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FALL 2020 • 3

CONTENTS
Freeze ........................................... 6
Make sure your security systems are
weatherproofed for the upcoming
winter season
Fill in the Blank ...................... 10
Comments & Polls ................ 12
Small Business New ............. 14
Association Calendar
& News ....................................... 20
Tricks of the Trade ............... 27
Tips .............................................. 34
Innovations ............................... 41
Industry Dirt ............................ 44
Extra! Extra! ............................. 48
Fun & Games .......................... 52
Cover Story ............................... 54
Around the Wash
Self Serve Panel ...................... 64
Darwin ........................................ 67
VOL. 48, NO. 3, FALL 2020
Publisher Jackson Vahaly
Editor Debra Gorgos
Design Katy Barret-Alley
Editor Emeritus Jarret J. Jakubowski
Editor Posthumous Joseph J. Campbell
Editor Posthumous Julia E. Campbell
Self Serve Carwash News is published 4 times
per year and is independently owned by Jackson
Vahaly. Web address is www.sscwn.com.
All inquiries should be directed to:
Self Serve Car Wash News
110 Childs Ln., Franklin, TN 37067
jacksonv@sscwn.com
Note to Self
BY DEBRA GORGOS, EDITOR
Something strange just happened, but before I get to that, I want to express my
excitement over it being the most wonderful time of year! This holiday season brings
such magic to the air, and I am just overjoyed with excitement. And, by holiday, I
mean Halloween, of course! Things will be different this year in that there will be no
school parade, no haunted houses and no parties here in Upstate New York, but we will
survive. Heck, as a kid growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, we didn’t do much for any
holiday—and it certainly wasn’t weeks celebrations and traditions. We watched It’s the
Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and then on Halloween we went trick or treating and
that was it. This year the festivities are a bit toned down, but I am impressed with how
people are coming up with creative ways to celebrate or make money as a business.
Now, let’s get to that aforementioned, “strange something that happened.” As I was
getting ready to sit down and write this column on a crisp and cozy Sunday morning,
as Autumn colors glowed outside and the house smelled of waffles and maple syrup,
I started thinking about what to write about. There’s so much I could fill this column
with, but I needed to narrow it down. And CBS Sunday Morning was playing on the
television as I was contemplating content. Then, as a stroke of bewitchment or sorcery
or just plain coincidence, Jane Pauley, host of CBS Sunday Morning said to stay tuned
for a story about a car wash. Whatwuzdat?! I squinted at the TV? The news segment
was covering a Halloween-themed car wash in Copiague, New York. It was sort of like
when you’re humming a song in your head and then it comes on the radio. Or you’re
talking to a friend about someone random and then bump into that very person. I had
been reading up on these scary-tunnel car washes and had even tried to think of how
a self serve could pull it off. It seemed pretty unlikely… I mean, how scary would it
be to be a customer getting out of their car and getting attacked by zombies hiding in
the corners of the bay? Many self serves have to deal with enough crime or customer
complaints as it is. The CBS Sunday Morning segment did a great job of showing
how car washes, as well as many other businesses, have adapted to this new-but-stilltemporary-normal
to provide Halloween fun with little to no contact. For instance,
an apple orchard here provided a scary drive through haunted field event, etc. And
its not just for Halloween. Many businesses in general across the country have had to
adjust in order to stay “open.” For instance, a mom-and-pop movie theater near our
house has stayed afloat by selling buckets of popcorn out on its curb. I recently read
about a car wash in Columbia, Ohio, which helped out local artists by allowing them to
perform outside the car wash. Described as, “Part art installation, part performance, part
Halloween fun,” for four nights this past October the Wash’n’Glow event charged $20
for a car wash and a glow-in-the-dark performance at the Carriage House Car Wash.
According to Fox 19, half of the fare went to ArtsWave, which supports hundreds of
local arts projects and organizations through grants. Customers were also given free ice
cream donated from UDF and a Halloween gift bag for kids.
Carriage House employee Nicole Christopher told Fox 19 that it’s important
to keep local artists afloat during these tough times. “Art just brings a community
together in ways that nothing else can,” Christopher said.
What a wonderful way to help others out and get some good press at the same time.
In other news, our cover story is all about mobile car wash apps. I am a selfproclaimed
app addict. I am constantly telling people: Did you download the app for
such and such business? I become very animated when a friend has not, yet repeatedly
frequents a business. How can they live with themselves?! All of those reward points
she’s missing out on!??? It’s a no-brainer, I sigh... Some people are just not aware of
the possibilities, or don’t understand how they make everything so much easier. It took
me years to be iPhone savvy — I fought it for a long time. Back when I went to school,
we didn’t have cellphones. Well, that’s not true. A few of the “rich” kids did and they
were the size of a dust buster. My parents bought me a cellphone in 1998, but it was
for emergencies only. It weighed about 15 pounds and looked like something out of a
World War II bunker.
Copyright 2020. 2 Dollar Enterprises/SSCWN. All Rights Reserved
4 • FALL 2020

Note to Self
BY DEBRA GORGOS, EDITOR
Then I had no phone for
a long time. And didn’t get a
smartphone until I became
a mother. One of the things
I like about it is that I am
one of those people who get
tongued-tied or frazzled when
it comes to ordering food whether at a counter or in a drive-thru. I also
have a food allergy and feel as if I have to make sure, then make sure
again that no dairy will be added. With the apps, I get to order ahead
and sail on thru and there is no miscommunication. Plus, you just cannot
beat the perks that come with frequent visits (every birthday, I go all
day picking up freebies – if you want my master list of chain birthday
freebies, email me at debrag@sscwn.com). Is this something you offer
your customers? If not, is it something you’re considering?
Along with the cover story, this is another jam-packed issue, and
I hope you all enjoy it. And, now that we are soon heading into the
holiday that is all about giving thanks, whether or not you’re able to
celebrate with family, or having a nice small dinner for yourself, please
know that I am grateful for all of you.
Until next time,
Debra
P.S. My kids are getting pretty bored. I am getting
bored. Heck, even my dog seems bored, but the state of
New York is still being extra careful. So, I went out and
did something completely spontaneous. That’s right,
I adopted a kitten. So, here she is, our 2-month old
kitten from the Humane Society. I know the world, and
especially our country is filled with tension, sad news,
sad people, and uncertain circumstances, so hopefully
this will put a smile on your face.
BRIGHT BAY. HAPPY CUSTOMER.
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SSCWN2019.indd 1
FALL 4/15/192020 9:05 • AM5

Freeze!
Make sure your
security systems
are weatherproofed
for the upcoming
winter season
The season of thanks and giving and joy and peace doesn’t
necessarily halt criminals. Nor does the colder weather. In
fact, some theorize that crime rates go up during the holidays
due to depressed or cash-strapped robbers. Whatever the case
may be, it’s important to know that the colder weather can impact
security systems if you’re not on top of the maintenance needed and also
equipped with systems that can withstand snow, sleet, wind… you get the idea.
Thankfully, Jennifer Spears is here to help. Spears is not only a sales manager for
CarWashCameras.com, but she is also a car wash owner. Read on to find out what you need to stay secure,
and what you need to do to weatherproof your set-up and security system for the upcoming colder months.
QUESTION 1:
Are there elements
of the Fall and Winter
seasons that could
impact self serve car
wash security systems?
JENNIFER SPEARS: Tons of elements could impact
self-serve car wash security systems during the fall
and winter seasons. Let’s start with maintenance.
Everything at the wash, no matter what part of
the country it’s located in, needs general maintenance
all the time, especially during the colder
months. No different with cameras and your security
system is incredibly important to maintain.
Rain, sleet, ice and snow can completely obliterate
views from cameras. Check your cameras often to
make sure nothing is impeding their views. Piles of
snow sliding off a roof, icicles, sleet freezing a PTZ
camera in place are just a few of the many things
that can affect your cameras’ ability to do its job.
Using a product like Rain-X can help more than
you think. Having the moisture bead off the camera
plexi as fast as possible can mean the difference
between catching the two guys who just ripped
out your pay station or you’re viewing nothing but
the snow-pocalypse! You’ll also want to make sure
your cables aren’t being weighed down by weather
events either. Ice gets heavy quick! Installing cameras
that can handle extreme cold temps is a must
for almost every wash. Most of them don’t require
full heaters anymore and the right camera housing
for the right location can keep itself insulated from
the cold without pulling tons more power.
Fogging of cameras can also be an issue operators
face when the weather starts changing. Weatherproof
cameras with good gaskets and seals can save
a ton of hassle each year.
Choose cameras that are made for the car wash
environment in any weather!
6 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 7

WE WANT
YOUR
STORIES!
Do you have a funny
story from the bay?
Maybe an inspiring
tale from the wash?
Try something
new that worked well?
“You won’t believe what this
Darwin did at my wash…”
“The best decision I ever made
for my business was…”
“On rainy days, I like to…”
Reach out to Editor Debra Gorgos
debgorgos@gmail.com to share
your story with our readers.
FREEZE!
QUESTION 2:
What do car wash owners
need to do to prepare
for the harsher weather?
JENNIFER SPEARS: If you get the right surveillance
system to start with the amount of things car
wash owners need to do to prepare for the harsher
weather goes down substantially. Get the right
cameras that can…
• Withstand extremes in temperature,;
• Handle the moisture car washes
throw at them, along with moisture
from mother nature;
• Keep working for years with no issues,;
• Be accessed remotely from anywhere,
from any device, with no monthly fees; and
• More importantly, come with a lifetime
of free tech support so that any
questions you have can be answered
by a friendly voice ready to walk
you through anything you need.
QUESTION 3:
What kind of upkeep
is involved for these
types of security systems?
JENNIFER SPEARS: The kind of upkeep involved in
maintaining a camera system in the colder months
is actually pretty simple as long as you’ve been following
the needed steps on a regular basis throughout
the entire year. Simply, use the system and familiarize
yourself with it when it’s installed and use
it often. Make sure all the camera feeds are working
and your system is recording how you want it to.
Make sure there isn’t a huge amount of noise pulling
into the camera feeds because this can damage
your recorder. Make sure your cameras are securely
mounted and high enough and out of reach so
that you don’t have to deal with grabby hands along
with the blizzard that’s on the way. Make sure all
of your cabling is secure and protected. Check your
cameras to make sure they’re still pointing where
they need to be. A super quick checklist of items
to run through every week is so much faster than
everything having to come to a screeching halt if a
recorder stopped recording four months ago when
a hard drive failed and you never knew because you
never checked. The last thing you want to know is
you have no footage of someone having a slip and
fall on ice in front of the changers the night before.
Recorders and cameras are electronic equipment,
and just like all the rest they need to be looked after
routinely for optimal performance.
QUESTION 4:
Unfortunately, reports have
been coming in that criminal
activity is up in areas due to
political tensions, civil rights
issues and, of course, Covid-19.
What advice do you have for car
wash owners in terms of being
extra vigilant about protecting
their properties?
JENNIFER SPEARS: Here are a few quick tips to car
wash owners in terms of protecting your properties
as well as your piece of mind.
• Be present. When you’re at the wash, talk
to your customers. Be engaging with them.
Criminals like anonymity just as much as the
next thief. They tend to stick with nameless,
faceless properties to burgle. Don’t be the
property they’re looking for.
• Go to the wash at different times. I know
this might not work for everyone but if at all
possible go on different days, at different
times, for different reasons so you can be all
over the property anytime or all the time. If
criminals are watching your property they’re
trying to figure out when the best day and
time is to break in. Don’t make it easy for
them. If you pull all the money out of your
washes every Saturday morning at 10 a.m.,
if someone else is watching, you’ll get hit
Saturday morning at 2 a.m. Switch things up
and then switch things up again.
• Last but certainly not least, choose to install
cameras that can stop an issue before it’s
an actual issue. Yes, cameras are there to
capture video of people doing nefarious
things, but the true purpose of a surveillance
system is to stop crimes before they happen.
Thieves like easy, unmanned, lucrative
businesses. You want to put cameras up that
look like cameras. You want the equipment
to be obvious so when a couple of guys roll
up ready to string your changer, steal your
pay station or break into your vacs, they
stop when they see the cameras. Hidden
cameras are great when you want to find
out who’s been eating your peanut butter
crackers out of the breakroom, but for the
car wash you want your cameras to have a
well-known presence. You want vandals to
drive up, see the cameras, and drive away.
Yes, camera systems are there to protect
you, your customers, your property and your
investment if things go badly. But they’re
even more valuable if they can stop an
incident before it even starts.
8 • FALL 2020
The article contributor is Jennifer Spears, carwash owner and sales manager with CarWashCameras.com. With more than 20 years
of experience working with car washes and more than 10000 camera systems under her belt she’s seen it all. Her favorite phrases
when it comes to cameras at any type of vehicle facility? “There are never enough cameras!” & “You need another hard drive with
that?” She welcomes comments and questions and can be reached at 866-301-2288 and jennifer@carwashcameras.com.

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FALL 2020 • 9

FILL IN THE
BLANK
If you would like to contribute your own answer,
visit AutoCareForum.com and do a keyword search of “fill in the blank.”
FILL IN THE BLANK: BEING A CAR WASH OWNER
DURING THE YEAR OF 2020 HAS BEEN ___________
...Excellent. - MEP001
What he said. - KleanRide
...a bit of a roller coaster. Depending upon the current
state of Covid-19 in Victoria, Australia, the customers
at the carwash have been up and down. Carwashes in
our major city (Melbourne) are not allowed to open at all
currently, and I REALLY feel for them. So overall, our year
will be ok, but it’s certainly had its challenges. - Greg_T
...a nightmare trying to repair, get parts, and help -
Cooll903
...This year has been absolutely phenomenal, revenue
way up, no problem getting parts or supplies. Labor was
a little touch and go but we found a new guy to do the
daily cleanup. We didn’t lose a day of business because
of the pandemic. So I’d have to say life is good. - Randy
...Amazing. - water guy
...Fantastic. Blessed. - Bert79
...Extraordinary. - soapy
... thankfully a year when the price of gas & diesel
has remained relatively low & the weather has been
reasonably self service car wash friendly!
We have also noticed as inflation creeps upward .... $5
bills & higher in our in bay bill validators are increasing
from the previous proportions in relation to $1 bills. If we
could just find a way ... to make it less likely paper bills
get wet or damp ... making them not functional in bill
acceptors... - mjwalsh
...Exhausting and mentally draining! - washnvac
...Very challenging to say the least, but hey, we still have
a couple of months left, let’s step on the gas and see
what happens! - DiamondWash
...better than owning a restaurant.
- Wash4Life
...My rural self serve has seen no drop in revenue,
supplies are delivered on time. Hunting season is
here so lots of out-of-staters dealing with
snow, ice and mud. Good year to
be in business. - swampdonkey
... better than owning a full service restaurant
or barber shop! - Dan-Ark
...Yes - I think this comment nailed it. Some of us may
have great numbers this year - maybe even better than
ever, some of us might be down from previous years.
Maybe it had to do with the pandemic, maybe it didn’t.
But if there is a restaurant forum out there and someone
posted this question - probably very few owners would
have seen their business holding steady let alone
increasing or being a banner year. I’ve seen some
national stats for the amount of restaurants that have
closed/will close and not be able to reopen. Don’t know
what the stats would be for car washes closing this
year, but doubt that we have the numbers the restaurant
owners are experiencing. - Washnshine
... Judging by how well most car washes here are
doing, I’m sure any car washes that have closed “due to
COVID-19” were going to anyway. - MEP001
THIS ONE CUSTOMER
WAS SO CLUELESS, HE/SHE ...
...The customer turns the rotary switch to “SOAP”,
grabs the FOAM BRUSH and complains to me, “Hey
Lady, this thing is broken - NO SOAP!” when they see
NO foamy soap coming out of the brush. Meanwhile,
white HP Soap is spraying out of the HP gun! :O I’m
seeing this more often with the younger generation of
new customers. - Kimerly Berg
...I decided to do a deep cleaning of a Hamilton dual
changer. Had the entire guts removed to clean the
cabinet. My head was fully in the cabinet when a
customer lifted the metal flap to insert a bill. I looked up
and her face was inches from the bill insert window. She
inserted a bill and I dropped the coins into the cup. The
look on her face was priceless. She probably still thinks
there’s a man in there giving change. - mac
...I put a cone in front of one of my self service bays
so I could replace a couple fittings in the equipment
room. Just as I was going to remove a connection the
bay pump turned on. I walked out to see a young man
washing his pickup. I said, “Hey, you ran over my cone
that I had blocking this bay so I could do some repairs.”
He replied, “No, I moved it out of the way, this bay is a
coin op - it’s always open.” Turned power off every time
since then when working on a bay. - Kentadel
10 • FALL 2020
...The worst one was when I had just gotten to the
wash to shut it down because of a water emergency.
I had a cop on the phone threatening me to get it shut
down and was doing my best. I had a cone in front of
every bay and was about to shut off the breakers, and
heard a pump start. Went and looked, and the entitled
?!@#$%^& had just gone around the back and pulled
in. I told him we were closed because of the water
emergency, he just had a dark look and said, “I need to
wash my car.” I told him he can’t, and that was why the
bay was coned off. His genius reply: “Well you need to
put a cone at both ends!” - MEP001
...I now park in the bay with a vehicle. Last time I was
cleaning pits with the tractor I had it blocked off with
cones in the front and was exiting the back with the
tractor bucket full of mud. A guy in a Subaru waited until
I had backed out and headed over to dump the mud in
a trailer. He drove around the cone and almost ended
up in the pit since the grates were removed. Sorry to
generalize but around here Subaru owners are pretty
much like that. He had been watching me for a few
minutes and decided if he could get around the cone
then the bay should be his to use.
...Last Friday night I got a call after 6 pm from a lady
who had put .25 cents short of the startup price and did
not have any more money. Left a message that I had
better come down right away and give her the $2.75
back since it was a lot of money to her ...... I never got
the message until the next morning but would not have
spent an hour of my night driving down to the wash
and back for this immediate refund. I did call the next
morning and said no problem giving her money back
and I would meet her at 9:30 am at the wash. She never
showed up. - Soapy
...Yesterday I saw a guy washing his car with the carpet
shampooer on my fragramatic combo vac. He had
carpet shampoo from front to back. - Jim64
...Talking about customers removing the cones: I put
two cones in front of my automatic and went to town
to get some spare parts. On the way back a customer
called and said he put money into the machine and it
didn’t work. I just arrived at the carwash and of course
the cones were put aside. I went to him and apologized
sincerely. “I am sooo sorry. I don’t know what to say...
we’ve closed that automatic but some idiot must have
removed the cones. I am so sorry. Please let me get you
your refund and I’ll have a quick look on the cameras
{to see] who that idiot was. I mean: who in their right
mind would remove safety cones in front of a carwash
machine???”
Needless to say that when I came back with his
money the customer had already left. -
JustClean

