Carwash Closings

[Worschman]

I'm in Oregon and the state order will not affect our SS wash. At first I thought it would, but we have no employees on sight all day and the public can maintain the 6 foot rule by them selves. We only empty the trash twice a day, look for maintenance issues, and have no contact rules in place. Self service places should be fine from what I can see. There more concerned on places where people can be too close to each other. Any other Oregon operators have a different opinion?

I'm in Oregon also and agree with you David. We are going to post signs by our change machines and vending areas stating the 6 foot rule, but I think by now most people know to keep their distance. Otherwise a person in a wash bay or vacuuming is way further away from anyone else than 6 feet. I also feel that self serves provide a "sanity break" for people stuck at home who want to get safely away and wash their car.

 

[David Rolf]

David, were those conditions specified in the order? Our mandate is much more vague; basically non-essential business must close.

Yes the order stated you can remain open if you maintain social distancing on sight. We only have one part time employee that dumps the trash and cleans the bays. The order seems to have some flexibility due the vast number of business who don't fall into the listed ones. Which state are you in?

 

[soapy]

My car wash distributor is almost 300 miles away. I got word that company policy is now the techs are not allowed to stay in hotels and can only service equipment that can be driven to and from in a day. Kind of leaves me on my own for a while until things get back to normal. Most things we can handle our self anyway. Certain hotspots for the distribtor are off limits and they can't go there. Our county is still virus free thankfully.

 

[carwash11147]

I'm in Oregon and the state order will not affect our SS wash. At first I thought it would, but we have no employees on sight all day and the public can maintain the 6 foot rule by them selves. We only empty the trash twice a day, look for maintenance issues, and have no contact rules in place. Self service places should be fine from what I can see. There more concerned on places where people can be too close to each other. Any other Oregon operators have a different opinion?

We just got shut down in Michigan today for three weeks (or longer). I'm shutting down my SS bays and vacs but leaving my automatics running. My thought on the self serve is if an infected person comes into wash they are going to have germs on their hands which will get transferred onto the gun, foam brush, and rotary knob so the next guy who is six feet behind him will pick up as soon as he drives away. We can sit here and try to justify all we want but at the end of the day we are going to have to suck it up, otherwise we'll never get through this.

 

[OurTown]

Although some may think it is irresponsible we are remaining open but without vacs or trash. Since the order is a little vague for us in Ohio we contacted the Ohio Dept of Health, our city, and our county's health dept. (Have you guys done this?) Of course after 28 hours the state still has not returned our call. We heard back form the city and have it in writing that we can remain open. The county health dept called back and verbally said yes we can remain open and was thrilled we closed down our vacs and trash. We are investigating practical ways to provide disinfecting wipes, gloves, or hand sanitizer in each bay and at the auto cashier. (so far have not come up with anything) We may put up signs to encourage people to use cards over cash. There are so many types of businesses that are still open that I doubt our little car wash is on anyone's radar. Until there is an REAL "shelter in place" mandate and EVERYONE takes it serious this issue is just going to linger on. I'm guessing our state's two week order will extend to months. We may close if we get publicly shamed or more restrictions come out. Right now it is only 2 o'clock and so far it is our best car wash day in two weeks. (but the bar was set low)

 

[MEP001]

I've decided to stay open until I'm forced to close. I feel the best I can do is pull off and sanitize the vac hoses every day, but I won't shut them down as they're a huge part of my income. I'd most likely operate at a loss without them. I have thought about installing a sink and an antibacterial hand soap dispenser but anything else will get abused or stolen. I've even had a guy riding with his buddy washing his truck try to steal my shovel out of a bay while I had stepped away to let the water drain out of the pile of mud on the floor.

 

[Rfreeman]

I am staying open so far and I laminated and posted the car wash association letter on my doors at both locations. Let's see how it goes and hope for a quicker end to all this.

 

[Dave in IL]

In Illinois we are under a stay in place order and the governor has shut down all non essential businesses. We have an IBA with SS, drinking water, dog wash. My take on this is the spirit of the stay in place order is to avoid human contact. Since any of our services can be accomplished without 1) customer leaving their car, or 2) customer is outside in the open bay I made the determination that our staying open does not violate the spirit of the order. So, we are staying open without trying to find a loophole. We are not engaging customers (as would be our normal practice) unless they need help. So far, that has been very, very minimal. Two local police departments use our wash and they are washing their squads like normal so they must not see a problem.

