Express Lane 101

 By: Anthony Analetto
Originally Published in AutoLaundry Magazine

In the last several years full-serve car washing has entered what I like to call a “conundrum”. Customers are reluctant to pay more for a full-serve car wash in proportion to operators rising labor costs. Operators must reduce hours of operation to only the peak times with high traffic volumes to offset the rising labor expenses approaching 48% of gross revenue. The reduced hours of operation contribute to increased wait times exceeding 15 minutes, turning busy customers strapped for time away from the wash. Everything combined is forcing customers to substitute or supplement full serve car washing with in-bay automatics, automated express exterior, or home washing.

How do you solve this conundrum? Two trends have evolved. The first is adding an in-bay automatic to a full-serve site. The second, adding and automated express exterior lane is a more recent innovation growing in popularity. Converting an existing full-serve into a flex-serve format with an express lane is easier than many operators realize. It also addresses concerns many full-serve operators have expressed about remaining competitive against automated express exterior  and in-bay automatic sites entering their markets.

The concept of adding an express lane:

An express only lane can be added by converting an existing second or third vacuum lane or by adding an entrance lane to the conveyor. Full-serve operations continue during peak times with customers exiting the vehicle, paying in a lobby area, and picking up their vehicle at the conveyor exit. Express lane customers enter a clearly marked “express lane” promising a maximum wash time of 3 to 5 minutes depending on equipment performance. Express customers pay through an automated attendant, stay in the vehicle during the wash, and exit the wash directly with no attendant interaction. The minimal staffing requirements of the express lane permit it to remain open even when the full-service lanes are closed.

Concerns of adding an express lane:

The number one concern of most operators considering an express lane is that it will cannibalize full-serve business and reduce overall revenue per car. The opposite is being witnessed. For many operators, existing customers maintain their current full-serve wash schedule; add an occasional express wash when pressed for time; or re-invest money saved on full-serve washes for higher profit detailing services. Additionally, lower price points are attracting new customers to the car wash who over time begin to purchase occasional full-serve offerings.

A second concern is that customers will be hesitant to pay through a computer, drive themselves through the car wash, and leave with no human interaction. Although every market is unique, in many U.S. markets, customers accustomed to paying for gas at the pump, ATM machines, and in-bay automatics, are very accepting of automated self-service, especially when it saves time and includes a discount incentive.

Steps to adding an express lane:

Step 1) No manual prepping should occur at the conveyor entrance.

Since both full-serve and express customers merge into the same tunnel you must relocate all manual full-serve prepping away from the conveyor entrance. This is the single most important aspect of adding an automated express lane. Advertising a 3 to 5 minute car wash at a value price will invariably increase traffic and volume. Any manual prepping at the conveyor entrance is a potential bottleneck that can prohibit your delivering on that promise as well as slowing down your full-serve delivery time.

Several options exist to relocate  or eliminate manual prepping. If investment capital exists, the ideal choice is to borrow technology from the automated Express Exterior industry and install equipment, readily available, for bug removal, wheel prepping, grill washing, and tire shining. The advantage of this approach is that it improves the performance of the wash for both express and full-service customers as well as reducing labor requirements for  manual prepping.

For operators looking to experiment with an express lane prior to an equipment investment, numerous options exist, limited only by your creativity, to relocate manual prepping away from the conveyor entrance. Some of the ideas available to many full-serve locations include stacking vacuum lanes and prepping full-serve prior to entering the conveyor stack.

Step 2) A distinct, clearly marked, and separate “Express” or “Value” lane must be created.

You must address three considerations, marketing, accounting, and safety, when adding an express lane offering to your full-serve location.

First, marketing, applies not only to campaigns to attract customers to your wash, but clearly differentiating the service. Successful installations have used separate coloring, blacktop painting, canopies and instructional signs to accomplish this. The objective is to define for a customer that they are receiving a separate service requiring less money and time, not an equivalent alternative to a regular full-serve wash. Educating customers with exactly what the express lane delivers, aids in crossing primarily express customers to an occasional full-serve wash when time and money permit, and vice versa, full-serve customers adding express washes as an affordable supplement to their overall carwash regiment.

Second, accounting, applies to how automated you want to make the process of selling and collecting money from express customers. One choice is to install an interactive automated attendant integrated with your tunnel controller. Less expensive alternatives include using readily available cash or credit terminals that produce a printed receipt. The customer gives the receipt to an attendant at the wash entrance that guides them onto the conveyor and programs the wash. One pit-fall to avoid is using an attendant to collect money from the customer. In addition to increasing labor cost associated with the wash, it also removes the self-service aspect and raises a customer’s expectation that the wash is equivalent to a full-service. This will result in customer complaints, especially if manual prepping rather than automated online prepping is performed only to full-serve vehicles.

Third, safety, involves maximizing existing space and guiding customers safely through the wash. Accomplishing this may include anything from renting space from an abutting property to simply placing a cone that forces a safer turning radius for express customers. Options, limited only by creativity, can be found to convert nearly any traditional full-serve into a flex-serve with an automated express lane.

Step 3) Identify price points and extra service options.

Too often, operators assume the base express wash must be $3 or $5 dollars. This practice does not take into consideration that the price of land and labor vary drastically in every market. Identifying the appropriate price points will take some time and experimentation but a good starting point is monitoring the cost of a value priced lunch in your market.

Another assumption is that extra service opportunities are limited with an express lane offering. This is easily addressed by incorporating several common technologies used by the automated Express Exterior industry when designing your lane. A short list would include automated online tire shining, automated bug removal, and automated wheel cleaning. Another extra service if not already available would be triple foam wax application. Affordable showerhead style applicators can easily attach to an existing arch in your wash for a more robust extra service offering with no construction requirement.

Step 4) Deliver a clean, shiny, dry vehicle.

Success operating an automated express lane can only happen if customers receive a clean, shiny, dry vehicle with absolutely no prepping. The optimal equipment configuration is a hybrid combination of cloth friction for economical cleaning of flat surfaces and high pressure for wheels, grills, grooves, and moldings. Increasing wash performance does not automatically necessitate major equipment purchases. Many new wash materials, application systems, and high-pressure washers can easily retrofit or attach to existing tunnel equipment. Operators interested in learning the options available should contact their equipment supplier.

The final step is balancing rinsing and drying methods to produce a dry, spot-free car that can leave the tunnel with no finishing work. In a perfect world, space and money would permit adding drying distance and blower power to rinse with fresh water and have a bone-dry vehicle at the conveyor end. This is obviously not always the case, especially with older full-serve locations. One popular solution is the addition of a spot-free rinse activated for express customers. Full-serve customers receive a fresh water rinse, easier for the blowers to remove, and are towel dried during finishing.

In summary:

Although not for everyone, adding an express lane is a proven way of attracting a larger customer base, extending hours of operation, and decreasing labor expense as a percentage of gross sales. It allows traditional full-serve car washes to compete against potential in-bay automatics and automated express exterior locations entering their markets while making it easier to focus on higher end detailing services.