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• Municipalities
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• Car dealers
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FALL 2020 • 11

COMMENTS
“No, but it’s coming. My IBA income is almost 90% card”
“No, but installed coinless at both locations to help”
“I’m seriously considering going all all cashless. Picking up the
coins from the vaults and vacuums, counting the coins and the
cash and going to the bank is a [pain]! I think it might be a long
process to get the public used to not having coins or cash. It’s
just a matter of time before cash will be a thing of the past.”
“We operate 2 small SS car washes, one of which also has an
IBA. We sell tokens at both. The smaller one takes bills on all the
equipment. the larger one requires our customers with bills to use
the token machine. All machines also take quarters. Even though
we don’t sell quarters at either wash. still about 50% of our
incoming revenue is in quarters....people bring them from home
or I guess buy them at our competitors. I don’t think self serve
will ever be totally cashless.... Our IBAs are over 50% credit,
most of the rest is bills but the coin hopper for change seems to
be getting more quarters than it dispenses too.... hard to imagine
someone stuffing 5 or 6 dollars in quarters in,.. but they do.”
“Australians love credit cards, and generally cash use is on
the decline. But our wash still only has 30-40% credit cards
payments, growing slowly but steadily. I expect that over time the
credit card % will get higher and higher.”
POLL
We are
completely
cashless at
our self serve
Do you have
a standalone
website for
your car wash
(not one via Facebook, etc.)?
NO:
100%
Yes: 0%
NO
35.7%
*This unscientific poll was conducted via the carwashforum.com.
YES
64.3%
12 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 13

Small
Business
News
Covering everything
from SBA loans to OSHA
regulations to disaster relief.
SBA and Treasury
Announce Simpler PPP
Forgiveness for Loans
of $50,000 or Less
On October 8, 2020, the following press release
was made public:
The U.S. Small Business Administration, in consultation
with the Treasury Department, today
released a simpler loan forgiveness application
for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans of
$50,000 or less. This action streamlines the PPP forgiveness
process to provide financial and administrative
relief to America’s smallest businesses while
also ensuring sound stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
“The PPP has provided 5.2 million loans worth
$525 billion to American small businesses, providing
critical economic relief and supporting
more than 51 million jobs,” said Secretary Steven
T. Mnuchin. “Today’s action streamlines the forgiveness
process for PPP borrowers with loans of
$50,000 or less and thousands of PPP lenders who
worked around the clock to process loans quickly,”
he continued. “We are committed to making the
PPP forgiveness process as simple as possible while
also protecting against fraud and misuse of funds.
We continue to favor additional legislation to further
simplify the forgiveness process.”
“Nothing will stop the Trump Administration
from supporting great American businesses and our
great American workers. The Paycheck Protection
Program has been an overwhelming success and
served as a historic lifeline to America’s hurting
small businesses and tens of millions of workers.
The new form introduced today demonstrates our
relentless commitment to using every tool in our
toolbelt to help small businesses and the banks that
have participated in this program,” said Administrator
Jovita Carranza. “We are continuing to ensure
that small businesses are supported as they recover.”
SBA and Treasury have also eased the burden on
PPP lenders, allowing lenders to process forgiveness
applications more swiftly.
SBA began approving PPP forgiveness applications
and remitting forgiveness payments to PPP
lenders for PPP borrowers on October 2, 2020.
SBA will continue to process all PPP forgiveness
applications in an expeditious manner.
According a Forbes article written by Neil Hare,
who is an attorney with the law firm McCarthy
Wilson LLP, and the president of Global Vision
Communications, an agency specializing in strategic
communications, marketing, and advertising
for trade associations, nonprofits, coalitions, and
corporations, this press release is in the wake of
the failed effort to sign a new stimulus package
into law, the Small Business Administration (SBA)
along with the Treasury Department. “While this
latest Interim Final Rule addressing the PPP loans
created under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act (or CARES Act) will still require
borrowers to provide documentation, such as
a payroll provider report, it offers a new, simplified
form and a “check the box” process for forgiveness.
Borrowers can use new SBA Form 3508S for their
application or wait for their lender to update their
online application portals,” according to Forbes.
The new rules also remove the need to show
that the borrower did not reduce head count or
salaries and, therefore, suffer a reduction in loan
forgiveness, the article stated. “Previous regulations
outlined that if an employer reduced salaries
by over 25%, the amount over 25% would not
be forgivable. Borrowers would also have to document
that if they did furlough employees, they
tried in good faith to rehire them or couldn’t hire
similarly qualified individuals, or also be subject to
an unforgiven portion of their PPP funds.”
■ Why a $50,000 limit?
According to the same Forbes article, Hare
writes that the SBA rationale to remove these
requirements for loans of $50,000 or less is that
almost all borrowers in this loan amount category
are sole proprietors, independent contractors, or
employers with one employee.
The SBA stated as follows:
Within this population of potentially affected
loans, SBA believes that most borrowers
would not be affected by the loan forgiveness
reduction requirements because (1) the
borrowers did not reduce FTE employees or
reduce employee salaries or wages, or (2) the
borrowers would qualify for one of the existing
exemptions from loan forgiveness amount
reductions. Excluding such borrowers, the
aggregate dollar amount of PPP funds affected
by these exemptions relative to the aggregate
dollar amount of all PPP funds is de minimis.
The SBA issued some data points to further
justify its analysis that removing these borrowers
from the requirements regarding the need to
keep head count and salaries at close to pre-
COVID levels in order to receive full forgiveness
is de minimus, Forbes reported. According to
the SBA, there are 3.57 million outstanding PPP
loans of $50,000 or less out of the 5.2 million
issued, totaling approximately $62 billion of the
$525 billion in PPP loans. Approximately 1.7 million
PPP loans of $50,000 or less were made to
businesses reporting zero employees other than
the owner, or one employee.
Should businesses file now for forgiveness?
Since the PPP covered period is now 24 weeks,
most businesses should easily qualify for full forgiveness,
according to the article. While the rules
dictate that 60% of the PPP funds must be used
on payroll, and 40% on expenses such as rent, utilities,
mortgages, and loan interest, it is advisable
and easier to document if all the funds are used
on payroll if possible. If borrowers can do so, the
conservative approach would be to not take the
deductions and assume full forgiveness.
However, Hare writes that if borrowers want to
hold onto cash, or have concerns about forgiveness,
they can still take the deductions now. This is
a business decision borrowers should make in consultation
with their accountant, lawyer, and lender.
Either way, for most borrowers of smaller loans,
14 • FALL 2020

FALL 2020 • 15

SMALL BUSINESS NEWS
especially those with loans of $50,000 or less, applications
for forgiveness should be filed sooner
rather than later.
■ U.S. Department of Labor Acts
has found over $1.2M
in coronavirus violations
In an October press release, the U.S. Department
of Labor’s OSHA announced $1,222,156
in coronavirus violations have taken place since
the start of the pandemic up until Oct. 8, 202.
OSHA has cited 85 establishments for violations
relating to coronavirus.
The press release also stated that OSHA inspections
have resulted in the agency citing employers
for violations, including failures to:
• Implement a written respiratory
protection program;
• Provide a medical evaluation, respirator
fit test, training on the proper use of
a respirator and personal protective
equipment;
• Report an injury, illness or fatality;
• Record an injury or illness on
OSHA recordkeeping forms; and
• Comply with the General Duty Clause of the
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
What About Natural
Disasters?
From Hurricane Sally to the horrible wildfires
destroying areas throughout the country, there is
financial aid available if you have been affected.
■ Business Physical Disaster Loans
If you are in a declared disaster area and have
experienced damage to your business, you may
be eligible for financial assistance from the SBA.
Presidential & SBA Agency Declared Disasters
States Affected Incident Incident Period
Louisiana Hurricane Delta 10/6/2020 through 10/10/2020
Florida Hurricane Sally 9/14/2020 through 9/28/2020
Alabama Hurricane Sally 9/14/2020 through 9/16/2020
Oregon Wildfires and Straight-line Winds 9/7/2020 and continuing
California Wildfires 9/4/2020 and continuing
Colorado Grizzly Creek Fire 8/10/2020 and continuing
Businesses of any size and most private nonprofit
organizations may apply to the SBA for a loan to
recover after a disaster.
■ Loan Amounts and Use
SBA makes physical disaster loans of up to $2
million to qualified businesses or most private
nonprofit organizations. These loan proceeds may
be used for the repair or replacement of the following:
• Real property
• Machinery
• Equipment
• Fixtures
• Inventory
• Leasehold improvements
The SBA Business Physical Disaster Loan covers
disaster losses not fully covered by insurance.
If you are required to apply insurance proceeds to
an outstanding mortgage on the damaged property,
you can include that amount in your disaster
loan application.
If you make improvements that help reduce
the risk of future property damage caused by a
similar disaster, you may be eligible for up to a
20 percent loan amount increase above the real
estate damage, as verified by the SBA.
You may not use the disaster loan to upgrade or
expand a business, except as required by building
codes.
■ Eligibility and Terms
A business of any size or most private nonprofit
organizations that are located in a declared
disaster area and have incurred damage
during the disaster, may apply for a loan to help
replace damaged property or restore its pre-disaster
condition.
The interest rate will not exceed 4 percent if
you cannot obtain credit elsewhere. For businesses
and nonprofit organizations with credit available
elsewhere, the interest rate will not exceed 8
percent. SBA determines whether the applicant
has credit available elsewhere. Repayment terms
can be up to 30 years, depending on your ability
to repay the loan.
■ How to Apply
You can apply online for an SBA disaster assistance
loan. SBA will send an inspector to estimate
the cost of your damage once you have
completed and returned your loan application.
You must submit the completed loan application
and a signed and dated IRS Form 4506-
T giving permission for the IRS to provide SBA
your tax return information.
SBA Inspector General addresses investigations, oversight and regulations
On October 1, 2020, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, Inspector
General of the SBA spoke at the hearing
titled, “Preventing Fraud and Abuse of PPP and
EIDL: An Update with the SBA Office of Inspector
General (OIG) and Government Accountability
Office.
Here is part of his statement:
I am proud of the dedication and hard work of the
men and women of OIG to not only prevent fraud in
these programs, but also to detect, deter, and combat
fraud. OIG provides auditing, investigative, and other
services to support and assist SBA in achieving its mission.
As a result of its oversight efforts, OIG provides
dozens of recommendations each year to SBA leadership
aimed at improving the integrity, accountability,
and performance of SBA and its programs for the benefit
of the American people. Similarly, OIG’s investigative
efforts result in dozens of convictions and indictments
as we aggressively pursue evidence of fraud in
SBA’s programs. In doing so, OIG provides taxpayers
with a significant return on investment as it roots out
fraud, waste, and abuse in SBA programs. During fiscal
year (FY) 2019, OIG achieved $111.0 million in
monetary recoveries and savings—a fivefold return on
investment to the taxpayers. The monetary recoveries
and savings for all of FY 2020 are anticipated to be
exponential to OIG’s base operating costs.
SBA was given a tremendous role in the nation’s
response to mitigate the economic impact of social distancing
and other negative effects of the COVID-19
outbreak…
…SBA is exercising over a trillion dollars in lending
authority and entrepreneurial assistance as part of the
Government’s pandemic response. OIG currently is
charged with providing oversight of this unprecedented
amount of SBA lending authority. OIG also is providing
oversight of billions in subsidy loan payments
and hundreds of millions of dollars in entrepreneurial
development efforts by SBA
… OIG currently is charged with providing oversight
of an unprecedented amount of SBA lending
authority—over a trillion dollars. The oversight challenges
of SBA’s pandemic response efforts are continuing
to evolve with the hundreds of fraud cases, tens of
thousands of allegations of wrongdoing being received
by OIG’s Hotline, and concerns surrounding internal
controls mounting based on our review findings. We
will continue our efforts to keep the Administrator and
this Congress currently and fully informed of our findings.
Nothing short of the public trust is at stake, as
well as the vitality of the nation’s economy.
16 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 17

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18 • FALL 2020

Carwash
Boom
Assemblies
Zierco’s Easy Service Swivel and
Boom Systems with
MODEL 204 and 206 FEATURES
• Twin compression springs are tension-adjustable
for a variety of hose and gun weights
• Swivel rotates 360˚ - 12 ft. diameter
• Temperatures to 280˚ max., pressure to 2000 psi
• Longer hose life as spring prevents kinks
• Ruggedly built, satisfaction guaranteed
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MODEL 204
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CALL
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FALL 2020 • 19

Association News
International Carwash Association
The ICA announced new dates for The Car Wash
Show️ 2021.The event will remain in the North Hall
of the Las Vegas Convention Center but will move to
show dates of 15-17 November 2021. The Westgate
and Renaissance will remain the host hotels.
“The car wash business has proven to be incredibly
resilient in 2020 and remains in growth mode despite
the Covid-19 related challenges facing other industries,”
stated ICA CEO Eric Wulf. “Our expectations for the
business remain exceptionally positive as we look ahead
to 2021. Yet, as it pertains to industry gatherings, the
conditions unfortunately remain challenging.”
“We believe that this later show date will increase
our ability to again deliver a world-class event for our
attendees and exhibitors,” said ICA Chief Experience
Officer Kim Vinciguerra. “It is essential that we deliver
an opportunity for buyers and sellers to connect in
2021, particularly after the cancellation of this year’s
event and other car wash industry gatherings. We expect
tremendous energy for the return of The Car Wash
Show, and look forward to working closely with our exhibitors
and association partners to deliver an outstanding
experience.”
The Car Wash Show is the world’s largest gathering
of car wash professionals and one of the largest
exhibitions in North America. The event features approximately
160,000 square feet of products and services
and nearly 100 hours of educational programming
and networking opportunities for more than 9,000 attendees
from around the world. The Car Wash Show
is produced by the International Carwash Association
in collaboration with the Automotive Oil Change Association,
Western Carwash Association and Midwest
Carwash Association. International editions include Car
Wash Show Australia️, Car Wash Show China️ and
Car Wash Show Europe️.
Southwest Car Wash Association
The Southwest Car Wash Association announced
that Steve Forbes, Chairman of the
Forbes media empire will be the 2021 keynote
speaker for EXPERIENCE SCWA 2021 Annual
Convention & Car Wash EXPO which
will take place February 17-19, 2021, in Texas
at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
Forbes’s newest project is the podcast
“What’s Ahead,” where he engages the world’s
top newsmakers, politicians and pioneers in
business and economics in honest conversations meant
to challenge traditional conventions as well as featuring
Steve’s signature views on the intersection of society,
economics and policy, a press release reported.
Steve helped create the recently released and
highly acclaimed public television documentary, In
Money We Trust? The film was inspired by the book
he co-authored, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar
Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can
Do About It.
Steve’s latest book is Reviving America: How Repealing
Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and Reforming
The Fed will Restore Hope and Prosperity co-authored
by Elizabeth Ames (McGraw-Hill Professional).
Steve writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under
the heading of “Fact and Comment.” A widely respected
economic prognosticator, he is the only writer
to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award
four times. The prize was formerly given by U.S. Steel
Corporation to the financial journalist
whose economic forecasts for the coming
year proved most accurate.
In 1985 he was appointed by President
Ronald Reagan to head the Board for
International Broadcasting, which oversaw
Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe,
and he was reappointed to the position by
President George H.W. Bush. In 1993,
with Jack Kemp, a former congressman
and fellow proponent of free-market economics, he
founded Empower America, a group advocating socalled
supply-side policies, including low taxes and
deregulation, as the best means of stimulating growth.
In both 1996 and 2000, Steve campaigned vigorously
for the Republican nomination for the Presidency.
Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings accounts,
a new Social Security system for working Americans,
parental choice of schools for their children, term
limits and a strong national defense. Steve continues to
energetically promote this agenda.
According to the SCWA, the focus of the 2021
Convention & EXPO is simple: Providing you with
proven, time tested strategies, techniques and products
to improve your business. The SCWA also stated
it takes the health and well-being of its attendees very
seriously, therefore the capacity of food and education
events may be limited to adhere to CDC or Convention
Center guidelines.
Australian Car Wash Association
The ACWA has started a social media campaign
in an effort to open car wash businesses in Melbourne
that have been closed since the outbreak of Covid-19.
The images below are part of the social media
campaign. “There are a series of messages like the ones
below, “ states the ACWA in a message to car wash operators.
“...and if you would like to join the fight, let us
know and we will send you the images.”
20 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 21

