Counting Cars

[Andy Burn]

Is there any feasible way to count the number of cars washed? Rather than counting the coins on the month end, it would be helpful if I can have access to the data.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!
Regards
Andy

 

[MEP001]

I've done it by watching surveillance video. The playback on my DVR is too slow to watch every camera one at a time (It would probably take twelve hours) but I can download a day's worth of video to a thumb drive and watch it in media player in an hour and count the cars washed.

 

[cantbreak80]

I assembled a SmartRelay/LOGO program that included counting the bay's timed output cycles.
It was not entirely accurate for car counts because some folks allow the time to expire and then restart.

 

[Earl Weiss]

For a SS operation, once you have the data, what will you do with it?

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

I've seen cycle counters connected to the start output of bay timers. Pretty easy to do, and it would get you close, but as mentioned above, how will that info help you?
Any easy way to get a good idea, is to average your credit card sales, then divide totals sales by the average.

 

[MEP001]

I've seen cycle counters connected to the start output of bay timers. Pretty easy to do, and it would get you close, but as mentioned above, how will that info help you?

If he's trying to determine how much people spend per car cash vs credit, that's how. Counting cycles is useless because so many people let the time run out and restart.

Any easy way to get a good idea, is to average your credit card sales, then divide totals sales by the average.

When I was counting, I had a couple people either use the max amount or stop and reswipe to bucket wash. I've also seen people swipe their card and immediately press the stop button, then swipe again.

 

[Randy]

If you have Dixmor timers it's easy to get the count.

 

[Andy Burn]

At my car wash we only take cash and no credit cards. I wanted to count cars and the time when it is being used so that I can make informed operating decisions. For example if I see a pattern with only an odd wash happening between the hours of 7pm - 9pm, I may then turn off the weep and blowout the system for one.
I am looking at building a system and I believe for around $200 I may get it working to count cars. If I am successful, I will keep you posted.

 

[Andy Burn]

If you have Dixmor timers it's easy to get the count.

I use old Ginsan timers.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

I resisted adding credit cards for a long time. I added the crypto pay the beginning of 2018. It paid for itself in the first few months.
Now well over half my sales are credit card.

 

[Bill Capron]

I too resisted in adding credit cards. First year credit card sales $21,000.00. Cash sales unchanged.
Best thing I ever did.

 

[Rshaul]

I too resisted in adding credit cards. First year credit card sales $21,000.00. Cash sales unchanged.
Best thing I ever did.

I am in a very small rural town and have been wondering about cc. What is your location like?

 

[Bill Capron]

I’m in Ocean Shores WA. It’s a tourist town on the Washington coast. The area economy has been “weak” for decades.
The majority of the employment is tourism and service industries. There is no “major employer”.
Poor credit and prepaid cell phones are common.
At some point I realized that a large part of my customers were tourists who had and used credit cards.

 

[Toms PTcarwash]

These days most people under 35 seldom carry cash.
Under 25, almost none carry cash.

 

[Rshaul]

Thanks for the input. I think it is time to at least try it in one bay.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Thanks for the input. I think it is time to at least try it in one bay.

I started out with half my bays. Within a couple of months did the rest, then half the vacuums.

 

[CentralTex]

Since we are now talking about credit cards...we installed cryptopay last year. I don't know what impact it has had on sales, suffice to say approximately 20% of our car wash sales are now credit. We only have credit cards on the washes not the vacuums. I cannot say whether credit cars have increased our sales or not (we only owned the car wash for about 5-6 months before we installed). Definitely an efficiency savings of some sort because we don't have to count those quarters or lug them to the bank.

 

[Greg_T]

On the topic of credit cards, picture below show typical credit card / cash split for us. For context, we are in a country town of about 1500 people in Australia.