Hello fellas, Im new to this site.Its a great site with alot of great information .I am interested in getting into the fleet washing business I have no experience but I am trying to learn from you guys. I have a couple of question, see if any of you guys can help me out. 1)What equipment would I need. 2) What type of vehicle is best, trailer,truck,van.How does water reclamation work, where and how do you dispense of the water.3) What would be the proper method of cleaning a truck. I know I have alot of questions but I want to know everything before I start, don't worry there will be more where these came from, LOL. Hope someone can help. Thanks.
truck washing
- Thread starter boomer
- Start date
Thad
WCR Sales & Founder PWRA
Don't take this wrong but you're starting from a "I would like to be a surgeon, which end of the scalpel do I cut with and then what do I do next?" scenario.
At least try to get some labor for learning from someone out of your market. It would be better to work for a company that does it right and learn the whole process.
At least try to get some labor for learning from someone out of your market. It would be better to work for a company that does it right and learn the whole process.
Scott Stone
New member
You might want to sit down and think this one out. What do you think that you should do to get started?
1. Have you ever washed a car before? Think of a truck as a big car.
2. Who is your competition? What system do they use? Trust me, in the LA area, I know of about 10 competitors that are all big enough to crush you, and a bunch of others that are good guys, but are not terribly fond of losing accounts. What are you going to do to differentiate yourself from them?
3. How much do you want to spend to get started? If you are talking full wash and recovery operations, it could be $40k down to $15k and that is just to start. I have a trailer that I have about $50k worth of equipment on to wash trucks and other things.
4. What are your local regulations? You are in LA, you do have regulations.
5. What are you going to do for insurance. The big companies will not even consider you without million dollar liability. We had a company in Phoenix that learned the lesson the hard way. He was washing what used to be a good sized fleet of trucks and his machine ran out of fuel. Using his trusty dusty plastic gas can, he was refilling his machine, when EVERYTHING blew up and caught fire. It scared him so bad, he threw the gas can...right on a brand new KW. The truck caught fire, as well as 5 trucks in either direction. Total loss, $1.5 million dollars. Put the pressure washer out of business, put the trucking company that was on the edge of struggling under, and was generally a mess.
For what it is worth, it was not me. I got the job of trying to clean up the mess and preparing trucks for auction.
So research those things and let me know what you are thinking. I have some more things that you need to find out for yourself, if you really want to be as good as you can be.
1. Have you ever washed a car before? Think of a truck as a big car.
2. Who is your competition? What system do they use? Trust me, in the LA area, I know of about 10 competitors that are all big enough to crush you, and a bunch of others that are good guys, but are not terribly fond of losing accounts. What are you going to do to differentiate yourself from them?
3. How much do you want to spend to get started? If you are talking full wash and recovery operations, it could be $40k down to $15k and that is just to start. I have a trailer that I have about $50k worth of equipment on to wash trucks and other things.
4. What are your local regulations? You are in LA, you do have regulations.
5. What are you going to do for insurance. The big companies will not even consider you without million dollar liability. We had a company in Phoenix that learned the lesson the hard way. He was washing what used to be a good sized fleet of trucks and his machine ran out of fuel. Using his trusty dusty plastic gas can, he was refilling his machine, when EVERYTHING blew up and caught fire. It scared him so bad, he threw the gas can...right on a brand new KW. The truck caught fire, as well as 5 trucks in either direction. Total loss, $1.5 million dollars. Put the pressure washer out of business, put the trucking company that was on the edge of struggling under, and was generally a mess.
For what it is worth, it was not me. I got the job of trying to clean up the mess and preparing trucks for auction.
So research those things and let me know what you are thinking. I have some more things that you need to find out for yourself, if you really want to be as good as you can be.
Looking Good
New member
Most regs are EPA -- FEDERAL --- so moving does not solve it all. Of course some areas go beyond EPA so they can be even tougher.
BMC PRESSURE WASHING
New member
Look Here's The Easy Way To Search For A Company. Try To Find One On A Gravel Lot , This Will Allow You So Many 1000's Of Gallons Of Run Off A Month. Gravel Lots In Tn Are Common Because Most Of Your Smaller Trucking Comp. Will Not Spend The Money To Pave Them.i Have Done Fed Ex And They Are On Asphalt And Req. Picking The Water Up But I Found For The Money Diff. It Is Not Worth It.stick With Smaller Comp. Even If You Have To Drive A Little Because Epa Targets Larger Ones. One Company With 30 Trucks And That Same Company Will Have 100 Trailers Should Make You About 36 Big Ones A Year Wich 40% Will Be All Your's With Not Much Work Involved.that Company Will Save $ And You'll Make $.see How Close Liberty Trucking Comp. Is To You These Are Really Nice Trucks And Would Be A Nice Acct.i Think There In La Also Phase 2 And Knight Trucking They All Roll Thru Tn And Carry Loads For Friends Of Mind But I Would Recomend Gettin Some On Hand Skills First