Association News
Southwest Car Wash Association
The Southwest Car Wash Association announced
that Steve Forbes, Chairman of the
Forbes media empire will be the 2021 keynote
speaker for EXPERIENCE SCWA 2021 Annual
Convention & Car Wash EXPO which will take
place February 17-19, 2021, in Texas at the Fort
Worth Convention Center.
Forbes’s newest project is the podcast “What’s
Ahead,” where he engages the world’s top newsmakers,
politicians and pioneers in business and
economics in honest conversations meant to challenge
traditional conventions as well as featuring
Steve’s signature views on the intersection of society,
economics and policy, a press release reported.
Steve helped create the recently released and
highly acclaimed public television documentary,
In Money We Trust? The film was inspired by
the book he co-authored, Money: How the Destruction
of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy –
and What We Can Do About It.
Steve’s latest book is Reviving America: How
Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code
and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and
Prosperity co-authored by Elizabeth Ames (Mc-
Graw-Hill Professional).
Steve writes editorials for each issue
of Forbes under the heading of “Fact and Comment.”
A widely respected economic prognosticator,
he is the only writer to have won the highly
prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The
prize was formerly given by U.S. Steel Corporation
to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts
for the coming year proved most accurate.
In 1985 he was appointed by President Ronald
Reagan to head the Board for International Broadcasting,
which oversaw Radio Liberty and Radio
Free Europe, and he was reappointed to the position
by President George H.W. Bush. In 1993,
with Jack Kemp, a former congressman and fellow
proponent of free-market economics, he founded
Empower America, a group advocating so-called
supply-side policies, including low taxes and deregulation,
as the best means of stimulating growth.
In both 1996 and 2000, Steve campaigned vigorously
for the Republican nomination for the Presidency.
Key to his platform were a flat tax, medical savings
accounts, a new Social Security system for working
Americans, parental choice of schools for their children,
term limits and a strong national defense. Steve
continues to energetically promote this agenda.
According to the SCWA, the focus of the
2021 Convention & EXPO is simple: Providing
you with proven, time tested strategies, techniques
and products to improve your business. The SCWA
also stated it takes the health and well-being of its
attendees very seriously, therefore the capacity of
food and education events may be limited to adhere
to CDC or Convention Center guidelines.
Western Carwash Association
The State of California has mandated employees
and supervisors must be trained by December
31, 2020 through a qualifying harassment compliance
training program. The WCA is offering a
training program through its virtual Harassment
Training Program.
Due to new laws, this instruction must be aimed
at the prevention of sexual harassment, abusive
conduct, and harassment based on gender in the
workplace, and should educate staff on the remedies
available to victims. Under state law, the
training must be developed by qualified attorneys,
professors, or harassment prevention consultants,
with at least two years in FEHA or Title VII employment
law. The course needs to meet a twohour
and one-hour minimum for supervisors and
non-supervisors, respectively. WCA has partnered
with Impact Compliance Training to offer courses
that are developed and supported by subject matter
experts and attorneys with decades of experience
in FEHA and Title VII law.
ADDITIONAL VALUE POINTS:
• Proactive Compliance Monitoring: Realtime
legal updates
• Engaging Content: Edutainment
Instructional Design that drives knowledge
transfer with real professional actors and
scriptwriters co-developed with the worldrenowned
Workplace Training Network.
Edgy, impactful and designed to get the
point across of how important preventing
harassment and discrimination in the
workplace.
• Customized Completed Answer
Report: Downloadable report for each
attendee that completes their training
showing how they answered all questions
correctly.
• Mobile Device Responsive: Courses
are built in HTML-5 and can be used on any
smartphone, tablet, laptop, mac, or PC.
• Meets CA Interactive Training
Requirements: Ability to ask subject matter
experts (ours or yours) questions about the
course and get a response back and provide
feedback through our end of course survey to
meet the interactive training mandates.
In other WCA news, and in support of its
mission to make local and regional connections
and promote the car wash industry to the public,
the WCA Board of Directors has announced
the launch of the association’s charity arm, WCA
Shines: Washing Our Way to a Better Tomorrow,
a press release stated.
“The car wash community is much more than
just businesses washing vehicles. Car wash owners
are actively involved in their local communities
and many of them are supporters of a variety of
nonprofits and charities,” said Marla Mayer, President
of WCA.
A key component of WCA Shines is a partnership
with Wash Away Thirst, a community of
professional car washes, vendors, and clean car enthusiasts
joining together to raise money to bring
access to clean drinking water to communities
throughout the world.
WCA’s partnership will include financial support
of Wash Away Thirst’s mission through a variety
of fundraising efforts and will include opportunities
for WCA members to get involved.
Southeastern
Car Wash
Association
Details for the SECWA American
Car Wash Expo have been released
and the 2021 Expo will take place on
September 27-29, 2021, in Atlanta,
Georgia.
The three-day event will take
place at the Georgia World Convention
Center and the host hotel is
the Omni Atlanta Hotel at the CNN
Convention Center. The Welcome
Reception will take place
at the College Football Hall of Fame.
Wash Away Thirst was founded in 2009 and has
since raised over $70,000. All administrative costs
are absorbed, allowing 100% of donations to go
directly to clean water projects. There are approximately
663 million people in the world who don’t
have access to clean water – that’s nearly one in 10
people worldwide, or twice the population of the
United States.
“Wash Away Thirst is excited and thankful to
partner with WCA. WCA has always been one of
the strongest and most respected car wash organizations
and we are very grateful they have decided
to partner with us to help bring clean water
to people who need it and help shape the future
vision of Wash Away Thirst,” stated Jim Dudley,
founder of both Wash Away Thirst and Georgia’s
Wash Me Fast car washes.
22 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 23

Association News
New England Carwash Association
According to a letter from NECA President
Mathew Paisner and Vice President Patrick
Mosesso the NECA Lobbying committee and
The Public Policy Law Group had a meeting with
the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Karen
Polito, on September 29, 2020. The discussion was
directly related to whether car washes were going
to be classified as “Essential” if Massachusetts were
to return to business closures statewide due to resurgence
of the COVID-19 virus.
We are pleased to share that our lobbyists together
with NECA demonstrated to Governor Baker’s administration
our position on why the car wash industry
should remain open during COVID-19. We
were successful in lobbying for car washes to open
under Phase 1 – Part 1 with only 3 other industries.
This was made possible through the generosity of
NECA members and many hours of phone calls,
letters, presentations, and documentation compiled
by our committee led by NECA President, Mathew
Paisner.
During our recent meeting, Lieutenant Governor
Polito discussed the Administration’s evolving policies
based on the scientific data as they continue to
open Massachusetts for business. The Governor’s
office has transitioned from an industry-focused
approach (i.e. Essential vs Non-essential) to a community
focused approach, using their color-coded
map data which shows weekly reporting of COVID
risk levels by city/town. The new approach requires
any Massachusetts community classified in the
“red” risk level for 3 consecutive weeks to take a
step back in the reopening phases. Right now, every
community is in either Phase 3 - Part 1 or Part
2 depending on risk level. This means a community
would need to show over 3 months of consecutive
weekly “red” reporting to step back to Phase 1-Part
1 where car washes first reopened. The Lieutenant
Governor assured NECA that a return to Phase 1 is
unlikely and there have been no discussions on that
scenario. As we continue conversations at the State
level, our lobbyists believe the new approach ensures
Massachusetts car washes will remain open.
NECA urges all operators to continue being vigilant
with the required safety measures of PPE (i.e.
masks) for all employees where applicable and
regular disinfecting activities until this pandemic
is over. The Lieutenant Governor is thankful for the
information NECA provided and recognizes both
the critical service our car washes provide to first
responders and the important role our industry has
played to reduce virus spread.
New York State Car
Wash Association
The NYSCWA recently announced a new law stating that all private employers
must provide at least 40 hours of sick leave each year to all their
workers, including part-timers. The NYSCWA included a link to a story by Rick
Moriarty of Syracuse.com that stated:
The sick leave requirement, modeled after one in place in New York City since
2014, guarantees for the first time that the vast majority of workers in the
state have the right to paid sick time when they or a family member is ill. It
also prohibits employers from firing workers for taking sick time.
Many employers in New York provide sick time for full-time employees, but
part-time workers are much less likely to receive the benefit.
The Community Service Society, a New York City organization that advocates
for low-income New Yorkers, estimates that the new law will benefit 1.3 million
workers — many of them low-wage, part-time employees — who are not
now provided sick time by their employers.
…Anyone working for a private employer in New York will be entitled to begin
accruing sick leave time starting Sept. 30, 2020, for use starting Jan. 1, 2021.
Private employers are required to provide up to 40 hours or 56 hours of sick
leave annually, depending on the employer’s size:
• Employers with four or fewer employees and a net income
of $1 million or less must provide 40 hours of unpaid sick time.
• Employers with four or fewer employees and a net income
greater than $1 million must provide 40 hours of paid sick time.
• Employers with five to 99 employees must provide 40 hours
of paid sick time, regardless of the company’s net income.
• Employers with 100 or more workers must provide up
to 56 hours of paid sick time.
UNITI Expo postponed
to May 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate economic
and social life, inevitably causing great difficulty to industry
events, a UNITI press release stated. “The organizers
of UNITI expo assume that the virus will continue to force
severe restrictions until next year. If the situation deteriorates,
it could even lead to a short-term ban on events.”
As the leading trade fair for the retail petroleum and car
wash industries in Europe with exhibitors and visitors from
over 120 countries, UNITI expo thrives on encounters, personal
discussions and meetings of industry representatives from
all over the world, the press release stated. Social distancing,
travel restrictions and the fear for the health and safety of the
participants would damage the quality of the event.
“As we give the health and safety of all participants and
the known high quality of the fair in all its components the
highest priority, we have decided with a heavy heart to postpone
the UNITI expo to May 2022. According to all serious
forecasts, the pandemic will be defeated by then and normal
economic and social life will be possible again,” says Elmar
Kühn, Managing Director of UNITI-Kraftstoff GmbH.
With this early decision and the choice of a safe alternative
date, the organizers want to offer all participants maximum
planning security and protect them from further risks,
stated the press release. A final event date is to be announced
before the end of September.
Northeast Regional Carwash Convention
A zoom conference is being offered featuring
NRCC representatives. The meeting is set for Tuesday,
November 17 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. (est) and is
open to all.
A panel of NRCC representatives will talk
openly about their experiences during COVID-19
and how they are preparing for a possible second
wave, and more, according to an official statement.
The panel will be hosted by Walk Hartl of
the New York State Car Wash Association and
will include a representative from each of the five
NRCC associations. The other five associations include
the Connecticut Carwash Association, Car
Wash Operators of New Jersey, the New England
Carwash Association (NECA), and the Mid-Atlantic
Carwash Association (MCA)
The NRCC Board of Directors canceled the
2020 show which was to take place October 5-7,
at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic
City, NJ. The 2021 show is scheduled for October
4-6, and will include a reimagined education track
and show floor, as well as an elite keynote speaker,
the NRCC stated. It will also be in a new location,
the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City.
24 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 25

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26 • FALL 2020

TRICKS OF THE
Presenting some of the best discussions from the Self Serve, IBA and General Discussions sections of CarwashForum.com. To view more
posts discussing some interesting and common problems, as well as some of the best and brightest solutions, visit CarwashForum.com
Changes for Change
(Note: Some posts feature minor edits for readability.)
Add bonus
time!
Raise vac
prices!
The wash I bought was the proverbial basket case. Hardly anything
worked right, and the prices had not changed since it was built
18 years ago. Three of the bays had Cryptopay set up in countdown
mode. First, I had to get every function working in all bays. That turned out to be more challenging than
I thought. Then I put card readers in the other bays and Dixmor timers to go to count-up mode. Also raised the
startup cost to $2. I didn’t track the coin usage, but the credit card use has increased a little over 60%. Turned
up the pressure in all bays to 1400 psi … When you make mama happy, you know you’re doing something
right. It is so nice to have customers come up and say this is the best wash around, as you can actually see the
chemicals come out. And I am still cheaper than my competitors. - MAC
I have noticed that a higher start price even with
higher time...results in more income and less mess.
I’m $3 start/4 min in bay with credit, bills, quarters
and dollar coins. I have count up on credit
with an average of about $8. My changer dispenses
dollar coins. I do not accept or dispense tokens.
Vacs are cash only for $2 for first 6 min. - CHAZ
You might want to try Bonus time, a super bay or
2, a handheld dryer or 2, depending on vandalism
concerns, bill acceptors in bays. - EARL WEISS
I’m going to assume (hope) you are $1/4min on
vac. Simply raising this to $2 and increasing time
to 6 min...you will see a huge income increase
in $ with no cost to implement …the customers
will have plenty of vac time so no rushing
there. Do make sure and keep vac working well.
I did this 3 years ago.... very little complaints....
and most are thrilled with good working vacs and
plenty of time.... bonus: It keeps some slobs away.
You’d need to lose 1/2 your sales before it would
be a downside....and that’s not likely. I did have
my sign guy make some yellow starburst stickers
proclaiming: “Now more time.” - CHAZ
My bays are $2 for 4 min and vacs are $1.50 for
5 min. What is nice is that the other wash owners
in the area don’t have a clue and the EE just
down the road keeps damaging cars. - MAC
Mac, raise your prices, you’re too low. Go to $2.50
for 4 minutes in the bays and $1.75 for 4 minutes
on the vacs. I’m at $2.75 for 3.5 minutes in the bays
and $1.75 for 3.5 minutes on the vacs. The place is
clean, and everything works all the time so why not
make them pay for a clean facility. - RANDY
Why not round up your pricing to even dollars....
even if u increase time a bit? I’m $2 for 6 min
on vac and $3 for 4 min on s/s. Less time (in my
experience) leads to rushing and not necessarily
more $. - CHAZ
I tend to be very much in line with Chaz except
for one exception ... based on what tends to be my
observation applying my specific geographic area:
Once you add the CC along with even the “easier
to use & administer” Chaz’s higher denomination
coin approach ... as long as the CC is on equal
footing with coin... cost wise for the customers ...
they will almost 100% in my honest opinion tend
to use the CC. Why ... almost all CCs except for
possibly gift cards ... have the “rewards hook” for
the customer. Of course almost 100% of them
will not turn down the “easy cashback”!!!
The other observation is that sooner or later
the fact that a self service car wash can use the
savings from “cash only” on more “helpful to the
customer” needed hiring will come back to make
IMHO the operator the eventual winner among
local competition. - MJWALSH
Problem Solved
The wash I bought last year had many things simply wrong.
One was the placement of the gun and brush handle. The
[insert your word of choice here] put the wand holders in the
center of the bays with some slanted towards the meter box.
So, when a customer started the bay, he or she had to walk 10
feet to the gun, which was squirting their feet. They then put
the brush wands on the opposite wall at the rear of the bay. I
was always coming in and hanging things back up. Then decided
to move the gun holder within reach of the meter box with
the wand slanted away from their feet. Then moved the brush
holders up front on the opposite wall. Been a little over a week
and I have not had to hang anything up. The customers do it.
Simple change that the customers like. - MAC
History of Vending Machines
I’m a big fan of The History Guy
on YouTube. He has a video on
the history of vending machines
that I thought some of you
would enjoy. ERIC H
SSCWN EDITOR CHIMES IN:
Thank you for sharing this,
Eric H! It is great and informative.
Remind me to never buy life
insurance from an airport vending
machine. If anyone wants the
direct link, you can find it at:
https://youtu.be/T6lxjx4ZzBM
FALL 2020 • 27

