Better Safe than Sorry - Simple Steps to Improve Site Safety

By: Anthony Analetto
Originally Published in AutoLaundry Magazine

Did you know that one of the largest car wash chains in the country has a push-on, push-off policy exclusively for any Jeep Cherokee, any year, which enters their wash? Did you know that within the last 6-months, unintended acceleration involving Jeep Cherokees at the car wash killed two people?

This is nothing new. I’ve written about it before. Last week my 17 year old son decided to take a line position at a nearby flex-serve car wash. Admittedly a little overprotective I decided to call the owner, a friend of mine, to see what his current driver training and car handling procedures were. I asked if he had heard about the recent fatalities involving Jeep Cherokees. Genuinely surprised, he replied no, and that it had been so long since he heard about the issue, he couldn’t say with absolute confidence that all of his staff were still following the correct driver safety procedures. But that he would find out. Satisfied that he would ensure the simple safety practices that save lives, and potentially my son’s, were in place, I realized it might be a good idea to remind everyone of the few extra steps to protect the safety of our employees and customers. Attention to training, management, signage, and site planning can help avoid tragedy; here are a few ideas I’ve written about before to start with.

Driver Training & Certification Program

Set very specific requirements as to who at your site is permitted to move a customer’s car. Train them. Test them. Certify them and differentiate them from the rest of your staff.  I’ve seen some operators use red vests, baseball caps, and distinct shirts. Whatever you use, your manager must be able to know with a quick glance, without thinking, that whoever is driving a car has been certified to do so.

Driver certification can include many things. At a bare minimum, you must verify that they possess a valid driver’s license, have passed a drug screening, and can drive both automatic and manual transmission vehicles. A safe wash will use those base qualities to verify that candidates are eligible to receive special driver certification. All certified drivers must be trained and able to demonstrate a complete understanding of vehicle stacking and moving procedures. In addition, they should be aware of all cars with special considerations and know proper handling procedures.

Some vehicles require additional care when moving. Every wash must devise a list of them and the necessary action to alert all people on the property to the potential danger. Visor clips, steering wheel covers, hazard lights, or horn honks each time a vehicle is moved are some common signals used. Vehicles that warrant extra care include those with modifications common for driver education or handicapped operation, as well as cars with a documented history of sudden acceleration. Regional and national car wash associations are excellent sources for information on makes and models that demand caution when on your property.

The last component of a driver certification program is to make sure it’s treated seriously. It is advised to provide additional compensation or benefit such as free uniforms to certified drivers. Equally, managers must fully appreciate that failure to adhere to these procedures can and will result in serious injury.

Start in Park Procedure for Special Care Vehicles
Did you know that most, if not all, unintended acceleration incidents occur when shifting a running car from neutral to drive when exiting the conveyor? Cars with a documented history of unintended acceleration should never be permitted to go through the conveyor with the engine running. At the exit of the conveyor, all special care vehicles should be placed in park with the brake pedal fully depressed and visually verified before starting the engine. Drivers must be trained to watch the tachometer and wait for engine speed to decline after ignition before slowly releasing the brakes and proceeding with caution, hand on the ignition and ready to turn off the engine in the event of unintended acceleration. The parking brake can also be engaged as an additional safety precaution.

 

Bollards Equal Safety

Bollards are steel pipes embedded into the ground and filled with concrete. Used for years to provide protective barriers around gas pumps, vended vacuums, and building entrances, they can also be used to provide a safe place for attendants to stand at your wash. Flex-serve and Express-Exterior washes are increasingly installing them on the driver side of the conveyor entrance. Attendants stand safely behind the post as they guide customers onto the conveyor. Full-serve washes are using Bollards to provide safer work areas in vacuum lanes, finishing areas, or anywhere cars and people are both moving around. For anyone who reads my column regularly, you’ve probably realized I strongly recommend against any manual vehicle prep. For those who insist on using labor instead of the many available equipment options for this function, Bollards can again be used to provide a safe separation between prep attendants and cars entering the conveyor.

Eliminate Unnecessary Movement

Every time a customer or employee moves a car at your site, there is the potential for an accident. To improve safety, move the car as few times as possible. Whenever possible, use the customer to move it. Express-Exteriors are designed so that the customer drives through the wash and either exits directly, or to free vacuums before leaving. Flex-Serves are similar in that they are normally laid out so that customers who select interior services are guided into a predetermined bay in the aftercare center. They then drive their own car away from the spot where they left it once services are complete. Safety problems can arise at Flex-Serves where land or other considerations require an attendant to move the car and at Full-Serves where an employee drives vehicles on or off the conveyor.

