Trashed Bays

[MH12956]

Hi. I manage a car wash in Florida. We have 6 SS bays, 1 in bay auto plus vacs etc. In past years we would occasionally have a contractor or off road enthusiast trash one of our bays. Over the past year we've had an explosion of this. It has become a multiple times a day issue and is effecting our labor costs, pit pumping costs, and our reputation.
We've put up signage, asked them nicely when we see it, and had some egregious offenders trespassed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sunahara]

I had a software company creat a program where I can remotely turn off each bay. If I see something on the camera, I just turn it off. If they call, I explain to them and ask them to clean it up. If they won't than I won't turn it back on. Sometimes if I see it before hand, I just turn it off before they even have a chance to wash.

 

[Axxlrod]

Comes with the territory unfortunately. Best thing to do is raise prices so those off-road guys spend some good $ getting that mud off.

 

[Greg Pack]

It takes a lot of time and patience to train your customers. Some say it’s not worth it and just tolerate it. Some look forward to the business and will happily clean it up. To discourage the unwanted activity you have to be willing to spend time on site and learn when the offenders come in. I noticed a pattern of my bays being trashed at one wash on sunday night during hunting season. All the people that go hunting all
Weekend would come in and wash it off before they went home. I started closing down Sunday nights and over time that greatly reduced hunters washing mud as I trained them to go elsewhere. In the past I’ve also closed the bays on rainy days because very little “good” business happens on rainy days.

the wash that is closest to me is old school and welcomes all washers. He has a place to dispose of the mud onsite whereas I’m on a mall outparcel and don’t. I’ll send the big mess makers to him and he happily accepts them.

I used to know an owner who literally would sit in his truck for hours at a time watching customers like a security guard. He ran a clean wash but IMO that was a bit too much. You can get a lot of cleanup done in an hour at a wash

 

[Axxlrod]

I draw the line at stuff that doesn't go down the drain.

Mud goes down into the pits, so I don't kick the off-roaders out, even though I don't enjoy their patronage.

Users I don't allow:

contractors that spray out construction debris like wood scraps, nails, drywall pieces, etc...
landscapers that spray out mulch or yard waste
horse trailers that spray out hay or horse shit.

Users I call police on:
spraying out spilled wet paint
roofers spraying out tar
carpet cleaners dumping their wastewater
RVs dumping their waste tanks

 

[obzenmatt]

I draw the line at stuff that doesn't go down the drain.

Mud goes down into the pits, so I don't kick the off-roaders out, even though I don't enjoy their patronage.

Users I don't allow:

contractors that spray out construction debris like wood scraps, nails, drywall pieces, etc...
landscapers that spray out mulch or yard waste
horse trailers that spray out hay or horse shit.

Users I call police on:
spraying out spilled wet paint
roofers spraying out tar
carpet cleaners dumping their wastewater
RVs dumping their waste tanks

Pretty good list. I like to add: people who try to do maintenance on their cars and people who try to wash off their old engines and car parts to the list

 

[ShinePro]

one of my favorite pics
February- huge busy day
This was about 10 trucks worth
Colder than hell!
Greg is right - it takes time to train customers
After all these years we now have customers policing customers.

you catch some people on camera-
The big offenders usually a landscaper, tow truck, septic pumper etc with a name or number on the truck
Call the boss and call them out on it
Word gets around
Problems go way down!
I can also shut the bays off from home but no longer watch the cameras that close.

 

[ShinePro]

I know for fact this guy got an ass chewing when he got back to the office

 

[traveler17]

one of my favorite pics
February- huge busy day
This was about 10 trucks worth
Colder than hell!
Greg is right - it takes time to train customers
After all these years we now have customers policing customers.

you catch some people on camera-
The big offenders usually a landscaper, tow truck, septic pumper etc with a name or number on the truck
Call the boss and call them out on it
Word gets around
Problems go way down!
I can also shut the bays off from home but no longer watch the cameras that close.

How do you rig shutting your bays down. I gotta do it. We all train our customers but always gonna be that element. head was spraying his truck bed out yesterday and I could see the degreaser he was spraying bed down with. I was 50 minutes away at my other wash watching this idiot. Would’ve loved to cut power on him !!