TRICKS OF THE
Hardness made easy
I tested the water at my wash several times. First test the hardness came back
at about 3. next test about 5. All subsequent tests between 3 and 5. At what
point would one consider adding spot free rinse? Am I in that range? And is the
variation normal? Our water supply is from wells.... - SEQUOIA
Hardness is unrelated to total dissolved solids, but our
softener takes it to zero grains of hardness. Our TDS
is still in the mid-300s so we still need SFR. Do you
have a softener and what is your TDS? - OURTOWN
In addition to OurTown’s comment:
If your raw water is 3-5 grains per gallon, you
should consider installing a softener. You‘ll improve
the wash quality and reduce soap consumption.
If you have a softener, you need to fix it. A properly
operating softener should provide 0 grain hardness
water regardless of the raw water’s hardness.
You’ll also need to ensure 0 grain water supply to
an RO system to prevent premature fouling of the
membrane(s).
Sample your raw water’s hardness and TDS. The
results will aid in your decision process.
BTW...TDS below 50 ppm should require no further
processing. - CANTBREAK80
I don’t have any softener. I use municipal water. How
do you test for TDS? The kit I bought only does water
hardness. - SEQUOIA
This is not the one we have
but get something like this:
- OURTOWN
You need a TDS tester. The
next best test is to thoroughly
wash a black vehicle
and immediately park it in
the sun. If it dries with no
visible spots, you probably
don’t need a softener or
spot free rinse. - MEP001
Test
for TDS!
Install a
softener!
SSCWN EDITOR
CHIMES IN:
TDS stands for Total
Dissolved Solids. According
to the Water Treatment
Center, TDS comprise
inorganic salts (principally
calcium, magnesium,
potassium, sodium,
bicarbonates, chlorides,
and sulfates) and some small
amounts of organic matter
that are dissolved in water.
Elevated total dissolved solids
in a car wash’s water supply
can result in incrustations,
films, or precipitates on
fixtures, corrosion of fixtures,
and reduced efficiency of
water filter and equipment.
But are they
screaming, Clarice?
We’re in South Texas and are currently experiencing swarms of yellow butterflies that
plaster themselves to windshields and grills. Since Friday, our single IBA has been
averaging in the 90’s daily. Since 2:00p.m. today, we’ve already had 50 go through. As
soon as the cars get out of the wash and back on the road, they get hit with butterflies
again! I can’t even get my own car washed because the line at our wash is too long
and I don’t like to wait! Anybody in TX having this experience, or know anything
about these horrible creatures and when this plague might end? Our Profile and
ChemQuest D-Bug are doing a great job, and the Profile is working its butt off; and I
hope it can keep up. - CHEETAHEXPRESS
I was in San Antonio yesterday and once I was
south of Hwy 90, I saw swarms of them everywhere.
- MEP001
Those and Luv Bugs seems like a winning lotto
ticket, in S. Texas! - SOONERMAJIC
Bugs and pollen are great for the car wash industry.
- STXCW
This is the car wash season here in Texas! It’s
that time of year everyone wants to wash their
cars almost daily and everyone will upgrade to
your debug chemicals. See it as an opportunity to
wash more cars!!!!
Consider
yourself
lucky!
Order a little extra chemicals so you don’t run
out, but this won’t last forever, so don’t go crazy.
Enjoy it while it lasts. - BENBRANAM
Thanx. I have to admit, the numbers have been
amazing and yes, we’re stocking up on chems.
Except my car’s a mess and I can’t get it into my
own wash because the lines are too long! The
Profile had some glitches after a week of high
numbers -- with belts loosening and skipping,
which affected the Front Prox Counter and
shutting us down; but it has now been remedied.
From what I’ve read, the butterflies have a life
span of 2 weeks, so at least we’ll have a great
1/2-month. - CHEETAHEXPRESS
SSCWN EDITOR CHIMES IN: The
NPR station of Austin, Texas, (KUT
90.5) noticed the yellow butterflies
as well. In an October 2 report, the
station reported that the wingedcreatures
or more than likely “snout
butterflies.” And this year has been a
good one for them in Central Texas,
the story said. “It all comes down to
weather. August was hot and dry, and
September was cool and wet.”
According to Mike Quinn, an Austinbased
invertebrate biologist, said
drought in August was “shown to
knock out all the predators and
parasitoid insects that keep the
snout butterfly population in check.”
A wet September gives the snout
caterpillars plenty of fresh hackberry
leaves to munch on.
“Because of the reduction in the
predators, a high percentage of the
snout butterfly caterpillars survive
to adulthood,” Quinn told the NPR
affiliate. “And so, you have what
we’re experiencing right now.”
What we’re seeing are “mass
movements,” not migrations, he
said in the story. Unlike monarch
butterflies, the snouts are not
traveling a fixed seasonal path
between two set points. They are
instead seeking out food and mates
wherever they may be. “They’re
moving out of an area of exhausted
resources,” Quinn said, “so the
movement can be multi-directional.”
28 • FALL 2020

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• Dimensions for the mounted producer and
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• Durable Stainless Steel Parts
• 15 HP, 20 HP or 25 HP model available
FALL 2020 • 29

TRICKS OF THE
Who, what, when,
where Wi-Fi?
Is anyone using cellular internet to run their car wash (SS/IBA)?
Our provider Comcast is terrible, but we have no options. Each time they
push out a firmware update at 1-2AM it knocks out the internet service until
someone physically power cycles the modem. It is hurting the business and
they have been useless in trying to solve the problem for the past year since
we installed their service. Now looking at cellular solutions like a MiFi;
however, it is hard to find good info on the service. - ROZ
Try an
automatic
timer!
Restart
the router!
Is there an option in the router to auto restart every
day? or you can have a computer hardwired
to the network with some remote software like
TeamViewer and you can login to the router and
restart it but you would have to be up late or
really early to do it. also make sure that you have
a static ip and not an ip that is provided by dhcp
from your isp. servers and the like hate it when
the public ip changes. - COOLL903
Unfortunately, a SW reboot is not possible. When
I call Comcast, they try to do such a reboot but
then tell me to power cycle the modem before
they will have a tech support person talk to me.
They are useless.
I am considering using a mechanical timer to
turn off the power to the modem at 6AM each
morning for 15 min (smallest amount of time
on the mechanism). Comcast is not consistent
on the morning firmware update which adds to
the puzzle. I cannot use a Wi-Fi controlled socket
as I lose internet so I would not be able to turn
back on the power - unless there is a Wi-Fi socket
that is in the ON mode if it loses internet service
(have not found such a socket).
Will keep looking at cellular data solutions so I
can dump Comcast. Crazy thing is that my comcast
modem at my other wash has not been rebooted
in 3 years. - ROZ
Do you need to use the Comcast modem? Usually
you can provide your own and reduce your
bill by not renting from them. I had a lot of issues
with their equipment but once I bought my own
it’s been bulletproof. - OVERACHIEVER
I have been through the same issues with our
DSL provider over the last couple years. There
are some devices that can help. One is an outlet
that automatically power cycles if the connection
to the internet is lost. The functionality is called
auto-ping. If you have a landline, there is a device
that you can call into through the landline and
power cycle whatever is plugged into it.
I know this only fixes a symptom but in areas
where there is only one ISP, we are stuck dealing
with these issues. - DAVIDM
We use a Verizon jet pack to run our Cryptopay
and our Unitec WSII. The cellular is much
more reliable than the service we had through
our phone/cable company. Seems like every time
someone ran into a pole within a 3-state area our
service would be down for 3 days. None of that
with the cellular. Every once in a while, I do have
to re-start it, don’t know why. The original jet
pack we had had a tendency to overheat but Verizon
replaced it free. We are happy with the set
up and it saved us a bunch of money and headaches.
- DAVE IN IL
Put a little digital timer on the power supply to
the modem. Have it power down for 1 minute at
5 a.m.; there- it is reset. (instead of 15 minutes
from mechanical timer) - WASHNVAC
Comcast tech visited us for the 10th time in a year.
Brought a new business class modem that his supervisor
had to approve. New modem is built by
a private label vendor specifically for Comcast’s
largest corporate customers according to the tech.
It has 8 POE ports which is better than the basic
modem (4 regular ports). Tech gave me some story
about how the switch router attached to my old
modem to have enough ports could interfere with
the modem (never heard such a story). New modem
allows us to eliminate the switch router. Will
see how things go now. - ROZ
Plug the modem into a Wi-Fi outlet, there are
dozens on the market, and you can reset it anytime
you want to remotely. - SPARKLECLEAN
Following advice from a previous thread, I’m currently
using a ZTE hotspot with service provided
by Consumer Cellular.
After finding the right location (attic) it has
worked well until it didn’t about 2 weeks ago.
Seems that the T-Mobile/AT&T merger created a
hiccup but tech support was excellent and after
a new AT&T SIM card was installed, it’s back to
its reliable self.
It’s providing internet where there was none, allowing
for the acceptance of plastic via the Coinless
Mobile App, viewing of a Wyze camera, monitoring
the entry door contact sensor and a newly
installed water alarm.
All of this easily gets done on less than 3Gigs
data/month and costs about $30.00.
Good luck! - MR. CLEAN
30 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 31

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32 • FALL 2020

TRICKS OF THE
What’s it worth?
Is there a strong rule of thumb for car wash appraisal /
valuation for sale? How to set a selling price? - WASHREGAL
Easiest thing I’ve used was 3 or 4x gross. But,
there’s obviously some flaws to that. But if u
go much higher, then profits become SLIM. -
SOONERMAJIC
Calculate net operating income (EBIDA for a
wash) and then divide by a cap rate for your area.
You can search LoopNet for listings of things like
dollar general, Walgreens and other commercial
rentals to get an idea. If most of those are in the
6-6.5 percent range, you might use 7-9 percent
as an initial guide to see if you think the number
is realistic. Spread might be higher depending on
how good or bad your wash is performing.
…EBIDA is your net income plus add back your
interest expense, depreciation, and amortization.
Divide that number by say 8% cap rate. For
example, if you net $80,000 and divide by 8%
you get $1,000,000 “value”. This will likely be
one component of an appraisal a potential buyer
would want/need. You can play around with that
number based on what other properties sell for to
substantiate a price. Obviously, other factors like
location, land values, age of equipment, etc. all
play a factor too, but this is an important component
because most buyers want to see that return
equate to value. - KRAMERWV
Are commercial real estate cap rates a good thing
to use for car wash valuation? They seem like
very different animals to me. Do you have some
real-life examples of how they are used well? I
think they would be all over the place even in the
same area. - OURTOWN
Cap rate (net operating Income divided by asking
price) is the best way to compare apples to apples
when you’re looking at a cash flow stream for any
investment: rent houses, car washes, apartments,
office buildings...
The gross income multiplier doesn’t take expenses
into account, so there’s no way to accurately
gauge the true profit potential of the car wash.
If I’m looking at two different car washes and
trying to find the one with the best profit potential,
I’ll ask the owners for their actual income
and expense numbers (if they don’t have it, I
keep walking)
WASH #1: Owner is asking $800,000 for his
wash with $100,000 NOI - or a 12.5% cap rate
WASH #2: Owner is asking $1,200,000 for his
wash with $100,000 NOI - or a 8.3% cap rate
Assuming the two locations are roughly equal
in location quality, age of components, etc., then
I’d take the higher 12.5% return on my money.
If wash #1 needs a ton of work, and wash #2 has
been newly renovated, then I’d base my decision on
how much money I have to spend on the front end
of the project, and how much work I’m willing to do.
With respect to cap rates, “safer investments”
like apartments and office buildings in my area
are usually priced at a 4 to 6% cap rate. That assumes
that the buyers of those properties aren’t
interested in getting their hands dirty or working
onsite, so they’ll accept a lower return on their
investment. Car washes often get priced at 10-
12% cap rates because the industry is known for
hands-on owners who want to get paid a good
return for all of the crap that they have to deal
with in running a car wash.
Disclaimer: this is just my .02 from many years
buying/selling commercial real estate. I’m a newbie
in the car wash realm, but using the cap rate
model, I feel like I got exactly what I paid for when
I bought the wash I currently own. - KLEANRIDE
KleanRide’s example is spot on as an example
of how to compare the value of different washes
from an income investor standpoint. Some places
this method may seem irrelevant if land values
skyrocket every year but for a tried and true evaluation
for an operator it’s essential. - KRAMERWV
This is super helpful. Evaluating a potential car
wash investment currently. Using the method
above, it looks like 5.85-8.85 is the range for
retail on LoopNet for my state. Using your formulae,
6.5-9.5 might be a fair CAP range for an
IBA+SS car wash. I’m curious from others is that
range meshes with what you actually purchased
an IBA car wash business (after negotiations) --
what was the CAP rate? Thanks! - CW01
Yeah, I would never pay less than a 12% cap
rate for a car wash. Even then it is a stretch.
Investment real estate selling at a 6% return on
capital is one thing because you have NNN’s set
up and all you do is collect rent.
With car washes you need to hire/fire, fix things,
keep customers happy, etc. it is not a passive real
estate investment.
With the SS/IBA model the expenses are
roughly the same everywhere, so a rough use of
3-4x gross REALLY speaks to a multiple of net
too...because there is economies of scaling the
expenses, a good performing wash should sell
closer to 4 and because the reverse is true a poor
performing wash is worth closer to 3.
With any business you are buying future cash
flows, you should never pay for POTENTIAL,
and you should never pay for 6 quarters to a dollar-
that’s on the seller. - BIGHEAD
3-4 x
gross!
Look at
cap rates!
What’s
the EBIDA?
SSCWN EDITOR CHIMES IN:
EBIDA = Earnings Before Interest,
Depreciation, and Amortization.
EBIDA, according to InvestingAnswers.
com, is a post-tax measure of a
company’s operating performance
and can easily be derived using the
company’s income statement.
If you are seeing retail caps in your area over 8, I’d
start at 10% as a minimum for a wash for the reason
bighead mentions about the work involved.
Also, cap rate is just a starting point or one factor
to determine if the price is even reasonable. Age
and condition of equipment, likelihood of keeping
existing employees (if any), etc. will all factor
into the decision. If EBIDA is $100k and seller
wants $2mm you better run. If they want $1mm
might be worth the due diligence and negotiation.
This board has a lot of wisdom so keep searching
and researching. Good luck! - KRAMERWV
Every other business that I’ve built, or real estate
I’ve bought, I’ve read several books as a part
of researching the industry. No worries on understanding
financials, etc. But in structuring a
deal for a car wash feels like lots of moving parts
(maybe just my perception). I assume it is an LOI
agreement, then due diligence, then closing. Any
tips on the best book/resources to read on deal
structures for car washes? Thanks! - CW01
Bighead is probably closer to what you should focus
on, a multiple of Gross Revenue. Then determine
the risk from competition, from needing to replace
equipment, location. Two people can run the same
place with significantly different results on NOI.
CAP Rates relative to NOI are for rentals where
you sit on your @ss and collect rent checks - which
in non-COVID times can be a great job. - ROZ
Exactly what Roz said. My background is real estate
finance and yeah I would look at CAP rates but the
deal has to pencil out with or without debt.
And car washes are not NNN investments like
a retail strip center, ground lease on a bldg. etc.
there is A LOT of work involved in running a
wash… - RFREEMAN
FALL 2020 • 33

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34 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 35

TIPs
ARE YOU
AWARE OF
BAD WEATHER
DEDUCTIBLES?
IS YOUR POWER
PROTECTED?
According to Agility & Recover, a firm which
helps businesses prepare for the unexpected,
and overcome interruptions, and which is also
recommended by the Small Business Administration
as a viable resource, nearly 70% of businesses will
lose power sometime in the next 12 months.
It is important to know and understand your
risk as well as your building’s power requirements.
Therefore, refer the following checklist to see if
you’re prepared:
If you own a car wash owner in a storm
susceptible area, which seems to be
encompassing more and more of the
country lately, it is imperative that you
take the time to review your property
policy closely. If your policy contains an
endorsement for Wind/Hail deductibles
or a Roof – Cosmetic Damage Exclusion
take these three steps to properly manage
your coverage:
3 STEP 1: Read your policy
make certain that you fully
understand the deductible
placed on your policy.
3 STEP 2: Talk to your agent
make sure your agent fully
explains all the requirements
and nuances of your policy.
Ask if there are alternatives
available through your current
insurer or other carriers.
3 STEP 3: Be prepared
catastrophes happen. No matter
where you live in the United
States, you’re just a couple of
years away from some major
catastrophic event. If your policy
has implemented a Wind/Hail
deductible, make sure you have
the money saved up, so you’ll be
able to pay it when that inevitable
storm strikes.
This tip was writing by Dan Tharp who
is licensed in all states (except Alaska &
Hawaii) and has been assisting business
owners protect their operations, assets, customers
and employees for over 25 years.
■ Before a Power Outage
Ensure your emergency preparedness kit includes
the following items:
• Flashlights with Battery
• Battery or hand-crank powered Emergency
Weather Radio
• (Avoid Candles due to the inherent fire hazard)
3 If possible, have a landline non-cordless
telephone in your office that does not
operate on a VOIP network. Often a fax
line can serve this purpose.
3 Create a personnel policy that dictates
which staff members should report and
those that should remain home.
3 Make sure all employees are aware of the
policy.
3 If security at your location is a concern,
ensure that your alarm/security systems
have proper battery backup systems,
and that telephone connectivity to your
monitoring service isn’t reliant on power.
3 Ensure all sensitive electronic equipment
is protected by a power strip surge
protector.
3 Ensure all Uninterruptible Power Supply
(UPS) devices are functional and tested
regularly.
3 Inspect all critical equipment such as
sewer ejector pumps, HVAC condensate
drain pumps, and any pumps that provide
protection from flooding in low-lying areas.
3 Ensure those pumps are part of the
emergency power plan.
3 Fuel up any critical equipment including
company vehicles, backup generators, etc.
■ Questions for Your Electrician:
In order to better facilitate emergency power requirements,
be sure to ask your electrician the following
questions and note the information for future
use:
3 What phase is your electrical service?
Single or Three Phase?
3 What voltage is your service? 208v, 240v
or 480v?
3 Is your power requirement for a Wye or
Delta generator?
3 How many amps do you need to power?
3 What size generator is required?
3 How many feet of cabling are required to
power the generator?
3 Does your building have a power transfer
switch?
3 If no transfer switch has been installed,
you will need to consider options –
hardwire or spider box?
■ Steps to Take During
a Power Outage
1. Turn off and unplug all electrical
equipment to avoid damage from
power spikes when electrical service is
resumed.
2. Leave one light turned on so you’ll
know when the power comes back on.
3. NEVER run a generator inside or
connect a generator to the electrical
system unless prior steps have been
taken to ensure it is safe to do so.
4. Ensure you know your generator’s fuel
consumption rate and set up regular
fuel deliveries ahead of time to ensure
you never run out.
5. Do not touch any downed electrical
power lines and keep your employees
away from them.
6. Report downed lines to the
appropriate officials in your area.
7. Leave doors closed on office
refrigerators and freezers as much
as possible during outages. Food will
keep much longer if the doors are left
closed.
8. Make sure the generator you receive
includes the following:
3 Transportation to your building site
3 The appropriate amount of Cam Lock
Cabling (standard is 250’ unless more is
requested)
3 Pigtails to connect the generator
3 Starter fuel for the first few days of
recovery
3 A set of operating instructions
3 A walk through of the basic operating
instructions with your vendor
This is an edited version of the document supplied
36 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 37

