Bucket Washing

[Red Baron]

I understand that everyone has their buttons, but unless there are customers waiting or they're using your chamois sink and a jug (or your weep) to rinse for free, is it really a big deal?

My attention to my "No Bucket Washing" policy stems from lessons learned when I had my open bay. I did not allow semis because they would wash the grease off their horeshoe and make a greasy mess. I made an exception for my neighbor because he always left the bay clean after washing his semi.

But, on many occassions after that I'd come to run off a semi in the bay in spite of the signs and find out that semis passing by on the highway saw my neighbor there washing and assumed it was ok. It's kind of hard to enforce a policy some of the time.

Same goes for bucket washers - I don't want them doing that at any time. People see someone bucket washing as they drive by, or as they're at the vacs and they think "Hmmm, that's a good idea; next time I'm bringing my bucket to save some money." A $5 customer turns into a $1.50 customer.

It gives costly ideas to other customers. Besides, if you don't make a habit of telling them they cannot bucket wash, it's pretty likely they're keeping other customers waiting while you're not there to enforce it.

 

[Red Baron]

In the interest of contradicting myself, I will ignore it if I get the impression the customer is poor and for whom $5 is a lot of money. In fact I'm just as likely to walk up to the cc acceptor for that guy, insert my card, and tell them that I'm testing equipment and their wash is free today.