When attendants must move cars, do everything possible to reduce the distance and number of times it occurs. Moves should never happen more than twice. For this to occur, the car must be vacuumed where the customer leaves it, and moved once to the conveyor entrance. It is then driven a second time from the conveyor exit to the finishing area where services are performed and the customer drives away from the wash. Too often, cars are unnecessarily moved short distances at both the entrance and exit of a car wash. This jostling of cars is unsafe, inefficient, and avoidable with training and signage to “fill the grid”.

Fill the Grid

To efficiently and safely move cars through your wash they must move in and out of grids in an exact pattern. Everything must be predictable. Every person at the wash must know where the next car will be going. If you can’t ask any employee at your wash “why didn’t you fill the grid” without them immediately understanding what you said and apologizing, you have a safety problem. So what is a grid? At most Full-Serves, there are two grids, one where a customer turns over the car for vacuuming, and a second where an attendant parks the car for finishing. Grids are easy to understand and implement. The difficulty is ensuring they are adhered to every time, by every employee.

The Vacuum Grid

The vacuum grid illustration shows a typical two lane stack with 4 drops and 4 spots. Customers are guided into each spot, in sequence, to fill the grid, with the vacuum drop between cars. The most common mistake made happens on slow days. Both attendants and customers will want to fill spot 1 and jump to spot 3. You must train this habit out of your employees. You must also make sure customers know to remain in their car and wait for an attendant to guide them into the correct location before getting out. It may be necessary to use signs and cones to instruct customers to stop and wait. Some locations may also have to get a longer hose, about 20 feet, to be able to reach all areas of both cars in the lane from each drop. The result is that in a short time you will have better predictability, fewer vehicle movements, and improved safety. Skipping the one car length move to the vacuum by a hurried attendant reduces the risk of injury in an area with a lot up unexpected motion.

The Finishing Grid

One of the greatest opportunities to improve safety is to stack cars predictably in the Full Service finishing area. Depending on what your property allows, you should layout a grid to the maximum width and necessary depth to accommodate the highest anticipated volume. Every car should come off the conveyor into an assigned spot, not to be moved again until the owner drives the finished product away. An organized grid system maintains all cars headed in the same direction. As long as there is a car in the grid, the drive off attendant must complete the grid. Some operators stencil the ground with numbers and positioning marks to avoid confusion. An additional safety measure is to install an anti-collision system. These products detect if a car has cleared the conveyor exit and shut down the conveyor and all equipment if a car does not exit for any reason.

The other objective is to reduce and control the movement of people at the conveyor exit. Employees should move to the vehicle, never the other way around. Customers should have a clear path to walk to their car that minimizes crossing traffic exiting the conveyor. All supplies that attendants need to finish the car should be within half a car length from where they are working. This keeps employees from moving around which is not only safer, but more efficient as well.  For a grid to work effectively it must always be followed regardless of volume or employee count. Good habits breed predictability which is the foundation for improving safety.

Summary

No matter how busy, or slow, your site is, everyone should know where the next vehicle is supposed to go. Creating a predictable and controlled environment, that minimizes employee movement and provides protective barriers for them to do their job, will improve the safety of your wash. Safety shouldn’t be left to chance. Careful attention to training, management, signage, procedures, and equipment will help protect the most import assets at your wash … people.

One Wash Cycle per Every Three Pounds - 5-Steps to Finding Innovative Solutions to Grow Your Business

By: Anthony Analetto

While sitting down to write this article, only two weeks since Thanksgiving, a colleague called. Before talking about business, we had to first cover a very important annual topic – what innovations we came up with in the preparation of our Thanksgiving Day turkeys – and how it relates to car washing.

Now before this phone conversation, I thought I was pretty creative.  Needing to prepare two turkeys to feed our guests, I roasted the first on a bed of carrots, celery, onions, and garlic – a tip I picked up watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network. After cooking, the vegetables are then pureed into the gravy, which drew some funny looks from my family, but they ate every drop.  When I said I was going to smoke the second turkey however, I was met with absolute resistance. Ignoring comments like “Dad, why can’t you just make a normal turkey?”  I proceeded to brine it with Bourbon and Apple Juice, making it the happiest turkey I’ve ever eaten.  At the end of the meal – the smoked turkey was gone and leftover roasted turkey was moved to the refrigerator.