TIPs
GOOGLE MY BUSINESS IS
KEY TO NEW CUSTOMERS
Of course, people are texting more and more, but
that doesn’t mean they aren’t still calling businesses
directly for information, or to talk to the owner,
etc. A real, working phone number and answering
message can make the difference between thinking
a new customer thinks you’re legit or a dead-end.
According to a CallRail’s study, businesses saw a
61% increase in calls coming directly from Google
My Business during the pandemic. According to
Google, “Google My Business is a free tool that lets
you manage how your local business appears across
Google products, like Maps and Search. If you run
a business that serves customers at a particular
location, or you serve customers within a designated
service area, Google My Business can
help people find you. Verified businesses on
Google are twice as likely to be considered
reputable by users.”
Google offers the following ways your business can
benefit from being listed:
1. Maintain accurate information
about your business online
3 Tell Google your hours, website, phone
number, and location (a street address,
service area, or place marker, depending
on your business)
3 Use the mobile app to stay up-to-date with
your online presence wherever you are
2. Interact with customers
3 Post photos of your business and its
products and services
3 Collect and respond to reviews from
customers
3. Attract new customers
3 Improve how your business appears online
so new customers can find you
3 Point customers to your website
3 When you’re ready, consider using
location-based ads with Smart campaigns
in Google Ads to reach an even larger
audience
■ How to Get on the List
The following are the steps to take according to
Google:
Important: When you register a new business, there
might be a Business Profile for an old business at the
same location. Do not try to claim it. Instead, suggest an
edit to have it marked as closed. Then, you can create
a new profile on Google My Business for your business.
1. On your computer, sign in to
Google My Business.
2. Sign in to your Google Account,
or create one. Then, click Next.
3 Sign up with your business email domain
since this account will be for your chain.
Enter the name of your business or chain. If
you have a chain, you can also select it from
the suggestions that display as you type.
3. Enter your business’ or chain’s address.
Then, click Next.
3 You may also be asked to position a marker
on the location of your business or chain’s
branch on a map. If your business doesn’t
have a physical location but operates
within a service area, you can list the area
instead. Then, click Next.
4. Choose how your business will display on
Google Maps.
3 If you serve customers at your business
address:
1. Enter your business address.
2. Click Next. If you also serve customers
outside your business address, you’ll
have the option to list your service areas
as well.
3 If you don’t serve customers at your
business address:
3. Enter your business address.
4. At the bottom, click I deliver goods and
services to my customers Next.
5. List your service areas, then click Next.
5. Search for and select a business
category. Then, click Next.
6. Enter a phone number or website URL,
then click Finish.
3 You’ll also have the option to create
a free website based on your
information. It’s recommended that you
provide the individual phone number or
store page for each location, rather than
a single centralized call center.
7. Select a verification option. It’s
recommended that you review your
information before you request verification.
3 To verify now, at the top, find the red
banner and click Verify now.
3 To verify later, click Verify later Later.
3 If you’re not authorized to manage
the Business Profile for the chain, find
the person in your organization who’s
authorized and continue the process.
If you sign up for Google My Business
and continue directly to verification:
1. If your business information is correct, at
the top of the page, click Mail.
3 Do not click Verify later.
2. Enter the name of the person the
verification postcard should be mailed
to, or you can leave it blank. We’ll send
it to the address you provided for your
business.
3. Click Send postcard.
If you signed up for Google My Business but
didn’t start the verification process:
1. Sign in to google.com/business.
2. In your Google My Business dashboard,
at the top right, click Verify now.
3. If your business information is correct, at
the top of the page, click Mail.
3 Do not click Verify later.
4. Enter the name of the person the
verification postcard should be mailed
to, or you can leave it blank. We’ll send
it to the address you provided for your
business.
5. Click Send postcard.
■ Wait for your postcard
Important: Due to COVID-19, you may experience
delays in getting your postcard.
Most postcards arrive within 14 days. The postcard
includes a unique verification code that you
must enter in Google My Business to confirm that
your business is located at the listed address.
While you wait, you can prepare for online success:
3 Visit your business website as if you’re
a customer who found it through Google
Search or Maps. Take time to enhance
your site and update any incorrect
information.
3 Take pictures of your business and the
products and services it provides. These
photos make great additions to your
Google My Business profile. You can
even take customers inside your space
with Street View.
■ Complete verification
After you get your verification postcard:
1. Sign in to google.com/business.
2. Verify your business in one of the
following ways:
3 Under “Verification needed,”
click Verify now.
3 Or, in the left menu, click Verify location.
3. Follow the instructions to enter the
verification code from your postcard.
38 • FALL 2020

FALL 2020 • 39

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40 • FALL 2020

INNOVATIONS
INTRODUCING NEW AND IMPROVED PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES FOR SELF SERVE CAR WASHES
Full tunnel
optimization
system from DRB
New line of Air Fresheners
from Buffalo Scents
Buffalo Scents is a Buffalo born and raised brand committed to creating safer,
healthier and better-smelling air fresheners for automobiles. We’re a small, tightknit
team based out of Buffalo, New York – a city known for brotherly love, the
epic debate of bleu cheese vs. ranch, wings (yep, we just call them wings here),
underdog sports teams, and snow. Lots of it.
We’ve always spent a lot of time in our cars, whether it’s stuck in traffic, navigating
a snowstorm, or waiting in line to tailgate. We know all too well that a clean,
fresh-smelling car can make all the difference in how you feel when you drive,
according to owner Stephen Szortyka. Our vehicles are our second homes – and
because we can’t burn incense or plug an essential oil diffuser into our cars, we
wanted a more natural, fresher, and cleaner way to create a moving oasis.
Buffalo Scents was created with the core belief that air fresheners shouldn’t have
to come with all the nasty chemicals. Even better, they can come in an affordable,
stylish, and natural-looking design that doesn’t feel tacky or flimsy.
The company’s mission is simple: keep cars across the country smelling as fresh and
clean as possible, without adding unnecessary chemicals. “We’re a new age air freshener
with simple, game-changing values: good scents made from good ingredients.”
DRB® Tunnel Solutions has announced that its full tunnel
optimization system NoPileups is now operational at 500 car
wash sites across the United States.
NoPileups uses computer vision and machine learning technology
backed by an industry-leading service team to monitor
car wash tunnels, automatically stopping the conveyor when
collision threats are detected. By reducing the risk of collision,
car wash attendants can load vehicles closer together in the tunnel,
resulting in higher tunnel throughput.
This has proved to be a game-changer, allowing car wash sites
employing NoPileups to wash up to 20 more cars per hour
during peak hours.
The first NoPileups installation was in 2016. Since then, No-
Pileups has monitored more than 150 million vehicles.
DRB acquired the assets and intellectual property of NoPileups
in 2018 to complement its line of point of-sale and tunnel
technology solutions for the conveyorized car wash market.
In addition to DRB’s technology, NPU can run with other
point-of-sale systems and tunnel controllers.
Outdoor lighting from LSI Industries
LSI Industries announced it has launched a new
commercial LED fixture for parking garage and
various canopy applications. Ideal for both new
and retrofit construction projects, the company’s
new CGC luminaires are edge-lit and feature sleek,
low-profile (less than 3.5 inches in height), circular
housing with no visible hardware or heat fins.
“Our new CGC commercial parking garage fixture
is among the most attractive and affordable
lighting products for its intended applications,” said
Mike Prachar, Chief Marketing Officer of LSI Industries.
“Its edge-lit optic design produces low glare,
non-pixelated illumination that will be appreciated
by parking garage employees and drivers alike.”
LSI’s new commercial parking garage fixture
delivers Type 5 uniform illumination
with output levels of 4,000,
6,000 and 8,000 lumens – each at a
4,000K color temperature. In addition,
the new luminaires can be configured with
a hidden microwave sensor for motion detection.
The sensor defaults to 100 percent light levels, but
drops to 30 percent when motion is not detected
for 15 minutes – helping to conserve energy without
sacrificing the safety and security that lighting
provides. In addition, the new product is compliant
with Design Lights Consortium (DLC) premium
standards, allowing customers to qualify for energy
rebates. It is also compliant with California’s Title
24 energy conservation requirements.
Edge-lit fixtures,
such as
LSI’s CGC and Excursion
parking garage
luminaires, differ from
other light sources in that they
produce illumination from the sides, not the back.
This makes them extremely thin and lightweight,
which allows them to be mounted in a variety of
applications. A single electrician can easily install
LSI’s new CGC fixtures directly to a junction box
or a stem accessory. The new luminaires are available
in bronze, gray and white finishes, and most
configurations can be shipped within 10 business
days after an order is placed.
FALL 2020 • 41

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42 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 43

INDUSTRY DIRT
HAPPENINGS IN & AROUND
SELF SERVE CARWASHING
ModWash announces appointment of new CEO
ModWash, a new express car wash operator
based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, today announced
the appointment of John (JT) Thomson
as Chief Executive Officer. Thomson comes from
GO Car Wash and replaces the company’s interim
CEO Hans Weger.
According to a ModWash press release, Thomson
brings a wealth of car wash experience to
ModWash as the company sets out to have 16 car
washes operating by the end of 2020, 30 by the
end of 2021, and 100 by the end of 2023. Mod-
Wash’s current growth plan focuses primarily on
ground-up developments paired with redevelopments
and an occasional strategic acquisition. All
ModWash locations will feature state-of-the-art
car wash equipment and technology, resulting in
an environmentally conscious wash and an exceptional
guest experience.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity to help
launch the ModWash brand and lead the Mod-
Wash team. It has been an incredible privilege to
work at GO with such a great team and group of
investors. Now I’m thankfully and enthusiastically
looking forward to big, bright opportunities
at ModWash with our strong team of motivated,
strategically minded people. I look forward to
helping make the ModWash vision a reality, creating
positive and lasting ripple effects in the local
communities we serve,” Thomson stated in the
press release.
Most recently, Thomson co-founded GO Car
Wash in January 2019, where he started as the Chief
Operating Officer and became the Chief Development
Officer and President. GO Car Wash currently
operates 31 stores with four additional stores in
development that are anticipated to open by the
end of 2020. During the first 12 months, Thomson
helped shape the management team, build the GO
Car Wash brand, oversee marketing strategy, and
work with the team to create strategic systems and
processes for operations. JT played a critical role in
the growth of GO Car Wash.
ModWash is backed by HUTTON, a well-capitalized
commercial real estate, development, and
investment company that has completed more
than 1,300 projects for hundreds of retailers across
32 states over the past 22 years, the press release
stated. Under President and CEO Karen Hutton’s
leadership, HUTTON is primarily focused on
developing, acquiring, managing and constructing
single-tenant, shopping center, multi-family,
self-storage and now CarWash properties. Hutton
has received numerous accolades for her business
acumen including 2019 Chattanooga Chamber of
Commerce Small Business of the Year and 2020
Globe St. Net Lease Individual Influencer.
“HUTTON and the ModWash team are thrilled
to have JT on board. We’re confident that he’ll
bring the expertise, strategy, creativity, and leadership
that we value at ModWash,” Hutton stated in
the press release.
ModWash has four locations open in Lexington,
North Carolina, Thomasville, North Carolina,
Gaffney, South Carolina., and Roanoke Rapids,
North Carolina. The next ModWash locations will
open in Florida and New Jersey, as well as additional
locations in North Carolina.
Quick Quack Car Wash partners
with Service Management Group
Service Management Group (SMG), a global customer, patient and employee experience
management partner to more than 500 brands, has announced a new customer
experience management partnership with Quick Quack Car Wash. The rapidly
growing car wash chain chose SMG for its scalable technology platform and ability to
uncover actionable insights, a press release stated.
Founded in 2004, Quick Quack owns and operates more than 100 locations across
Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas and Utah. Alongside a quick and entertaining carwash
experience, Quick Quack is best known for its unlimited car wash memberships,
free vacuums and exceptional customer service.
“As a service-based brand, one of the greatest barometers of our success is customer
satisfaction,” said Quick Quack Partner and Chief Marketing Officer Travis Kimball.
“Our partnership with SMG is allowing us to collect and analyze customer feedback
across multiple channels, uncover key loyalty drivers and continually improve the experience
as we grow.”
With SMG’s customer experience management program, Quick Quack is capturing
feedback at multiple touchpoints in the customer journey. Location-level feedback
is captured and delivered to the smg360® reporting platform in real-time, providing
Quick Quack with key customer experience metrics while features like role-based
reporting and real-time alerts help the field focus on driving satisfaction. Quick Quack
is also working with SMG to measure the contact center experience, giving the brand
insights that help turn those important interactions into opportunities to drive satisfaction
and loyalty.
In conjunction with solicited feedback, Quick Quack is measuring unsolicited feedback
with SMG’s online reputation management solution. Aggregating location-specific
ratings and reviews from the top review sites, this data is presented alongside Quick
Quack’s customer experience and contact center data to give the brand a more holistic
view of the customer experience.
D&S names new Vice
President of Large
Vehicle Wash
Division
On July 6, 2020 D&S of High
Ridge, Missouri, announced the
addition of car and truck wash
industry veteran Brad Quay to
their senior management team
as Vice President of D&S’ new
Large Vehicle/Fleet Wash Division.
Quay will be tasked with
every aspect of launching and operating
this division, a press release
reported. His responsibilities include
Operations, Sales Channel and Distribution
Network, Branding and Marketing as well as Key
Vendor Management. Quay comes to D&S with over 25 years of
experience within the car wash industry serving in management
roles for established manufacturers of point of sale systems and
specialty chemicals. Quay is a past president of the Heartland Car
Wash Association and has served on several other industry boards
and associations. D&S President, Jon Jansky stated in the press
release, “I have known Brad professionally for many years, and am
very pleased to have him helm this exciting new venture for our
firm. We believe he will be instrumental in our capitalizing on
this large market segment.” Quay will divide his time between
his home office in Toledo, Ohio, and D&S’ headquarters in High
Ridge which is located outside of St. Louis, Missouri.
44 • FALL 2020

INDUSTRY DIRT
DRB Systems ® , Unitec ® , Suds Creative , NoPileups
and Sage Microsystems Launch DRB Masterbrand
DRB Systems, Unitec, Suds Creative, NoPileups
and Sage Microsystems are now united under a
masterbrand: DRB, a press released stated. Together,
the organization helps car wash operators and
quick lube shops chart new paths to growth with
data-driven technology solutions.
In 2016, DRB Systems, a provider of point-of-sale
and tunnel technology to the conveyorized car wash
market, joined forces with Unitec, which serves the
unattended and C-Store car wash market with reliable
point-of-sale software and hardware. This move
brought together two of the most powerful companies
in the automated car wash realm. Soon after,
the organization added:
3 NoPileups – A full-tunnel management system
that helps conveyorized car washes increase
tunnel capacity and prevent in-tunnel collisions.
3 Suds Creative – A data-driven, consumer
behavior company dedicated to optimizing
revenue for car washes.
3 Sage Microsystems – A leading
provider of point-of-sale and
business management solutions to
the quick lube industry.
Until now, all of the companies
maintained their separate brand
identities, but it became evident that
it was time to unite under a common
masterbrand with a common goal.
“Since we joined forces, we’ve found
that together, we are truly more than the sum
of our parts,” DRB CEO Dan Pittman stated in a
press release. “Now it’s time for our brand to reflect
that. Under the DRB masterbrand, we will
forge ahead with a singular goal: To help car wash
operators squeeze every ounce of profitability out
of their investments.”
The combined DRB is poised to do that with:
“We believe the car wash industry is poised for a
technological leap - a leap that will focus intensely
on the end car wash consumer and their experience,”
Pittman stated in the press release.
“Therefore, we are developing
more advanced technologies and
mining the deep data insights operators
need to attract more consumers
and lock in loyalty regardless of
your car wash model.”
To differentiate between the two
major markets DRB serves, DRB Systems
will be referred to as DRB Tunnel
Solutions with NoPileups remaining as a product
under the Tunnel Solutions business unit. Unitec
will be identified as DRB In-Bay Solutions. The
Unitec name will still be associated with the in-bay
point-of-sale hardware and Sierra® and Director®
software. Suds Creative and Sage Microsystems will
not change their brand names but will fall under the
DRB Masterbrand.
TRACK
THAT CLICK!
CLICK IT
GOOD!
100
95
75
“We’ve been advertising to car wash operators for
7 years now, and have tried and tracked many of the
different industry advertising options. As far as online
opportunities focused on the car wash industry go,
nothing has provided the consistent click-throughs
at the rate of the CarWashForum.com.”
JIM LANMAN, TOUCH4WASH
25
5
0
FALL 2020 • 45
Astromatic Softgloss 3-375x4-875 ad PRINT 011818

