We have all seen the mobile washing units cruising our city, usually they are trucks, vans or trailer set ups with a water tank and a pressure washer unit aboard. They market their services with flyers and business cards, however most of their business comes from weekly repeats and referrals. Some cities have hundreds of these units going around the city cleaning stuff. You may think what a great business, but like in any business there is a competitive component to the industry, which is not so obvious on first observation.
A typical car wash competitor is a one man operation with no room in their truck, van or trailer for a hot water pressure washer; steam/cleaner pressure washer. Many of the smaller outfits have simply put a Home Depot Pressure washer on their truck or trailer and hooked up a plastic water tank to it. Chances are they may not even what to do with hot water pressure washer unit even if they had one. The fact of the matter is, that if the detailer had a steam/cleaner pressure washer, they wouldn’t go out of business every year when it rains. In many parts of the US and even the world the mobile car washer has to deal with inclement weather which prohibits work low temperatures when water turns to ice and it is hard to sell a car wash when it is raining outside. Since washing cars can be a seasonal business many mobile car washers turn to cleaning other things with their units when it rains.
These mobile car washes will diversify efforts towards washing things like: Concrete, Heavy Equipment, Interior Of Cars, Truck Fleets, Signs, Holiday Window Paint Removal, Graffiti and/or Paint Prepping. This is when those with hot water pressure washers have an advantage and are able to use this to remain strong even in wintertime. It is also one reason there are so many small auto detailing and mobile car wash businesses, which do not stay in business that long. If you are considering a business of this nature you should be thinking about seasonality and develop a good strategy. Think about it.
