So Larry, you're telling Scott and myself that you would READILY pay $35 each to wash a fleet of buses if you owned them? Do you also get upset when your not allowed to pay full retail price for things? I also would expect you to never shop around for the best price, never to browse E Bay, and never turn in rebates on items bought at Home Depot. Somehow I don't think any of that is true. If we weren't price conscious China and every other third world country wouldn't be producing the quantity of goods to import to us that they do. The fact of the matter is that you know you wouldn't pay that. You'd go and buy a pressure washer, some cheap soap and a brush, and either do it yourself or hire some kid for $10/hour to wash your buses rather than paying $35 to "Mr. truck wash business" to wash each bus. Heck, that's probably why you got started in the pressure washing industry anyway. The "trick" is to convince the customer that you can offer something to them that in the end would be cheaper and/or less cost than if they were to do it themselves.
As far as drive-thru's go, they only guys that go through drive thru truck washes are privateers. As far as fleets go, they only fleet trucks that go though them are the ones where the trucks are going round the clock and have no real home base: the JB Hunts, the Schneiders, Covenants, Cedar Rapids, etc....Fleets that have a home base do not go to them. So they either a) have a mobile service wash them if it's cost effective, or b) build a wash bay and wash them themselves. Drive Thrus are dependant on finicky drivers setting the washing schedule of each individual truck and home-based fleets are dependant on you, the mobile washer, setting the washing schedule for the whole fleet of trucks.
Obviously the price will vary depending on the variables, so if something is extra dirty, I have to spend more time on it, I have more drive time to get there, etc., they price goes up. However, I can't imagine a scenario where I feel justified charging $35 a bus. Since it takes about 5 minutes to wash a bus, I would have to charge $50-$75 for a tractor, same for a trailer, and on-and-on to keep up with my $420/hour service rate. We have a rule: We can't stop our truck for less than $100. This immediately rules out the single units and motorhomes. We don't want to do that work anyway. We are in the fleet business and that's what we're set up to do. As much as we'd like to charge more, we, unlike Larry, have competition and need to keep our prices competitive with the local market.
,almost made me p thought my draws funny.