INDUSTRY DIRT
Sonny’s
Announces Live
Online Virtual
CarWash Expo,
Fall Edition
This past September 22nd and 23rd, the
car wash industry came together for The Virtual
CarWash Expo, Fall Edition. The event
took place online at VirtualCarWashExpo.
com for three hours and the registration was
free of cost.
“With months of disruption and fall regional
shows cancelled, there’s even more reason
for our industry to connect and get together,”
stated Paul Fazio, CEO at Sonny’s, in a press
release. “We set out to answer three questions.
How do we help the industry right now? How
do we help current operators right now? And
how do we help new investors learn more,
right now?”
The Virtual CarWash Expo experience
was similar to a physical tradeshow with one
difference, no travel days required, the press
release stated.
Similar to the well-attended April show,
there was a live Q & A with real-time inbound
messaging to panel members and options to
schedule one-on-one meetings for site proformas,
equipment, chemistry, signage, controls
and marketing.
“Nothing will ever replace face-to-face interaction
– especially in our industry. People
like to come together,” said Kati Pierce, SVP
at Sonny’s, in a press release. “That said, the
online Expo is the next best thing. Once we
heard all the fall shows were cancelled, we
wanted to create that experience in an online
format. All the education and information
without the travel!”
The September Virtual CarWash Expo
featured an agenda packed with present-day
topics and panel discussions.
The event included:
3 Panel discussions on how operators
managed the business impact from
COVID-19
3 Sessions on key trends, business
management and membership revenue
models
3 Presentations on how to get started
in car washing, how to boost sales and
potential pitfalls
3 Keynotes from Paul Fazio, CEO of Sonny’s
and Anthony Analetto, President of Sonny’s
3 Operator insights on converting a
full-serve to express
3 Free one-on-one meetings
with car wash experts
46 • FALL 2020
Sonny’s Enterprises
partners with
Genstar Capital
NCS partners
with Lustra
National Carwash Solutions (NCS), of Grimes,
Iowa, and a provider of car wash systems, cleaning
solutions and maintenance services, is partnering
with Cleaning Systems Inc. (CSI), which manufactures
Lustra Professional Car Care Products.
“We are constantly searching for strong strategic
partners willing to join the NCS family,” Michael
Gillen, CEO of NCS, stated in a press release. “CSI
and its family of brands, led by Lustra, is an absolutely
perfect fit with our brand portfolio. We’re
thrilled to partner with such an innovative company
that serves many vehicle care channels, including
car wash operators.”
CSI, based in De Pere, Wisconsin, works with a
variety of customers in commercial and industrial
operations that require detergents and cleaning
fluids, including car wash operators.
“National Carwash Solutions was the clear
choice as our strategic partner in terms of continuing
our vision of being the industry leader in satisfying
customer needs for clean and shiny vehicles.
Only NCS has the brands, the proactive strategy,
and the market leadership that will drive our business
to even higher levels. I am thrilled to watch
the company I began so many years ago join the
In other Sonny’s news the manufacturer announced
in August it has named Genstar Capital as
its new investing partner. Genstar Capital based in
San Francisco, California, is a leading private equity
firm focused on investments in targeted segments
of the financial services, healthcare, industrial, and
software industries, according to a press release. This
new round of funding will allow Sonny’s to accelerate
product development, manufacturing, marketing
and to invest more resources into its existing
suite of solutions, a press release stated.
“Our partnership with Genstar will help attract
and retain the best talent in the industry, and help
us to continue to develop innovative new products
that simplify the operations of our customers’ car
wash business,” Paul Fazio stated in the press release.
“When I look back over the years, Sonny’s has
worked with so many entrepreneurs to help them
get their start in the car wash business and then
grow from one site to multiple locations. My team
and I remain committed to being the single source
solution for car wash equipment, vacuums, chemicals,
software, education and local support.”
Rob Rutledge, Managing Director of Genstar
Capital, stated in the press release, “Sonny’s draws
on over 40 years of industry leadership to drive deep
relationships with over 6,000 active customers nationwide.
They operate as true partners with their
customers and invest in their growth, from expert
guidance during site planning through construction
and operations, forging a long-term relationship as
they grow together. We are very excited to work
with Paul Fazio and his team to grow the business
both organically and through strategic acquisitions.”
“Our work is to make carwashing easy – and now
we’ll be able to do that better, faster and with more
resources,” Fazio also stated in the press release.
NCS family,” Dave Krause, CEO of Cleaning Systems,
stated in a press release.
National Car Wash Solutions brands include
MacNeil, Ryko, TSS, Vacutech, and CleanTouch.
NCS has also partnered with other car wash distributors
in North America, including Hi-Performance
Wash Systems, Auto-Clean, Arizona Car
Wash Systems, Complete Car Wash, NuLook,
Badger Land and Carwash Solutions.
CSI will continue to provide the same sales, service
and support to all customers, the company
stated in the press release. “We are excited to partner
with the entire team of NCS companies and
be able to drive even greater overall value to our
loyal customers,” said Doug Marquis, vice president
of CSI. “The future is extremely bright, and
our organization is well positioned to meet all the
needs of a rapidly developing car wash market.“

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FALL 2020 • 47

EXTRA!
EXTRA!
Presenting the news stories
featuring self serve car washes
Facebook launches
small business support initiative
Skogie’s continues its
expansion in Canada
An October 15 Small Business Trends story
reported that in a bid to help small businesses
capitalize on the upcoming holiday shopping
season, Facebook has launched its Season
of Support initiative. With the new offering
businesses conducting holiday promotions on
Facebook or Instagram will receive free training,
marketing support and insights.
“The Season of Support is a three-monthlong
initiative for small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) to help them make the
most of the upcoming holiday shopping season.
The support package provides businesses
with resources to strengthen connections
with customers as well as boost sales.
Facebook’s offering, according to the story,
includes 11 weeks of education, resources,
and training for small businesses. It is free of
charge for businesses with a Facebook Page
or Instagram business account. The Season of
Support also includes:
3 A free personalized marketing
plan for your business
3 Tips on boosting posts
3 Free video training
3 Promotional assistance
3 Toolkits to help drive up holiday sales
“The goal is to get your online presence
ready, keep your audience engaged, increase
sales, and manage your online presence,” the
Small Business Trends story said. And you will
be able to make this possible by learning with
a full collection of videos so you can gain new
skills. Additionally, you can come together in
virtual events with your community to share
insights and connect with entrepreneurs and
small business owners.
A fourth Skogie’s Car Wash
is slated for Kelowna, British
Columbia, according to an October
5 Casanet story.
No stranger to the industry, owner Dave Skolund built
his first car wash 49 years ago and will be celebrating its
50 anniversary next May.
Dave’s sons, Chris and Jason Skoglund, are now operating
the business, with its other three locations throughout
British Columbia.
The new location will offer a 160-foot tunnel car
wash, 10 self-service bays, 15 vacuums, and a free vacuum
token with every car wash purchase. It will also be
home to a Canco gas station and convenience store.
According to the story, Skogie’s is also offering memberships,
which start at $35.99 per month, that will work
at all Skogie’s tunnel car washes. Members will be able
to get their car washed every day that their membership
is active. Skogie’s is also planning a big celebration for its
50th anniversary in the spring that will feature plenty of
giveaways and specials for its clientele, the story said.
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48 • FALL 2020

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FALL 2020 • 49

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New car wash opens in Delaware
A fourth Greenhill Car Wash has opened in the
state of v and this time it is in Millsboro.
According to an October 19 Delaware Business
Now report, the new car wash features an in-bay
automatic made by Ryko, four self-serve bays, vacuums
and vending.
Greenhill Car Wash worked with several local
vendors on the renovation of the existing car wash,
the story said. The original Wilmington location is a
former “brownfields” site that was remediated and
earned the company a Wilmington Award. This year
the Middletown location installed SemaConnect
electric vehicle (“EV”) charging stations, becoming
the first car wash in Delaware to do so.
Barfly Podcast host uses self serve car
wash experience to denounce rude people
Jeff Burkhart, the author of “Twenty Years Behind
Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender,
Vol. I and II,” and the host of the Barfly Podcast on
iTunes, who is also a columnist for the Independent
Journal, recently wrote about a trip to a self serve
car wash. In his September 5 column, Being a jerk
to a jerk does not make you a good person, Burkhart
writes about his dismay over the rudeness of another
self serve car wash customer.
The stalls were all full and I was fourth in line.
A 20-something was in one of the stalls washing a
winged, tinted, hotted-up something or another. He
had actually finished washing it and was now going
through what looked like chamois cloths in his
trunk, one at a time, even stopping to pick little bits
of lint from each one. This went on for about five
minutes before the guy in the car at the front of the
line honked his horn and pointed at the sign that
read, “No bucket washing if other cars are waiting.”
The 20-something gave that guy the middle finger.
The car behind the first car then honked his
horn, too.
“You know, you could do that over there,” said the
guy in car No. 2, pointing at eight empty spots reserved
for doing exactly that sort of thing.
The 20-something gave him the finger, too.
Eventually, the cars in line were able to pull into
other bays, all while the 20-something-year-old slowly
detailed his car. Burkhart was then next in line.
I was the last car waiting and as I finally pulled
into another opening stall, the towel-drying and
finger-giving guy decided that now he was done. He
got into his car and pulled around, passing all three
guys he had given the finger to. For good measure,
Greenhill Car Wash opened
its first location in Wilmington
in 2009, the story said.
Plans call for further expansion
in the Mid-Atlantic region with two additional locations
planned for 2021. All Greenhill locations are
locally owned.
Being a jerk to a jerk
does not make you a
good person
he did it again.
The last guy took one look
at his meticulously dried car and then
sprayed it with his hose. Twice. That kid got
out of his car and walked toward him in a threatening
manner.
The kid stopped and then looked at all of us
watching and said, “Did you see what this asshole
just did?”
“We did,” I said. “And we all saw what you did,
too.” ... That kid gave me the middle finger, too. And
I returned it.
Burkhart offers a few final thoughts, including
this one: Stores, restaurants and, yes, even car washes,
have started having line monitors because apparently
adult Americans can’t seem to handle it
for ourselves.
GO Car Wash continues expansion in Las Vegas
GO Car Wash continues its Las Vegas market
expansion with the announcement of
its first new development site at 1650 E.
Tropicana Ave, according to an August
4 press release. GO Car Wash currently
operates four sites in the Las Vegas market,
with several more new development
sites to be announced in the near future.
In the next 24 months, GO Car Wash, which is
based out of Phoenix, Arizona, plans to build out an
additional 10-plus sites in the market.
“We are excited to announce our big growth plans
for the Las Vegas market and our first official new
development site in the market, which we expect
to break ground on in the fall,” Darren
Skarecky, CEO of GO Car Wash, stated
in a press release. “We look forward to
expanding our footprint throughout the
market. We continue to focus on providing
the highest level of service to our
current and future customers with the best
car wash offerings, including monthly memberships
utilizing license plate recognition technology
throughout all of our locations.”
GO Car Wash currently operates 19 sites in the
Kansas City, Kansas, market with an additional two
new development sites expected to open in the
next 60 days and plans to operate roughly that same
amount in the Las Vegas market. “When we enter
a market, we do so with the plan to go deep and
have a significant presence in that market. Typically,
we look for quality acquisitions to quickly create
regional density, but when necessary, we will build
locations in order to meet that goal,” JT Thomson,
Chief Development Officer and President of GO
Car Wash, stated in the press release. “We are actively
looking throughout the Las Vegas market for quality
sites in busy retail areas to fuel our planned growth.”
Neon Marketplace grows in Massachusetts
A second Neon Marketplace has opened in Portsmouth,
Massachusetts, and more are on the way, according
to a What’s Up NEWP story.
The September 30 story said the first store opened
earlier this year. According to a press release, Neon
Marketplace caters “to today’s modern traveler by
delivering a uniquely refreshing and stylish experience
designed to drive consumer loyalty. Neon Marketplace
locations are targeted for areas where the
convenience store customer is currently underserved
and in areas where growing populations and/or
business growth has resulted in increased vehicular
traffic and consumer demand. In addition to offering
a wide variety of high-quality food options, Neon
Marketplace also offers premium-quality fuels and,
in many locations, will have a self-service car wash
and vacuum stations.”
There are three other locations in development,
with locations slated for Providence, Rhode Island,
Seekonk, Massachusetts, and Freetown, Massachusetts.
These three locations have opening dates for
the first half of 2021.
“Our family has been in the convenience store
business for decades and it’s truly exciting to see our
vision become reality in terms of offering our guests
an experience that is unmatched in the marketplace
today,” said Joseph Giacobbi, Director of Operations
for Neon Marketplace in a statement. “After the successful
launch of our first store on 533 E. Main Road
in Middletown, we are excited to spread this brand
to another town on Aquidneck Island and continue
to innovate the convenience store experience for our
customers.”
50 • FALL 2020

FALL 2020 • 51

FUN&
GAMES
WHAT’S
DIFFERENT?
Think these two pictures taken at a self serve car wash
are the same? Think again! There are six differences.
Can you spot them all?
1. Every Tuesday dropped from sign
2. Vacuum is flipped
3. Bay door is missing middle divider
4. Bay sign is repeated
5. 3rd light added
6. Shadow is larger
ONLY AT A
SELF SERVE
The following are some funny comments
seen on carwashforum.com
Complaint from a woman at the wash; “I’m not coming
back here! I paid $9, ran out of time, and got soap and
water all over my feet. Why
is there soap all over the
floor?!?!” She was in flip
flops. We sold her $5 more in
tokens, said thank you and
walked away. - Waxman
Get a message yesterday “fragrance did not
come out”. Several messages of me asking
actual details like what location and which
vacuum, finally they say vacuum #8. I check and
see they vacuumed at #8, but turned the fragrance
on at #7. Asked if they were at the same vac the whole
time, “yes”. Well, you turned on the fragrance on #7. “Well,
#8 only had the shampoo function, so I had to turn on #7.
Did I have to move my car over that one”? First time for
everything I guess. - slash007
The story of one car wash worker who was scared sudless!
Mike Hallowell, a columnist writing for the Jarrow and Hebburn
Gazette in England said he was asking for ghost stories submission.
One particular story stood out to Hallowell. It was from Jimmy
Swift, a former car wash worker who believed the room where the
containers of wax were stored was haunted.
“I walked into the room as normal, and went to get the first of
the containers,” Swift said. “Just as I was about to pick it up I
suddenly felt very strange, as if I was being watched. …I looked
around but there was definitely no one else in there, so I just left.
The next morning I went into the room again, and straight away I
got the same feeling, as if someone was staring at me. This time I
mentioned it to another lad who worked there, and he said, ‘Why do
you think the new person always gets that job? No one else will go
in there – it’s haunted.’
Swift said soon after that he told his boss he was quitting. Upon
quitting, his boss said he once found a dead dog in that same
storage room.
Hallowell said he tried to contact the carwash, but it has since been
closed down.
This story appeared in The Occult Section… Exploring
all things paranormal, supernatural and unexplained.
52 • FALL 2020

FALL 2020 • 53

Tap into the
Future
How apps are used at
self serves and no longer
considered a far-out millennial marvel.
Apps are nothing new to today’s consumer.
And customers wanting more convenience, discounts
and efficiency is definitely nothing new. It
is probably no surprise that the amount of time
people spend on their smartphones is substantial.
And, with a few weeks left in 2020 the figures are
not yet in for how much time Americans spent on
their mobile devices, but the Covid-19 pandemic
certainly (and more than likely) greatly upped all
of the figures.
Last year, according to
Zenith, a global marketing
firm, “American adults spent
about 3 hours and 30 minutes
a day using the mobile internet
in 2019, an increase of about
20 minutes from a year earlier.”
However, since the world was
upended in March 2020, those
numbers have majorly increased.
Back in August, Forbes magazine, released the
following article: We’ve Spent 1.6 Trillion Hours
On Mobile So Far In 2020. It quoted Lexi Sydow,
App Annie’s Senior Market Insights Manager, who
stated, “Covid-19 propelled mobile usage forward
— achieving growth that would have otherwise taken
two to three years. As we head into the holiday
season and 2021, businesses who prioritize mobile
will outpace competitors, as mobile represents a
significant driver of revenue growth for businesses.”
The article also included the following App Annie
findings:
• In April, the average user spent
a quarter of their waking time
on their mobile device: 4.3 hours
• Consumers spent 25% more on
mobile apps than ever before:
$50 billion in the first half of the year
“App downloads from the iOS App Store and
Android’s Google Play topped 64 billion in the
first half of the year,” the report also stated. “That’s
up 10% from 2019 numbers. The 27% of waking
hours consumers spent on mobile in early 2020
was up 20% from 2019 levels.”
Those findings might not be surprising. Go to
any park, restaurant or sofa throughout American
and more than likely, someone is on their phone.
But what was an interesting figure is that people
are spending billions of dollars via an app. Apps allow
one-stop payment options, pre-loaded credit
card information and “swipe-right-to-pay” straightforwardness.
But let’s re-focus on the world of self
serve car washes — a market that has mostly survived
the pandemic, and also been able to weather
past economic storms, but are self serves able to
handle modern times, and generations of youngsters
who rarely carry cash? Is technology and bells
and whistles a marketing maneuver for the self
serve owner or its customer? Are customers, who
would rather wash their own cars, content with the
way it has always been? It’s hard to speak for the
average car wash customer, but studies have shown
that Millennials and Generation Z-ers are more into
modern mediums. But, what about Baby Boomers?
According to a Mobile Marketer report, in 2019,
Baby Boomers have the highest purchasing power,
but were the latest of all generations to adapt
to mobile technologies. However, their mobile
usage and acceptance is growing. “Mobile penetration
is growing for this age group, with 65.6%
of Baby Boomers in the United States owning a
smartphone in 2018 and 55% of them having a
tablet. They’re downloading apps that mainly help
them with healthy living, travel and shopping to
make life easier, the report stated. “In the United
States, 52% of Baby Boomers said they use retail
apps to collect more information about a product
or service, whereas 40% have used a retail app to
buy a product or a service.”
Perhaps a key factor in determining whether or
not a self serve car wash would benefit from having
an app would be to consider your demographics.
Are you in a college town? Are your customers
on their phones while at your wash? What about
your competitors’ offerings?
According to Jim Sturm, president of Yes Marketing,
he stated in a 2019 press release, “To survive
the retail apocalypse, retailers need to prioritize
the mobile experience. Consumers will not
hesitate to turn to another brand if it offers a more
user-friendly experience.”
If there is any confusion on how a mobile app
would work with your car wash, we interviewed
various companies to answer some of the most frequently
asked questions, including Amy Olson of
WashCard Systems, Jim Lanmen of Touch4Wash,
and Shane Larsen of Coinless.
54 • FALL 2020