 

[slash007]

Here in Lexington, KY. seems to be business as usual for all of the express washes that took over the city.

 

[traveler17]

We just got shut down in Michigan today for three weeks (or longer). I'm shutting down my SS bays and vacs but leaving my automatics running. My thought on the self serve is if an infected person comes into wash they are going to have germs on their hands which will get transferred onto the gun, foam brush, and rotary knob so the next guy who is six feet behind him will pick up as soon as he drives away. We can sit here and try to justify all we want but at the end of the day we are going to have to suck it up, otherwise we'll never get through this.
[/QUOT

I’m in Coastal NC and no closings as of yet and don’t plan on it. Some on here have said shut down SS and vacs for fear of spreading. Keeping your IBAs open? Wouldn’t that be going against what your trying to prevent. Fingers and hands still touching your screens or buttons. Whats the difference?

 

[KleanRide]

Fingers and hands still touching your screens or buttons. Whats the difference?

I watched a kid in the grocery store yesterday that was walking down the produce aisle and bare-handing everything he could reach. His mom, of course, was totally oblivious. Short of chaining people to their bed frames, I don't see how any of this will do much good.

 

[MEP001]

My fiancée was at a grocery store yesterday where they have circles on the floor in the checkout lanes to mark a 6' separation and signs everywhere explaining, and she said a couple behind her with three kids who were bouncing around touching everything, and the mother crowded up behind her to put stuff on the conveyor. A store employee had to stop them and keep them back.

Some stupid teens posted a video of themselves walking through the produce section deliberately coughing on everything.

 

[Rfreeman]

Well our Stay at Home executive order signed by the county judge started last night at 11:59 p.m., we stayed open as business as usual. I posted the letter from the car wash association on my front door. From checking in on the cameras through out the day seems like business is down....how much I can't tell until I take count at the end of the week. One of my locations sits on main road (25K cars daily north to south) with a traffic light about a mile away and there has been a drastic reduction in road traffic today. No plans to close unless told otherwise by the city, fingers crossed they won't, but we will see.

 

[wyatt]

I am staying open so far and I laminated and posted the car wash association letter on my doors at both locations. Let's see how it goes and hope for a quicker end to all this.

Can you post that letter here? I'm part of the Western Car Wash Association but I do not believe they have sent us a letter yet.

 

[Rfreeman]

Can you post that letter here? I'm part of the Western Car Wash Association but I do not believe they have sent us a letter yet.

Wyatt previous page kleanride already posted it on this thread. If you have an issue copying it off this thread let me know and I can send it to you.

 

[Randy]

I wasn’t going to close my car wash but now I’m seriously thinking about closing down. There isn’t going to be a huge amount of traffic on the roads so why stay open. Business this week has been so bad that I can’t see staying open. I’m going to have to evaluate it in morning after I pull the money. The 2 large car wash chains in Seattle shut down today.

 

[srr5008]

Contrary to my earlier post, we decided to stay open (in Northeastern PA). Has been very rainy this week, but the sun came out for a little while yesterday and business picked up. Today is supposed to be sunny and beautiful, so that should give us a better idea of how things have been impacted.

The state police have certainly been steadily using the car wash (they have an account with us) and they haven't said anything to us about remaining open.

 

[Rfreeman]

One of the local news stations here in DFW came out with a story due to all the ambiguity going around as what is considered essential or non essential:

CBS Texas - Breaking Local News, First Alert Weather & I-Team Investigations

Latest breaking news from CBS11 KTVT-TV | KTXA-TV.

dfw.cbslocal.com

I hope you all have industry positive stories like this in your respective markets.....business was slow yesterday however I will take slow business vs. having to shut it down completely and 0 business.

 

[KleanRide]

San Antonio has a similar article today. They didn't make distinction between full and self serve, but specifically listed "car washes" as allowed to stay open...

 

[srr5008]

business was slow yesterday however I will take slow business vs. having to shut it down completely and 0 business.

My thoughts exactly. Still going to have to heat the joint and keep it semi-lit at night. May as well take what business trickles in during that time. We don't have employees/attendents so our place (2 IBAs and 2 SS bays) is technically all serve-yourself.