Travel Guidance for Automatic Bay Car Wash

[Store.600624]

Afternoon,

I am looking for suggestions/ideas on how to solve an issue I have with customers pulling in too far to the right of my Laserwash 4000 bay.

What would happen is a customer would pull up to the kiosk and then either get out of car or open car door to interact with the kiosk. Then when they pull forward, the spray arm would hit the "T-Bar sensor" when it enters high pressure rinse mode. This is due to the spray arm moving out to avoid hitting the car.

I have posted a sign on the kiosk to explain that if they have to open the car door to interact with the kiosk, they may be too far away and will cause the car wash to stop. Of course very few customers understand, notice, or even read this sign.

So now I am looking at other solutions. I have though of using small rubber "parking marker" on the right side of the ground. I have also though of just painting a wide line on the concrete floor so if they "center" themselves, within that line, they will be within position for it to work correctly.

Because of the nature of the car wash, it has to be something ground level and not be taller then a foot or less, so not mess with the ultrasonic sensors.

Anyone have suggestions or images of what could be used?

Thank you in advance.

 

[chaz]

big yellow arrow at center of door bay opening “line up center”. This would be at top of bay opening….would work at my place…not sure your set up

 

[DAWGWASH]

Afternoon,

I am looking for suggestions/ideas on how to solve an issue I have with customers pulling in too far to the right of my Laserwash 4000 bay.

What would happen is a customer would pull up to the kiosk and then either get out of car or open car door to interact with the kiosk. Then when they pull forward, the spray arm would hit the "T-Bar sensor" when it enters high pressure rinse mode. This is due to the spray arm moving out to avoid hitting the car.

I have posted a sign on the kiosk to explain that if they have to open the car door to interact with the kiosk, they may be too far away and will cause the car wash to stop. Of course very few customers understand, notice, or even read this sign.

So now I am looking at other solutions. I have though of using small rubber "parking marker" on the right side of the ground. I have also though of just painting a wide line on the concrete floor so if they "center" themselves, within that line, they will be within position for it to work correctly.

Because of the nature of the car wash, it has to be something ground level and not be taller then a foot or less, so not mess with the ultrasonic sensors.

Anyone have suggestions or images of what could be used?

Thank you in advance.

On our Laserwash we put a big arrow in center then put reflectors that you mount on both the left and right sides. They stick up do drivers can feel if they are too far one way or another

 

[PEI]

We used reflectors to create guide lines on the floor, but you can also set the abort zone on the VT to kick them out of the bay if they are too far to the right.

 

[eckert16]

Flat LED lights on the floor, flex reflectors on the floor, painted lines on the floor provide visual alignment to the customer. However, more car drivers these days don't seem to understand their own vehicles dimensions or apparent size. Also, more drivers seem to rely on their cars 'telling them' what to do. Cars may have built in bump detectors which you may be able to take advantage of for aligning in the bay.

Consider the 5" tall, about 8' long bright yellow plastic wheel stops for parking spots normally found at the parking lot spaces, bolt those on both sides of your bay floor. These can visually and physically guide the driver to the target wash area. As people are likely to recognize when they 'bump' or 'ride onto' these, thus 'guiding' them gently to the sweet area of the bay. They can be used to restrict wide vehicles if you have that issue as well.

You may want the driver to hit 'yellow plastic wheel stop' guides, instead of hitting the automatic carwash itself. If a driver continues over the 'yellow plastic wheel stop' guides and damages the automatic equipment, your insurance company has more solid evidence that you've done all you can to prevent damage to your equipment, as well as provided plenty of guidance for the customers vehicle. Your insurance company will appreciate your fore thought and make claim resolution easier (installed cameras to record them going over the yellow stops as well).

Good for older, and inexperienced populations using an automatic in an open bay.