Catch a Rising Star - Seven things you can do to uncover and cultivate employee passion

Last week I had an eye opening experience. A group of friends and I chartered a boat and went sail fishing off the Florida Keys. Six guys on a boat, four of which, including me, were sail fishing “rookies”. By noon, all four rookies had each caught and released a 6 to 7 foot sailfish ranging from 35 to 75 pounds. You would have thought that we were the most excited people on the water, but we weren’t. While I stood on the bridge watching the crew, all my attention was on the first mate. Here’s a guy who had been sail fishing since he was six years old and probably caught and released over a thousand fish in his life. But as he stood there, passionately giving a play-by-play of how the fish spit out the first bait we threw at it but took the second, I hollered down jokingly, “You act like it’s the first fish you’ve ever caught.” The kid just held up his hands which were still shaking with adrenaline, shrugged, and said “I always get this fired-up sail fishing.” A better first mate and future captain, you couldn’t hope to find anywhere. What struck me, and why I’m writing about the experience, was that at the same time this first mate is giving us the time of our life and earning our loyalty for any future trips, the captain’s attitude towards the first mate was doing the opposite.

Innovate or Die - Interview with Terrance Elder of Triple Play Car Wash in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower” Steve Jobs, CEO Apple, Inc.

Triple Play Car Wash in Attleboro, MA is one of the most impressive car wash facilities I’ve ever seen. Opened nearly three years ago by Terrance Elder, this 3.2 acre property is home to a 157-foot express-exterior tunnel, touch-less in-bay automatic, 7-MPD Exxon-Mobil gas station, 6-Bay Detailing Center, 3-Bay Valvoline Instant Oil-Change, and a 4,500 Sq. Ft. On-The-Run C-Store with a drive-thru Dunkin Donuts and Jay’s Deli. Under Terrance’s vision, leadership, and hard work, his overall business has experienced year-to-year growth of 20% with the oil-change business alone posting a 58% gain. And just as he’s positioned to relax and reap the rewards of his efforts, Terrance is doing the opposite. Over the coming weeks, Triple Play is applying everything it has learned so far to create an innovative new cross marketing system that leverages technology to build loyalty and drive revenue. Having already done the heavy lifting, Terrance agreed to share some of his insights to bring an already successful car wash to the next level. Below are some excerpts from our conversation.

Swimming Upstream - Finding full-serve success by going against the grain

By: Anthony Analetto
Originally Published in AutoLaundry Magazine

Interview with Tim Jones, Owner of Champion Car Wash in Nashville, Tennessee

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

Henry David Thoreau

Elimination of labor has been the battle cry of nearly every carwash operator I know for as long as I can remember. This passion has inspired equipment innovation and made automated kiosks a prevalent feature at many locations. Our industry has created self-serve carwashes and 24-hour unmanned in-bay automatics. Most new tunnel washes opening are either express-exterior or flex-serves, designed to minimize labor. And the traditional full-serve carwash, with its substantial labor requirement, has fallen from grace for most new investors. Now let’s meet Tim Jones, the owner of Champion Car Wash in Nashville, Tennessee.

Supply Chain - Defending your carwash business against what can go wrong

 By: Anthony Analetto
Originally Published in AutoLaundry Magazine

“Things may come to those who wait ... but only the things left by those who hustle.” Abraham Lincoln

So you’ve already organized your back room. Emergency replacement parts are carefully inventoried. You have a clean workbench stocked with all the tools, fittings, and supplies required for quick repair. Employees are trained to know exactly what to do in the event of a failure with documented procedures. Maintenance procedures are performed accurately and on schedule. You ask yourself, “am I fully prepared to maximize the uptime of my business?” Not always. It’s not uncommon for carwash owners to find themselves scrambling for qualified trade services during a catastrophe. Under the gun to reopen, many are forced to pay premium prices for subpar work.

If you can pull out what I like to refer to as a supply-chain contact book right this second, stop reading and go wash some cars. Otherwise, let’s take a look.

