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 (Note: Some posts feature minor edits for readability.) Time is money and not for family or the ladies ... I have seen other people struggle with this issue across the industry and I may or may not have this problem, but deep down inside I think [my employee] is giving time away to friends, family, hot girls, etc. and getting reimbursed for it on my dime... I have told my clean up guy if he is caught he will be fired on the spot if I catch him giving time away on the meters. I currently have Dixmor LED7s. How could you prevent this if he has his own remote for washing down bays. I know I could install toggle switches on the pumpstand, but I like it on the remote because it times out at 4 minutes even if he forgets to turn off the toggle switches and the pump cooks itself overnight (I have had this happen at a different location). Any suggestions? - TDLCONCEPTSLLC I took the remote away from my clean up guy for that very reason, I thought that he was giving away time. He has marked tokens that he uses to clean up the bays that give him enough time per token to clean up the bay. We count the tokens every time we pull coins, 3 times a week. If there are a large number of clean up tokens in the coin vault he’s going to have to explain why and we check the video. He knows that we watch the video. - RANDY If you have good reason to suspect a thief is working for you, do what you have to to catch him and fire him. If he’s a thief, he’s a thief and will figure out how to steal. You can track the cycles of the manual washdown so if you think he’s using more time than he should to clean bays, you have more evidence. You could install a washdown key switch on the bay doors. If I were wanting to watch for someone giving away time, I’d wire the key switch through a relay to also turn on a light in the ER for a camera to pick up, that way you wouldn’t need to watch video of him all day, just the time when the light is on. - MEP001 42 • SPRING 2021 The LED7 has a reading in the inventory labeled “Manual” that is the total number of times the washdown has been used since reset. I would think it should only be used a couple of times a day per bay, at most. - DAN KAMSICKAS You might employ the help of a ‘secret shopper’ and if he takes the bait he’s caught. In my experience, once you suspect, it’s been happening awhile and the relationship is nearing the end. - WAXMAN Whatever happens, if he is caught file a police report and see if he can be arrested. Most police have a dollar amount to hit before it becomes a felony. If so, tell them you suspect he has been doing it for years. - MAC Trust your instincts ... the folks here provide ‘golden nuggets’ that come from years of experience. - ECKERT16 I have Cryptopay and give my attendants wash down cards. Then you can see all the usage online. I know you don’t have that installed, but it’s another incentive to do so if you ever considered it. I also have coinless and some attendants use that instead. Also trackable and you just add $ to their account as needed. - SLASH007 Don’t cry when the tap runs dry [The city shut off our water] and no, not because of nonpayment. They cleverly chose to do this at 4 a.m. and said it could be 4 to 8 hours. Should this ever happen to you there are two things you should do. If you do nothing you could create a maintenance nightmare. First turn off the water to everything beforehand. When they turn it back on, DO NOT just open the valve. Usually when they do this they are working on the main water line for your business. When that happens they usually get a lot of sand in the line. So when the water is ready keep the main valve off and hope you have another line before that. Turn that one on for 15 to 20 minutes to flush the line, then open the main. - MAC Mac, great information. The first thing we do is turn off all the power to the equipment. We turn off the water at the backflow. When they turn the water back we flush from the backflow, leaving the discharge from the backflow closed. - RANDY The best is when the city DOESN’T tell you they are working on the main and all that %!#$ comes through. - DIA- MONDWASH We have frequent main breaks during the winter...Our crews never turn off the water flow. Normally the pipes twist but are still in-tack, but spraying water like you’ve never seen once they’ve dug down to the break. The crew then draws straws to see who gets to get in the hole to fix the leak. The youngest guy always draws the shortest straw! Hmmmm! They get in the hole and put a SS clam shell looking clamp on the pipe and tighten a row of bolts on the clamp with a cordless impact. Once tight, it seals tight and fixes the leak.... A few years back, we had a main break within 20’ of the wash. I was told not to worry and that I wouldn’t have to shut down. I stuck around to watch how they pulled it off. Pretty slick way of fixing a break. This was probably an 8” main. No dirt, no sand, no discoloration of the water because the pipe is always under pressure during the fix - 2BIZ
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