxman]

Depends what you do in 45 min.

For a mini detail it's not too bad, but don't alot of people want to come in, wash the car and leave?

It seems like you are trying to make a limousine out of a VW beetle. No?

Carwash consultants please weigh in .

 

[jfmoran]

A properly run full-service wash has a service window from beginning to end of approximately 12-15 minutes, on a really really busy day it might go to 20-25 (including wait time in line). 45 minutes is far too long. People will not wait that long to get their car washed and you can not do any kind of volume at that number. Using IBA's to do full-service is like trying to pound a round peg into a square hole. A mini-tunnel makes sense,not for full-serve, but for express exterior washing.

 

[tw1012]

same boat

I am in the same situation, I just bought the wash last week so I am just a beginner. I have two Laserwash G5's

Right now the guys prewash the car which takes 2-3 minutes then the customers sits in the wash for 6-7 minutes. Once they pull through the automatic dryers the employees wipe down the windows and towel dry the car. The whole process is 10-11 minutes for exterior only.

I am adding a quick detail service and I have not implemented it yet. I have run some trials and from beginning to end (with two guys vacuuming and wiping down the dash etc) it adds another 5-7 minutes.

My customers hopefully will be in and out of the wash in under 20 minutes.

I am introducing the new wash next week so I will let you know how it goes and how long the whole process takes.

 

[Bartmart]

Thanks for everyone's comments so far. I hope more people will continue to weigh in on.

jfmoran - I understand why a mini-tunnel is good for express exterior, but why is it necessarily bad for full service?

 

[Bartmart]

Depends what you do in 45 min.

For a mini detail it's not too bad, but don't alot of people want to come in, wash the car and leave?

It seems like you are trying to make a limousine out of a VW beetle. No?

Carwash consultants please weigh in .

waxman - They actually probably do a mini-detail vs. standard full-service. They do the door jams, windows, dash proctectant, vaccuum, etc. I know I asked one of the customers why he went there, and he said they were much more thorough than Auto Bell (Full Service competitor). But, I agree with your VW analogy. It does somewhat feel like it's trying to be something it's not. The community has really accepted it as a full-service/mini-detail business though. With 8 employees working most days, people look over and see the action and don't pull in for a standard IBA wash. And although they do a great job on the car, it does somewhat kill me how long it takes. I would really hope to increase the speed, but am certainly worried I'll be too handicapped by the equipment.

 

[jfmoran]

jfmoran - I understand why a mini-tunnel is good for express exterior, but why is it necessarily bad for full service?[/QUOTE]


It's not necessarily a good vs. bad argument, more of what is the equipment and setup designed to do. Mini-tunnels are designed to be an alternative to an IBA, yet, produce (at least in theory) more clean cars in less time. Typically you are dealing with minimal space when installing an IBA or mini-tunnel. Traditional full-serves require lots of space for stacking room both at the entrance and exit to the tunnel, you don't typically have this with an IBA or mini-tunnel, so you need to get customers in and out (off the property) as quickly as possible.

Of course every situation is different, but the simplistic version is that mini-tunnels are an extension of express exteriors, which focus on high volume, low price-point and speed of service (minimal labor). Sort of a fast-food approach to car washing. Full serves on the the other hand are typically moderate volume (with exceptions of course), high price points, and quality of service (labor dependent and intensive). Additionally, there are other approaches with the predominant one being flex-serve (you can google it or search it on here for numerous discussions about it).

 

[robert roman]

Taking a conventional self-service facility (wands plus in-bay automatic) to a higher and better use can make sense.

Transforming one into a full-service wash has been tried before as has adding a detail shop on-site. Of the two, the full-service transformation almost always fails. In my opinion, failure occurs because the owner doesn’t understand how to make the transformation.

For example, in the post, you mention a waiting time of 45 minutes, lots of time manually pre and post cleaning vehicles plus six minutes in the wash-bay and touch-less wash process. As John mentioned, the rule-of-thumb for full-service is a start-to-finish in about fifteen to twenty minutes.

It is commonplace to accomplish this with a system where the carwash equipment is arranged according to the steps necessary to clean, shine and dry a vehicle. A vehicle goes in one end of the tunnel and comes out the other end in three to four minutes. At the finishing line, the completion time for a four-pass of the vehicle, quality assurance and “car-ready” should take no longer than about eight to ten minutes. Depending on method of selling (personal versus pay station) and where vacuuming is done (entrance versus exit end), the sales transaction and vehicle prep process should take no longer than five minutes. The total time here is about 19 minutes.

On the other hand, an in-bay automatic is designed to keep the vehicle in place and bring to the vehicle the steps necessary to clean, shine and dry it. The average time to complete this process is also about four minutes. However, unlike a conveyor that has “stored up” capacity as a function of its building length that can be used during busy periods, an in-bay has no extra margin of speed to catch up to the arrival rate of customers.

For example, an in–bay with a service rate of twelve cars an hour and a customer arrival rate of nine cars an hour will have four or more vehicles in the system 32% of the time. When the arrival rate equals the service rate, the length of waiting line and average waiting time will grow indefinitely. If you further load this system with additional time to pre and post clean vehicles, this is why customers are waiting 45-minutes.

In queuing theory, the service time for a wash includes the time between cars as well as the time necessary to complete one car. So, if you want to use a touch-less in-bay as the cleaning process for a full-service format and reduce service time from 45-minutes, you would need to learn how to optimize the in-bay process for this purpose.

I can be reached if you share my interest.