Things I've Learned About Production and Processes in Cleaning Fleets of Vehicles

Prior to retirement, I ran a mobile truck washing franchising company, and about a dozen years ago, I went in with 4 of our franchisees in the greater Phoenix AZ area to secure an account with the big water and power company there to negotiate a contract to clean all of their vehicles. It turns out the utility company already had a nationwide fleet washing company cleaning their vehicles. In fact they were doing the vehicles for only $2.80 each. You might think that price is far too low, and so did we at the time, at least my franchisees did, but I was more than happy to undercut my competitor.

One thing you need to understand when cleaning fleets of vehicles is the money is in the time, not the job. And when you have 100 work vans, "all the row" and all the same size, it's really easy to clean 60 to 100 vehicles in an hour with a small crew. We should've taken that account, but we didn't. Later we ended up with a cable company with about half as many vehicles and our crews bid only three dollars per vehicle and made a lot of money because they had the production process, and system down to a science, similar to an assembly-line.

Later, they went back to bid on the contract for the utility company, but by then the utility company had signed a three-year agreement, renewing the old agreement with a competing company. A lesson learned I suppose.

Another thing I have learned about cleaning fleets of vehicles is to always have long hose reels for both the fill up tank, a 300-400 feet long 1-inch industrial hose, and 250 to 350 feet or more of high pressure hose with quick disconnects every 50 to 75 feet. This will allow you to fill up with water while your washing is under full production. If you keep the team moving while you are cleaning, it is amazing how many vehicles you can do per hour.

Indeed, you must think about fleet vehicle washing in terms of production, assembly lines, and systems, and not look at each vehicle as a separate entity to be cleaned. Further you should care more about the time you spend on the job to adequately do quality work, than the price per vehicle that you will be billing. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and learn some of the lessons that our company learned the hard way. If you do this, I believe in the end you will make more money.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.truckwashguy.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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Things You Need To Know About Trucks

If you are an experienced transport specialist with years of experience behind you, you are already aware about the different types of trucks available. However, you might find this article useful, as there are always new models appearing. Let's have a look at some of the most popular types of trucks that could also be useful for your business.

The Low Trailer.
The low trailer is a special type of truck that is designed for goods transportation. The trailer of this truck is known as "the swan neck trailer." Its advantage is the increased volume of 95 cube meters, and the lowered floor that will allow you to carry heavier items, especially the ones on pallets.

The floor also has the so-called "scene" with a length of 4 meters. You can also load the goods on the sideways. The maximum height of this model is 3 meters, but it will be lowered as it gets closer to the hood. It can also carry 3 tons of goods, but it is recommended not to load it at its maximum capacity. You can use it especially for small packages, as if you have heavier goods, it is recommended to find a larger truck.

The 7 Toner.
This truck can carry 7 tons of goods, as its name says. You can load it from the sideways too, and it can also carry goods that are more than 6 meters long. It is one of the best trucks to carry steel and hard goods, but also items with a high volume.

The Megatrucks.
Well, you won't have any trouble in carrying anything with this one by your side. The coating could be easily closed for volumetric loadings. You can load it from the behind of the truck, from sideways or even from the upside.

As for the numbers, you will be amazed: 21 tons and dimensions of 14x2.5x3 meters! You will even have a small bed in the cabin, so you could easily move in it.

It is important to know how to choose your truck. A smaller model might consume less, but you will not be able to pick up important volumetric loads. On the other hand, a big truck might be costly for nothing: just think about the gas consumed for carrying a small fridge for 1000 kilometers with a megatruck, and you will understand this aspect. Try to find a compromise between volume and gas consumption and you will make a great choice.

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Things To Do Before Hiring An Enclosed Transport Service

There are certain things that one needs to take care of before he can do them or get them done, in the same way when one is hiring an enclosed transport service one should need to check up on some of the basic stuff before finalizing the deal with the company. This article mentions some of the tips or things that the person need to take care of before hiring a company however, before that let's take a look at, that what is an enclosed transport service.

An enclosed transport service is a service that is used by a person when a person is reallocating from one place to another and he doesn't want to drive the car himself to the destination but wants it to be delivered to the destination. Transportation in this enclosed service takes place in containers, unlike the other auto transports in which the car or the vehicle is transported in open. Moving on to some of the things that the person needs to do before hiring company are mentioned below.

The first thing to be done is to ensure that you have found a good enough company that can be trusted and which is popular in the society as choosing a company that is not up to the mark and which can be trusted will be the biggest mistake that you can make. Once the company have been found then the next thing is to talk to the official person in the company and get to know the charges and the rates of the company for which they will be offering their services to deliver the vehicle to your desired destination, take extreme care to be accurate in describing your car and describing them the services you want from the company, so that the company official can give you an accurate estimate to the cost of delivering the vehicle, remember the official depends upon the information given to them by you, if you will not give exact definition then you won't be able to get an exact estimation for the delivery of the vehicle.

The next thing to do is to look up and ask different questions to ensure that there are no hidden prices left, which may cause problems in the ends, like some company only take the amount of the money needed to hire the truck however, the cost of the fuel depends upon the user, so one should ask such questions to know the policy of the company.
The fourth step to do is ask the company that what would be their mode of action if any damage comes to the vehicle during its transportation and if the answer to this question agrees with you then you can take up the company otherwise you can leave it.

The fifth thing to do is to look up any package that the company is offering as it so happen that sometimes if you take up a package deal then you might end up saving a certain amount of money, which is a good thing for you.

These are some of the tips that one should follow before choosing an appropriate enclosed transport service.

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