Amy Olsen of
WASHCARD
SYSTEMS
Q
What kind of app or
apps do you offer
self serve car washes?
Amy: WashCard offers an app for self serves, automatics,
pet washes, vacuums, vending, and more.
The app allows for operators to create the experience
of their brand plus customize the rewards
programs they want to offer. We offer a variety of
rewards programs so operators are able to have
what fits their customer base best. The first is our
star rewards program where a user can buy 10
washes and get one free. Operators can also offer
a free wash upon registration within the app. This
gives operators the contact information of the user
to be able to use text messages and email marketing
to promote the app. Operators can also
activate the wash from anywhere to resolve
customer issues or test new services…
Q
Self serves are a bit different
in that they don’t have set
wash packages, so how
would an app work for a self serve?
Amy: The UWashApp offers two ways to set up
your pricing packages for your self serve bays, or
your vacuums. Operators can choose to do count
up on their services, allowing customers to wash as
long as they need to with a max purchase amount
set by the operator. They can also choose to do wash
packages in increments they want. Such as a $4
package, $6 package, $8 package, or $10 package.
Q
Some self serve owners are
worried that offering an app
will require a lot of work
(installing the technology, etc.)
what advice do you have for them?
Amy: With any app you will be installing some
level of hardware in order to be able to talk to
the car wash equipment. Depending on the equipment
you have and how many bays you have, installation
times may vary…
Q
Do you have to offer wi-fi at
your car wash for it to work?
Amy: NO to Wi-Fi but there does need to
be a high-speed internet connection. UWashApp
by itself does not need Wi-Fi or a Static IP because
purchases are made in the cloud.
Q
What trends are you seeing
with car washing clients in
terms of perks offered for
using the app, such as points
rewarded for frequent visits, etc?
Amy: One trend that has been in the industry for
quite a while when it comes to apps has been unlimited
programs. These programs are great for
large tunnel operations, and some IBAs. However,
we have seen some of the smaller operations really
struggle in getting the best return on their investment.
That’s where an app like UWashApp can be
beneficial to car wash owners who either want to
add an app or introduce touch-free payments and
loyalty programs without the cost of adding card
readers. Other rewards programs are becoming increasingly
popular, whether they are a points-based
system or star-based system. The history of having
physical punch cards is quickly being replaced by
apps and the loyalty programs built within them.
Jim Lanman of
TOUCH4WASH
Q
How did Touch4Wash
come about?
Jim: It started because Jared Tomlin had
owned a self serve car wash and he noticed there
weren’t tools at his disposal to help boost his business.
He was also frustrated that if a customer was
having an issue inside one of his bays, he would
have to stop what he was doing and drive out to
the car wash to help them or mail them a check to
pay for any money they lost. I partnered with him
in 2012 to develop Touch4Wash with self serves
in mind, so that customers would have access to
loyalty programs, fleet programs, membership
programs and discounts and the car wash owner
would have access to marketing tools and ways to
automate the way the wash is run. The app is also
designed to work with in-bay automatics.
Q
Do you have a lot of self
serve car wash owners
using your program?
Jim: Yes, we have always kept the self serve owner
in mind, as Jared was a self serve owner, but this
works great with an in-bay as well. We know they
are often economical, and we wanted to offer tools
that can help them. We offer a program that will
give them various ways to help their business and
also be affordable at the same time. Not only can
the app offer wash packages that you would see
with a conveyor wash, it also offers a service-based
package for the customer where they pay a certain
amount and they are then offered credits at a discounted
rate. Also, the owner doesn’t have to mail a
check to a car wash customer if they somehow lose
money in the bay, the owner can just credit their account
and instantly resolve problems. All that power
is now in the palm of the car wash owner’s hand.
Q
How can a self serve car
wash customer use the app?
Jim: We offer several ways a car wash owner
can have customers pay with the app:
• Pay as you Go (push a button and it
goes on the customer’s credit card)
• Prepaid credit (put $100 into the
account, and that will go toward
purchases made in the bay at a discount).
• Loyalty Points (a customer earns
points as they spend which can
then be used in the bay).
• Fleet programs
• Membership programs
You can also market with the app. Such as offering
a discount on a Tuesday night that is automatically
managed.
Q
I would think with Covid-19,
there are pluses to offering
an app to customers?
Jim: Absolutely. People aren’t wanting to handle
cash as much. They also want to get in and out of
places efficiently. Another benefit is that car wash
owners do not have to handle as much cash or
empty meter boxes and haul money to the bank.
Q
Do you find there are self serve
owners who are apprehensive
about offering an app?
Jim: Yes, some are. And I don’t think an owner
should go completely cashless either. I think they
should view it as a whole new way for a customer
to pay. I think mobile technology will be like credit
cards and just as commonly used.
FALL 2020 • 55

Shane Larsen of
COINLESS MOBILE
Q
How did Coinless come
about?
Shane: Jared, the founder of Coinless,
bought his first self serve wash back in 2017.
Although business was better than ever, he was
frustrated by the need to constantly drive across
town to help a customer or to issue a refund. Additionally,
he saw happy customers drive up, pay
for his services, and leave, without knowing anything
about them and their experience or their
loyalty to his wash. So, he started to work on an
app that would provide a seamless payment and
loyalty experience for the customer and benefit
the car wash owner with real-time customer analytics
and remote management features. We debuted
at the International Carwash Association’s
Car Wash Show in Nashville in 2019 and we are
now at 125 car washes.
Q
Why should a self serve car
wash owner consider offering
an app to his or her
customers?
Shane: There is a ton of value and benefits for
offering an app at their washes that were never
possible before… With more and more people
carrying less cash it’s something that we should
look at and ask where the future of payments
is headed. The data says the future is all about
mobile payments. Some of the following features
and benefits are great reasons for the self serve car
wash owner to consider offering an app:
• Gives customers a reason to keep
coming back to your car wash
through loyalty programs
• Drives more revenue through wash
club memberships and marketing
• Contactless payments
• Knowing your customers name,
email and phone number
• Ability to send promotions
straight to customers’ phones
• Ability to remotely start equipment
and take care of customer issues
• Brings in a new younger
demographic of smartphone users
Q
Does the app somehow
encourage loyalty to a
specific car wash?
Shane: Yes, we’ve taken a unique approach to
help car wash owners drive loyalty at their wash
and customize their customers’ rewards and experience.
By utilizing innovative location services
and “geofencing” technologies, the customer only
sees the car wash location they are at, or the nearest
wash to them when they launch the app. With
a combination of onsite marketing, free/discounted
first-washes, customizable monthly memberships,
and a customizable point-based loyalty program,
owners can easily cater to the needs of their
customers and provide value that the wash down
the street cannot.
Q
Have you noticed an uptick in
demand since Covid-19?
Shane: Yes, more than ever. Customers appreciate
the convenience, benefits, and cleanliness
of going mobile. Money is dirty. Being as “contactless”
as possible is becoming more popular. Businesses
want to be virus-proof and not handling
cash or touching a bunch of buttons is helping
MORE CUSTOMERS.
MORE REVENUE.
LESS EFFORT.
ANY WASH
No matter your equipment,
we work with just about any
equipment on the market.
ANY PAYMENT
Payments are made easily
through credit or loyalty
cards, and mobile.
ANY LOCATION
With one location or
hundreds, tie all your data
together to make managing
your wash a breeze.
651-439-5740 | washcard.com
56 • FALL 2020

with that. Plus, an owner doesn’t want to
have to drive to their wash if a customer
needs a refund or didn’t do something
correctly, This way, they can do all of that
from their home, or even on vacation.
Q
You mentioned that
through the app you
can more easily interact
with each customer, what
about somehow giving them
a platform to offer feedback?
Shane: Yes, we offer a review component
(instead of stars, it’s drops of water)
where they can rate their experience and
it goes directly to the car wash owner.
The owner can then respond to both
positive and negative reviews instantly.
APP
STATS
WHAT’S
THE MOST
POPULAR APP?
According to App Annie,
Facebook Messenger is the
top mobile app worldwide
by download. As for active
users, the WhatsApp app is
the most popular.
TIME SPENT ON APPS
According to a MindSea.com statement,
“In 2020, eMarketer predicts that adult
smartphone users will spend about 4 hours
per day using mobile internet, and 88%
of that time will be spent in mobile apps,
rather than a browser. This speaks to
the importance of companies not
only optimizing their websites for
mobile, but creating custom,
responsive apps too.”
HOW MANY???
• 2.96 million apps are available in the
Google Play Store.*
• 4.37 million apps are available in the
Apple App Store.*
• More than 100,000 new apps being released
each month in the Google Play Store.
• More than 30,000 new apps being released
each month in the Apple App Store.**
• In 2019, consumers downloaded
204 billion apps.***
*Information according to Statista **Information according to 42Matters
***Information according to App Annie
• Membership Plans
• Loyalty Programs
• Fleet Programs
• Automated Marketing
• Text Marketing
More than an App,
It’s a tool to help
grow your business
Touch4Wash.com
Or give us a call
612-787-7278
FALL 2020 • 57

MORE
WAYS
TO PAY
A new study from Paysafe carried
out between September 9 and 18, 2020,
with 350 businesses in the U.S. and Canada
participating, showed that their customers
want more payment options during the pandemic.
The study also offered up the following
key takeaways:
• 88% of the businesses surveyed made
at least one change to their checkouts
during the pandemic and 39% reported
the volume of business increased.
• 64% of the businesses attribute this
increase to online sales through either a
new or existing offering.
• 23% of the businesses surveyed
launched an online card-not-present
(CNP) checkout for the first time during
the pandemic.
• 17% of businesses without an online
presence plan on adding an online
checkout soon.
• 44% of the businesses surveyed are
adding the acceptance of contactless
payment on delivery and 44% are adding
card payment on delivery.
What was the first ever app?
It might come as no shock that Apple founder
and mega computer pioneer Steve Jobs predicted
the “app” in 1983. At a conference in Aspen,
Colorado, he described a record-store like medium
where you could pick and choose your own
computer applications according to your likes
and dislikes. In Marcel’s Brown’s column for
Life, Liberty and Technology, he analyzed Jobs’
speech and wrote, “[Jobs] believed that software
distribution through traditional brick-and-mortar
was archaic since software is digital and can
be transferred electronically through phone lines.
He foresees paying for software in an automated
fashion over the phone lines with credit cards. I
don’t know about you, but I think this sounds incredibly
similar to the concept of the Apple App
Store. Plus, his comparison to the music industry
just might be foreshadowing the iTunes store…”
As for the what was the actual first app, it is
hard to pin-down the exact one as the definition
of an what an app is can vary. In the mid-
1980s, London-based computer company Psion
released the Psion Organiser, largely considered
to be the first successful personal digital assistant
(PDA), Investopedia reported.
“The Organiser line couldn’t do much, but it
did have a handful of built-in software, such as a
text editor, calculator, diary, agenda, contact database
and a few other simple functions.” Even
though the Organisers weren’t able to handle
phone calls, they started the momentum for the
invention of the mobile app format.
Years later, and what is widely regarded as
the actual first-ever game app, the Nokia 6110
launched the game Snake in 1997.
Then, as mobile phones became more and
more common and sophisticated at the turn of
the century, various mobile operating systems
began to emerge. “The most notable of these
were Symbian OS (Nokia (NOK) Sony Ericsson
(SNE), Motorola (MSI), Samsung), iOS (iPhone/
iPad), and Android (Sony, LG, HTC). Note that
some manufacturers developed phones for both
Symbian and Android operating systems,” states
Investopedia. “Some of the first apps featured on
the Apple’s App Store included PhoneSaber, an
app that utilized the iPhone’s accelerometer to
produce that characteristic ‘wooommmm’ sound
whenever the user shook the phone, and Evernote,
a popular personal data/media organizer
still used widely today.”
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POWER
TO THE
SELF-SERVE
OPERATOR
Coinless is is a mobile payment and marketing
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car wash industry.
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FALL 2020 • 59

Around the Wash:
Self Serve Panel
MEET
THE
PANEL
MARLA MAYER
of Weiss Guys Express
Wash in Phoenix, Arizona. It
has been a family business
since the 1950s and started
in Cleveland, Ohio, with
her grandfather. Marla’s
family eventually moved
out West and Marla has
been working fulltime in the
industry for 35 years.
TERRY MCDONALD,
also of Weiss Guys, who has
worked with Marla’s father
for 40 years and now works
with Marla.
SYDNEY KING
of The Good Spray Car
Wash in Davis County, Utah.
At one point she had three
self serve washes and she
is now down to one. She
is also building an express
tunnel at another location.
King has been in the car
washing business for 12.5
years.
STEVE TOLOPILO
of Balboa Car Wash in Los
Angeles, California. The
Tolopilo family has been in
the car wash business since
1972 and in the past couple
of years he partnered with
his brother-in-law. Together,
the family runs six self serve
car washes as well as an
express tunnel.
60 • FALL 2020
SECURITY
BABB: What are you doing currently
to secure your washes? Are you utilizing
cameras? What other tips do you have?
What works best to keep your washes secure?
TOLOPILO: For quite some time, the locks have been
key, and we have had security cameras and DVR systems
in place for a while. Incidentally enough, this year has been
a weird year for everyone, but when the subject of defunding
the police came through in the last couple of months,
and right when that became mainstream media, we got
hit with break-ins four times within that month… so right
away we invested in security alarm systems. Now all of our
locations are on a platform with alarms and we get notified
if anything suspicious happens. We were good enough with
cameras for all of these years, but this exposed a weakness
and now, since adding these security alarms systems,
we stopped two additional break-ins because the alarms
scared the burglars off.
MCDONALD: What kind of cameras do you use?
TOLOPILO: …We are not at the 4K level yet, that’s the
area I am looking at next because of the high definition.
[Ours are] high resolution enough that we were able to
use them in the past with getting license plates and facial
recognition for cops, but when we were hit a few months
back, they just stole the DVR so it didn’t help. So now we
have extra layers [of security].
KING: I just bought Weiss Outdoor cameras but I have
not tried to install them yet. I am just now researching
where the best placement is for [the cameras when it
comes to self serves]. Do I put them high or low? I do
have camera systems, but they are on the exterior. This
The Western Carwash Association held a Virtual Summit
and Roadshow on October 16. Along with the WCA’s annual
membership meeting and awards, a live keynote address
from author Mary Kelly, and virtual vendor booths,
there were also educational offerings including a self serve
summit featuring four self serve operators, and experts.
The one-hour session was a chance to hear from operators
throughout the country and provide an opportunity
for idea sharing and best practices for successful self-serve
business operations. The panel was moderated by Kristy
Babb, the Executive Director of the Western Carwash
Association. The following is only a portion of the panel
discussion and some answers were edited for space limitations.
To listen to the entire discussion, visit wcwa.org.
will be the first time I have put them inside a bay. Do
you need to see faces? Or license plates? I feel like license
plates is the best place, but I don’t want them where people
are going to steal them.
TOLOPILO: We have them on the ceiling mounted with
a dome. The one thing you run into there is moisture and
the maintenance (having to de-fog) and clean them because
once spray and chemical and condensation gets in
there it will start to block the visual. We have benefited
from having them on the ceiling…The only time they get
messed with is if a large moving truck runs into one and
knocks it down.
MAYER: The cameras we are experiencing with, the snap
cameras, are a light that you put in the light fixture and
there is a motion sensor, like a floodlight, so you stick it into
the outlet where your floodlight is and it turns on and you
can also hear people and speak to people if you need to and
you can hold the videos as long as you want. It’s free if its 24
hours…We just started experimenting with these at two of
our sites and I think we are going to move forward putting
them in the others. It is really just to watch what is going on
there and we are happy with them.
TOLOPILO: We have found that when you have a broader
view of your property, it’s come in handy when things
have happened right outside your property, whether it
is a car accident or any other incident. When the police,
who have come to us multiple times, ask for footage of a
non-carwash-related incident we have been able to assist
them with their investigations.
KING: It is always helpful to have the cops on your side. I
get them parking in my lot at night, so it is always helpful
to have a good relationship that way.