Create Your Supply-Chain Contact Book

What can go wrong, will go wrong. The job here is to make a list of every possible contractor you may ever need to perform service on your property. Start with the basics - a plumber, and an electrician. Next is having a primary and secondary waste water management company, and if they don’t also provide a drain cleaning service, you must have a supplier for that as well. That’s where most carwash operators stop. My recommendation, however, is to keep going. If, for example, you operate automated attendants, search for a local vending machine repair company. Although some aspects of these complicated machines will require service from the manufacturer, many breakdowns result from bill collectors and other problems common to all vending machines, which can often be fixed faster and cheaper by a local service tech.

Also locate service companies for all major support equipment including Air Compressors and HVAC equipment. Make sure they are certified to work on your brand of equipment with same day access to replacement parts. Murphy’s Law states that when the pump on one compressor fails, the motor on your backup will too. Being able to call one company and be back online in a matter of hours can add thousands of dollars to the bottom line.

Last, don’t assume anything. Every equipment vendor and service company offers a different array of services. Most, for example, have emergency welding and fabrication capabilities, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule. Confirm the services available before you have a problem and find contractors as appropriate.

Commercial, Licensed, Insured, and Recommended

Short of time in an emergency, the statement from a friend “I know a guy” can seem like a blessing. Unfortunately, carwashes are typically too complicated for the average plumber or electrician you’ll encounter through these referrals. Whenever possible, look for trades-people with specific carwash experience. Electricians must not only be skilled in commercial wiring and three-phase power, they must have experience in control voltage, not only low voltage controls. Additionally, the average plumber won’t have the necessary skills, fittings, and supplies on hand to service your equipment. I can recall countless stories of improperly insulated pipes bursting. And pipes always seem to leak over expensive computer controls making it imperative that you annually confirm that all contracted vendors are licensed and insured. Speaking of insurance, does your provider require you to use contractors from an approved vendor list? Some do. Trying to get reimbursed on a $30,000 claim isn’t the time to find out that the contractors you used aren’t covered, so conduct your due diligence now.

Negotiate Hourly Labor Rates

How much a repair will cost should never be a surprise. Before approving a vendor to work on your property you must negotiate an hourly labor rate for work performed both during, and outside regular hours. It’s also a good idea to establish payment terms that ideally afford you some time to submit any insurance claims.

Know Your Local Laws

There are two key areas of local law that a carwash owner must be aware of before approving a vendor. The first and most critical involves the handling of waste water. At minimum, these companies must be licensed for grease, oil, and commercial waste. I’ve also heard of requirements for EPA approval and in some municipalities you’ll want to confirm your carry through liability. If for example, the hauling truck has an accident and leaks sewage, you may be responsible for any damages. A scary thought that necessitates your understanding of the insurance requirement of any vendor you contract for these services. Another area of concern involves noise restrictions on before and after-hour work performed on your property. Although the contractors you select should be aware of these regulations and properly insured, you owe it to the success of your business to know your local laws.

Know Your Local Supply

Many emergency carwash repair parts can be sourced at a local industrial supply store. Others have to come from either the manufacturer or a third party vendor specializing in carwash parts. Never let yourself be caught waiting a day for a replacement part to arrive that forces you to close your doors. Solenoids, cylinders, bearings, hydraulic components, and certain pumps, are just a few examples of parts you may not be able to source locally that can be affordably kept on your shelves in case of an emergency.

Summary

The solution is simple. Get recommendations and locate the best talent before you have a problem. Negotiate an hourly labor rate, and establish payment terms with both a primary and secondary supplier. Lastly, request proof of insurance for every supplier and get an updated copy every year. Hiring service contractors in the midst of a crisis is like fighting with your hands tied behind your back. Don’t let it happen to you.

 

Steps to Planning a Remodel - Remaining competitive in an increasingly competitive world

By: Anthony Analetto
Originally Published in AutoLaundry Magazine

“The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.” Henry Ford

I’m writing from the 2010 ICA Car Care World Expo where we’re breaking down the booth and packing up the trucks to go home. This year I had the good fortune to be invited by the ICA to present a session titled “Maximize your Property’s Profit Potential - Keys to a Remodel”. Having made similar presentations in years past, something about this year was different. The needs were different. The questions were different. The expectations were different. And what I learned is that more operators are looking to a remodel not only to produce a better product, but to reinvent their brand. To scream out to customers that what they do is different.