 

[ShinePro]

How do you rig shutting your bays down. I gotta do it. We all train our customers but always gonna be that element. head was spraying his truck bed out yesterday and I could see the degreaser he was spraying bed down with. I was 50 minutes away at my other wash watching this idiot. Would’ve loved to cut power on him !!

I have a system from a company in Utah
Control by Web
Its a relay system that wires into the bay boxes in the work room.
or any other function you want to hook it too.
I can shut the bays off
Put time on a bay
Close the automatic
Open the automatic doors
Turn the attic heat on
Check the temp in the attic trough
Turn the change machine off
Turn the workroom lights on
Etc

All from my phone
Pretty damn handy system

 

[ShinePro]

A word of caution shutting the bay down on someone
I rarely do it anymore
Because 1 in 5 will get pissed and you end up fixing the wand after they slam it to the ground!

 

[obzenmatt]

I have a system from a company in Utah
Control by Web
Its a relay system that wires into the bay boxes in the work room.
or any other function you want to hook it too.
I can shut the bays off
Put time on a bay
Close the automatic
Open the automatic doors
Turn the attic heat on
Check the temp in the attic trough
Turn the change machine off
Turn the workroom lights on
Etc

All from my phone
Pretty damn handy system

How much approx did it run to get it set up that way? Is there an app that they put the switches into or did they have to write something up from scratch for you?

 

[Greg Pack]

You guys can rig up something simple with a home automation system like yolink. They sell a tiny wifi relay that will handle 5 amps. just kill the power to the timer or (better yet) just open the timed output circuit. Would cost $25 for the hub and $25 for each device you want to control. I haven't mounted one remotely in a bay yet. I'll try to put one in a meter door and make sure it gets adequate signal.

Another option are the inexpensive four channel relays you can buy on amazon for around $25. To use that though it may have to be centrally located in the equipment room and wiring run to the bay.

Although tempting to try, I don't think I look at my cameras often enough to catch offenders.

 

[2Biz]

one of my favorite pics
February- huge busy day
This was about 10 trucks worth
Colder than hell!

If you stay open after a snow and salt event, not trying to be mean, but what do you expect? When this happens, I spend a lot more time at the cw and keep the snow and salt clods pushed out of each bay. Other washes in town let it build up so bad people don't use their wash. I'm a firm believer you get what you put into it....I make really good $$$ when its like this and work a little harder to make sure all customers have a good experience!

 

[ShinePro]

If you stay open after a snow and salt event, not trying to be mean, but what do you expect? When this happens, I spend a lot more time at the cw and keep the snow and salt clods pushed out of each bay. Other washes in town let it build up so bad people don't use their wash. I'm a firm believer you get what you put into it....I make really good $$$ when its like this and work a little harder to make sure all customers have a good experience!

You miss understand
I loved it - I was there the entire time it was going on
Guys just kept pulling in one after another
They said - ah clean it after me
Everyone was having a blast

 

[designflaw]

This is probably the worst part of owning the car wash, people will do this shit. I have just learned to try to embrace it the best I can. It is too darn hard to chase every one of them down and there is so many folks going thru that trying to educate them will not work for me.

 

[ShinePro]

How much approx did it run to get it set up that way? Is there an app that they put the switches into or did they have to write something up from scratch for you?

The 10 relay boards were about $500 each
Plus the boxes wiring etc
$1500.
Go to there web site they have a demo of their free APP

 

[2Biz]

You are right....I totally missunderstood. The topic was trashed bays!!! This is what trashed bays look like! Yep, that is paint!

 

[traveler17]

You are right....I totally missunderstood. The topic was trashed bays!!! This is what trashed bays look like! Yep, that is paint!

I’m assuming you took that picture? Did you go nuts on that idiot?

 

[2Biz]

If it would have been a guy I probably would have! But since she was already histarical, I didn't want to make it worse than it already was...Luckily it was a water soluable latex paint....Took me a few hours with my 4400psi pressure washer to get it cleaned up.