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FALL 2020 • 61

Around the Wash Self Serve Panel
CHANGE
SHORTAGE
BABB: What about the change
shortage that we have seen nationally?
Has that affected anyone’s business?
MCDONALD: It hasn’t affected us at all because
we use tokens. We’re fortunate. We dispense tokens
out of our change machines. We give a free
vacuum token if you use our express washes.
TOLOPILO: There has been a noticeable impact;
we dispense dollar coins and quarters and people
are learning that they cannot just come and get
quarters at our location. It has increased quite a bit
on our exchange with our bank because we order
coins on a weekly basis and [the demand] spiked
up for the last month and a half as people have
been adjusting because [to the shortage]. Everywhere
in our area, [such as restaurants] are not
offering change back, and exact change is required
so people are coming to our location for all sorts
of reasons to get change, and then driving off, so it
impacts the amount of currency exchange we do
on a weekly basis.
KING: I’m totally quarter run. I have the dollar
changer. I don’t use tokens in the bays. All it’s done
for me is that I have less bags of quarters to drag
to the bank, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion,
I’m just doing more business by credit card, then
by cash, which hopefully means they’re running
a little more than the $3 minimum on the credit
card. But I have not noticed it has slowed down
the business…
VACUUMS
BABB: What is everyone doing
in regard to vacuums? Are
you charging customers? Are
you offering the free vacuums?
How are you competing with the free vacuums
that are being offered at a lot of the tunnels?
MCDONALD: We only give a free vacuum token
if you use our express drive-thru wash and we give
a little bronze token. If you are strictly a self serve
customer, you have to pay $1 for 4 minutes. We
get a few complaints, but it’s very few, and we do a
very nice vacuum business. We collect quite a few
quarters and tokens.
TOLOPILO: We do not offer free vacuums, but a
lot of that is driven by the fact that space is limited
at our locations. We have an express tunnel at
one location, but we do not have the real estate to
facilitate free vacuum customers. We charge $1.25
for 4 minutes and in the same sentiment, we have
a heathy revenue stream.
KING: I am the same. I have been thinking that
to separate from the free vacuum people, I could
maybe put in the shampooers or a mat wash that
[competitors] don’t have and still be able to charge
$1 for the 4 minutes. I don’t have anyone complaining
either. My vacuums are consistently busy.
But as more and more express tunnels show up it
might become more of an issue down the road.
MAYER: Something we’ve also attached to our
vacuums to make them a little more friendly for
the customer is a little air blower that they can use
to blow out any excess water in their mirrors or
along the front, so that is a bonus for them.
CHEMICALS
BABB: What is everyone using?
I know there’s new stuff
coming out what seems like
every week, ceramic gloss for
example.
KING: What I’ve used for the last 12 years has
worked so well, but I would like to try and expand
our product line. So, I have a question: If I put in
something like a ceramic gloss, does the average
customer coming into the wash know what it is
and what is going to do for their vehicle and be
willing to spend a few extra dollars? And, if I put
in a tire shine or a tire scrub, that means they are
spending more time in the bay, and that means
there are people waiting in line behind them. To
me, it’s a conundrum: Do I want them spending
more time in the bay, or do I want more throughput
to get them in and out?
MCDONALD: As long as the equipment is running
while they are in the bay it doesn’t matter.
Whether you wash one car for 24 hours non-stop
or 24 people came in and washed for an hour, it’s
the same. …we’re all selling time in the bays. So, as
long as we can keep them in there, keep the equipment
turned on and they’re not in there bucket
washing, God bless them.
REWARD
PROGRAMS
BABB: What are self serves
doing, if anything, to reward
their customers? Do you have a
frequent customer program?
MAYER: We do not, but it is something that hopefully
we will be looking at down the road.
TOLOPILO: We do not either, and we do have the
infrastructure to handle that.
MCDONALD: Our rewards program is basically
me or a general manager walking by a bay and
handing out a free vacuum token or quarter and
giving them more time in the bay on us.
KING: We did use a “Thanks” program a few years
ago. But we discontinued the service. I did talk to
our chemical rep and asked if he had any experience
with any of his other clients and he said one
of his clients installed an RFID program in their inbay
automatic and they were able to give monthly
or unlimited passes through that and that was very
effective. I sell discount coupons and tokens for
the automatic and that keeps [customers] coming
back, but I am wondering if the RFID would be a
worthy investment.
CRAZY
STORIES
BABB: What is the craziest
thing that has happened, or you
have seen happen in one of your bays?
MAYER: We have dog washes, and I am not sure
if it’s the craziest thing that has happened, but
this was fun for me. Someone brought over their
miniature pony into one of the dog washes. It was
exciting. I took video and pictures. It was a fun and
happy experience.
MCDONALD: I have a few. We had a guy with a
crane truck — it wasn’t very long ago — who tried
to drive into one of our bays. Now mind you this is
a truck with a 30-foot crane attached and the bay
is labeled 9’10” tall and the truck is roughly 13’
tall, so he didn’t fit very well... I did watch a man
wash a full-size horse in a bay. The horse loved it.
I did watch a man wash a dog in a bay, before we
had pet washes. I turned the bay off as the dog was
not happy with what was happening.
TOLOPILO: We have had a lot of random stuff…
people taking our metal plates from the ground to
people putting chains on their bumpers and trying
to rip of our door (this was recent). This is more
lighthearted: So, a YouTuber, this is a “dad hack”
type of YouTuber, used our car wash to show how
you can wash a baby highchair in a bay. We found
the YouTube video online and I’ve been meaning
to contact him and offer him some free coupons.
KING: We have a Clydesdale as a frequent visitor
at our wash. He is absolutely gorgeous. Loves getting
washes. I see baseball uniforms being washed
— lined up in the mat holders and washed. Not
a funny thing, but you know those Ford vehicles
with the keylock pads on the doors? A mom pulled
in with a toddler and a brand-new baby. She got
out and washed her car and then locked her babies
in the car. She was completely panicked, and it
was in the middle of winter. So, I gave her my coat
and gloves. We called the Ford dealership and the
dealer had happened to write down the security
code to every car that [leaves the lot]. So, she was
able to get back in.
62 • FALL 2020

Darwin
DARWIN at
the
CARWASH
The investment in security cameras pays off for carwash operators (and the readers of SSCWN)
with these mostly frustrating, sometimes funny -- and always cautionary -- stories of Darwins Caught on
Camera. Images of these criminals and/or their vehicles were given to police and the press. Many have been
caught thanks to the prowess of security cameras.
Crikey! What have we here in the land of Oz!?
Why, it’s a naked bloke inside a bay.
A naked man was caught getting hosed-down at
the Parkland’s Car and Dog Wash in Queensland,
Australia, back in August, the New York Post reported.
The story said security footage shows the naked
man covering certain unmentionables and grabbing
the car wash wand. The man then hands the
hose to another man who sprays him down while
filming the incident on his phone.
The naked man is then seen jumping up and
down as he gets splashed. He is then seen getting
chased down by another man, who was brandishing
a knife and a hat lined with animal teeth and a vest
made from crocodile skin. I made that last part up.
Things are getting downright nutty
in Romania.
The metal pole I get, but a wooden stump? According
to the Swindon Adviser, two brothers are
now in custody after showing up a car wash and
threatening one of its employees. The brothers had
allegedly gone to the Texaco garage around 8:15
a.m. on August 4, 2020, to try and threaten the
employee.
CCTV showed the brothers pull up in a van, get
out while brandishing weaponry towards the car
wash worker. The man’s colleague tried to intervene,
the story said.
Other car wash workers joined in and were able
to scare the brothers away, or so they thought! Instead
one of the brothers got into their van and
drove it towards the victim.
Police were called and the brothers were arrested
at the scene and the weapons, which they had
managed to retrieve, were found in the van.
As for the weapons, it appears they were a
stump of wood and a metal pole. In the CCTV
footage it shows both brothers wearing masks, so
at least they were showing their concern for the
international pandemic.
When they appeared in court, Judge Crabtree
said: “If you’re tooled up and you drive a van at
someone and you’ve got a stump of wood and a
metal pole your intention is to cause serious harm.”
The judge bailed the men who agreed to cooperate.
No mention of the Olympic
medal? Clear clue in my
book (read further for the
“red pants” story).
Police in Bradford, Ontario, released
a description of a man who tried to
break into an ATM machine at the Palm
Springs Car Wash last June. Now,
when you look at his picture, what is
the first thing you see?
Why, it’s what looks like an Olympic
medal. Yet, the crime stoppers report
does not mention it.
An investigation indicated he
attempted to gain access to the ATM
machine however, an alarm sounded
and he hastily departed empty-handed.
The ATM was damaged in an attempt
to gain access.
The suspect is described as:
• Male
• White, tanned
• Shaved head and
long hair at the back
• Goatee
• Medium build
• Wearing a blue jean jacket,
black pants, white shoes,
yellow gloves and a red backpack
FALL 2020 • 63

We got a couple of dumb
ones here, folks!
Two men were caught after robbing a car wash
in McDowell, North Carolina, according to The
McDowell News.
The story said that around 3 p.m. on Sunday,
August 9, someone broke into coin machines at
the Zip Car Wash and took money and tools and
caused damage to locks.
The crimes were caught on car wash surveillance
cameras and police were able to get a good
image of the vehicle used. That very night, a police
officer spotted a truck matching that description
on the same roadway as the car wash.
The officer pulled the truck over and found
two men inside along with items in the truck that
were involved with the car wash break-in.
Kyle Jordan Jenkins, 25, was charged with possession
of a stolen vehicle, larceny, injury to personal
property and breaking into a coin-operated
machine.
And John Paul McCall, 37, was charged with
larceny, injury to personal property, breaking into
a coin-operated machine and possession of methamphetamine.
Here is a new feature in
Self Serve Car Wash News:
Where did this “sharp-witted”
car wash criminal try to hide?
According to a story out of Nevada County,
California, a suspect tried to thwart police by
hiding:
• Inside a trash can
• Up a flagpole
• In a blackberry bush
• Behind a police car
And, while all four answers could be the right
answer considering the name of this section of
the magazine, the correct answer in this scenario
is: C -- in a blackberry bush!
Back in August, police were on the hunt for a
vandalism suspect who covered more than a mile
and a half on foot during an extensive tagging
spree over a weekend, damaging between 20 to
25 businesses, according to The Union. Surveillance
video revealed a younger white man spray
painting the walls of one business, the story said.
During a foot chase, in which they were pretty
sure they spotted the vandal, a police officer
happened upon a man who was crouched near a
dumpster located near one of the vandalized businesses.
The man then fled into some blackberry bushes
and headed toward the highway, but was later
apprehended. “As it turned out,” the story said,
“although he was not the vandal, he admitted to
having been trying to break into coin machines
at the car wash.”
When you’re trying to make a swift
getaway on a bicycle, your best bet is
to put down the cases of beer, I always say.
Back in August In Richmond, Virginia, a man is
accused of stealing and crashing cars, according to
6 News.
The man was seen on surveillance video grabbing
a few cases of beer from an Exxon in Richmond
without paying. An employee then confronted
him near the Exxon’s car wash, but backed away
when the thief said he had a gun on him.
The man then tries to get away on a bicycle, but
It was a distinctive pair of red pants that did him
in proving once and for all that fashion can in fact, be a crime.
According to St. Louis Call Newspaper, a man
has been charged with stealing a credit card at
gunpoint at the Classic Car Wash in South County,
Missouri, and police say he was caught for two
reasons: A car wash surveillance video and a particular
pair of red pants.
Back in August, prosecutors charged Ahmon
Smith, 19, for one count of first-degree robbery
and one count of armed criminal action.
Smith was apparently at a car wash and approached
a young man who was trying to use his credit card in
one of the car wash machines. The victim said he
assumed Smith worked at the car wash.
Smith then pointed a gun and demanded the
credit card. He allegedly then took the victim’s
card and drove away from the car wash.
Police detectives used surveillance video to find
still images of the suspect’s car and took notice of
the criminal’s distinctive red pants. Unfortunately
for us, there is no image of the red pants available.
A man who backed into a
gas pump at a ScrubaDub
car wash in Portland, Maine,
has been caught thanks to
the public. According to WJBQ
news, a driver crashed into a gas
pump, Saturday September 19th,
setting it on fire.
The car wash posted footage of the
driver on its Facebook page, people
were able to identify the culprit.
One funny person wrote on the car
wash’s Facebook pages, ‘Looks like he
stole that Ford from Jurassic Park after
they shut it down.’
had a hard time trying to balance the four cases
of beer.
The same man then apparently appeared a week
later at the same business where he stole a vehicle
when the car’s owner left the pump running and
had gone inside.
Police said he later crashed that car in nearby
Henrico, Virginia. Police were able to eventually
apprehend the suspect.
Detectives were able to track down Smith at his
residence where they also found the red pants.
This isn’t the first time Classic Car Wash surveillance
footage has helped police. The owner was
also able to catch suspects in 2016 who trashed his
business, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
As for the red pants, I took the liberty of doing
a Google search of what they might have looked
like. Here are some of my findings:
64 • FALL 2020

2020_TowelCatalog.indd 1
8/12/2020 3:21:09 PM
FORGET
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BODY DRYING TOWEL
ULTRA-85 MICROFIBER TOWEL
• Sold 12 per case
• Each towel measures 16” x 27”
• Heavyweight and plush, bleach-resistant
• Attractive red stitched edge
$23.75
DJMF8500-BK
DJMF8500-CHAR
Black
Charcoal
BODY DRYING TOWEL
$26.75
AMBASSADOR HAND TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case - weighs 4 lb/dozen
• Each towel measures 16” x 28”
• 100% cotton - heavy-weight and absorbent
• Do not use with bleach
DJT1610-BK Black DJT1610-BUR
Burgundy
DJT1610-DG Green DJT1610-BRN Brown
$23.75
Club
BODY DRYING TOWEL
ULTRA-80 HEAVY WEIGHT
BODY DRYING
MICROFIBER TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case
• Each towel measures 16" x 27""
• Has the soft feel of cotton
DJMF8000-R
DJMF8000-BK
DJMF8000-BL
Red
Black
Blue
BODY DRYING TOWEL
ULTRA-61 TERRY
MICROFIBER TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case - 270 GSM
• Each towel measures 16" x 24"
• Perfect for color coding
$14.70
GLASS TOWELS
DJMF6100-BL
DJMF6100-G
DJMF6100-R
Blue
Green
Pink
ULTRA-32 WAFFLE WEAVE
MICROFIBER TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case
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$14.70
DJMF3200-R
DJMF3200-DG
DJMF3200-BL
GLASS TOWELS
DJMF5100-BL
DJMF5100-R
Blue
Red
Red
Green
Blue
ULTRA-86 MICROFIBER TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case
• Each towel measures 16" x 16"
• Approximately 65 gram weight per towel
• Versatile cleaning, polishing and drying
DJMF8600-CHAR
DJMF8600-BK
DJMF8000-DG
DJMF8000-Y
DJMF5100-G
DJMF5100-Y
Charcoal
Jet Black
Green
Yellow
ULTRA-51 MICROFIBER TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case - 270 GSM
• Each towel measures 16" x 16"
• Fine fiber construction with stitched edge
• Great for lint-free cleaning of glass
$14.70
DETAIL TOWELS
$14.50
Green
Yellow
$42.50
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BODY DRYING TOWEL
ULTRA-70 THICK TERRY
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• Sold 10 per case
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DJMF7000-BL
DJMF7000-DG
DJMF7000-W
Blue
Dark Green
White
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ULTRA-55 & ULTRA 56 DIAMOND
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• Sold 12 per case
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$23.40 DJMF5600-BK Blue 16” X 16”
$35.40 DJMF5500-BK Black 16” X 24”
$35.40 DJMF5500-BL Blue 16” X 24”
PRE-WASHED SURGICAL TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case
• Each towel measures 16" x 24"
• 1.6 lb
• Autoclavable cotton material
$10.05
GLASS TOWELS
BLUE FOLDED
SURGICAL TOWEL
• Sold 100 per carton - 50 pieces per poly bag
• Each towel measures 16" x 24"
• 1.7 lb/dozen
$50.00
GLASS TOWELS
DJS1600-BL
DJS1600-LG
DJS1600-O
DJS1700-BL
SPECTRUM HAND TOWELS
• Sold 12 per case
• Each towel measures 16" x 27"
• Approximately 3 lb. weight per dozen
• Fast-drying - great for detailing, salons and spas
DJT1650-DG
DJT1650-BK
DJT1650-ECRU
Blue
Light Green
Orange
Dark Green
Black
Ecru/Light Tan
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Pink
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FALL 2020 • 65

This Ben Affleck wannabe was
caught thanks to good ol DNA,
in Barry, Illinois.
Back on October 16, 2019, at 1:54 a.m., security
footage captured a masked gunman walking into the
Jiffi Stop convenience store and taking off with money,
cigarettes and lottery tickets, according to The Telegraph.
According to the story, a year later, the suspect
was caught a few states over in Colorado after a chance
DNA scan put law enforcement authorities on an 800-
mile path of the man they believe was responsible for
the 2019 armed robbery.
KHQA reported that the Pike County Sheriff’s Department
received notification this past October from
the Illinois State Police Division of Forensic Science,
which identified the suspect as Stephen Edward Mullins
due to a DNA hit.
Law enforcement was able to track Mullins to the
Elbert County Jail in Colorado.
In a news release, Sheriff Greenwood stated that
during an investigation, Sergeant Frazier located a very
small item that contained the suspect’s DNA, which
ultimately was used to identify the suspect. “Sheriff
Greenwood said his department was able to track
Mullins throughout the State of Illinois as he attempted
to scan stolen lottery tickets,” according to the story.
From Facebook:
Update: Sometimes, it takes a while
to catch the bad guy and, in this
case, it took a year, but now a 35-year-old car
wash criminal is behind bars. Last year, John Edward
Dyson Jr. was arrested in January 2019 after a theft
was reported at the Super Wash in Ocala, Florida.
According to a Village-News report, he had recently
been released from the Marion County Jail after
serving time following a string of similar thefts. His
criminal resume included the theft of $500 in quarters
from Quality Car Wash in Summerfield, Florida,
$3,000 in damages at the Splash and Dash car
wash in Ocala and inflicting damage to equipment at
Baseline Car Wash in Ocala. He was caught on video
surveillance in each of the incidents.
This past September, a sheriff’s deputy spotted
Dyson at a Circle K minimart and arrested him on
five outstanding warrants.
He has been charged with violating his probation
on previous charges of burglary of a structure,
possession of burglary tools and three counts of
breaking into coin-operated vending machines, according
to the report.
Carlos Jones of Memphis man has
pled guilty to an armed carjacking
that took place in July 2018 at a car wash, according
to WMC5 news.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District
of Tennessee, said the victim was washing his
car around 9 p.m. when two armed suspects approached
him and demanded he move away from
the car and leave.
Surveillance video showed the suspects entering
the car wash in a white vehicle and leaving the
scene with the victim’s vehicle, the story stated.
Investigators tracked down the victim’s vehicle
using GPS. Fingerprints found on the vehicle were
connected to the second suspect, 22-year-old Angelo
Bunting. The victim was also able to identify both
men. Jones recently pled guilty to the charges of carjacking
and brandishing a firearm during a crime of
violence. Jones will be sentenced on January 7, 2021,
and faces up to 15 years for the carjacking and a minimum
of seven years for the weapons charge.
66 • FALL 2020
And, finally, sometimes a little
jab and guilt trip doesn’t hurt.
A car wash in Randolph, Vermont, is closed until
further notice after a criminal stole quarters from
one of its change machines back in October. The
South End Auto car wash decided to use honesty as
its best policy with some poignant signage:

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FALL 2020 • 67

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68 • FALL 2020