Your input would be so much help
 

:D Hi everyone and anyone who is reading this. I am starting a mobile truck washing business. I am not hassling you with sales at all I promise. I am a young entrepreneur, taking a self employment class to write an acceptable business plan for myself as well as the bank of course :) anyway your information is in hope of generating some reference for my assumptions as well as maybe some marketing ideas. So here is a brief overview of my plan. My company will be called Rigz Mobile Power Wash. We will be offering cleaning of exterior as well as cleaning, shampooing and detailing of interior of semi-trucks. Our focus will be making this as convenient as possible, traveling with our equipment to the trucks location and even offering key pick up and drop off when access to the interior is required to fulfill your request. This way you never have to be there. You can even request and complete your transaction on line or by telephone. You will never be bothered by your dirty truck again :D sounds good hey. Most of my ideas come from my dad who is an owner operator himself. Obviously my plans are much more complex but as far as you are concerned are these features important to you? How often do you wash your truck? How much do you pay? Are you satisfied with your service, what improvements would be interesting to you? I am a 22 year old girl, myself and my husband plan to wash the trucks our self at first with one mobile set-up and have plans for expansion. We have a 1 year old who might have to tag along sometimes if he is sleeping in the truck or whatever, would that bother you? When my web site is up and running (probably not for a while, busy, busy) and when business starts up doing a few trucks starting in January full time starting in March I will post that here. Thank you so much for any support I would love to hear answers to any of my questions as well as any information and criticism would be so much appreciated. Thank you Thank you
Sincerely
Christine and Sean

Rigz ... just want to wish you good luck.

I know there's money to be made, but have you checked with the TS's to see if they will even let you bring your equipment onto their property? ...... or where will you be setting it up at? - I know you said it would be mobil .... well, where would be a good place to wash these trucks.

hummm ... as for letting your 1yr old sleep in the truck. Were you asking about sleeping in the tractor??? Or did you mean Your truck ?? ... VERY doubtful that will ever happen. The tractor is Our apartment ... how could you know for sure there wasn't something harmful laying within hands reach of your child. That you didn't want them to put in their mouth or harm themselves. Why would you want to take a chance of putting your child in 'harms way' .... and I'm sure your a loving mother - am I too am. But sorry, but there's no way I could permit a child to sleep in my tractor while someone else was cleaning it ....

Clearly you have thought of many ways to make money, which is a Good Thing !! ........... but again .... it's doubtful anyone is going to hand over the keys to their tractor to be taken somewhere to have the interior cleaned. .... naaaaa .... I don't believe I'll be handing over the keys to just anyone to clean it ..... that's an expensive piece of equipment, filled with all kinds of expensive equipment ... to just let someone pull off with it to clean it. ...................... Saying all that :roll: .... I think you have good ideas .... but do alot of research before putting out the money on a business of this kind. .............

Sorry to be unclear. Of course I would never bring him in a tractor! We will have our own GMC with an attached trailer he would be in my truck :) my teacher pointed out some may think that was un professional I didn't think that mattered so much I know my step dad isn't so suit and tie kinda guy and I doubt any others would care if I didn't show up in suit and tie. Also to add to the permission to clean where the truck is already parked there is a business here where I live in this mobile operation already I simply plan to improve the running of it and compete with my own version. They have been using property such as Kleysen's parking lot where the truck is stationed. I would not plan to drive your truck I would only need the key to access the interior which would be on contract but I guess another question is do you have a separate key for the ignition to ease the trust of a strainer in your truck. I like your pointing out its your apartment, I would not mind someone having access to my apartment to clean carpets but if they had a key to drive it away I don't think I would be so trusting. Thanks for your reply. Keepin me thinkin of how people perceive my ideas.

Not to try to rain on your parade but I want you to consider the following.

In many, if not all states, leaving a child to sleep or stay in a vehicle without the parent in immediate attention (in the vehicle or out of the vehilce but right next to it such as during fueling) can be considered child neglect/abuse/endagerment which could bring about a lot of legal hassles and possibly having your child removed from your custody for even a short period of time.

I am not saying that you are a bad parent or anything. Just pointing out how family services and the law looks upon such things.

Beyond that I would like to offer a suggestion to help you grow your business.

Contact trucking companies with terminals in your area. Many companies will farm out truck cleaning and/or detailing of trucks after drivers vacate them. The last company I worked for did this at many terminals at one level or another.

To expand on the above, some companies may even want to have their trucks washed on a regular basis. Whatever is in the yard, you hit it with the water, soap, et al.

It would likely be cheaper than the brick & mortar truck washes and if a company is already paying for the B&M washes, your company could be a cost cutting move. Although, they may be getting a bulk discount already. But that's for you to work out.

Thanks for pointing that out I had no idea and will remember that next time I get gas. Myself and husband and probably a helper will be there during cleaning so my job would be the interior and that would be done when the finished the exterior so then when I was busy they would tend to him. I sure hope that no one has been separated from their child just for filling there car with clear view of the child. Especially after seeing some of the neglect from child services on kids they knew were in trouble in the news recently. Also I am sure the laws are similar but I am in Canada. I want to eventually do contracts but right now we will focus on the owner operators we can handle about 5 -7 trucks per day and still provide quality service and would plan to expand in about a year or 2. We just hope to gain some regulars and a few stop over customers to start us off. That's why I need the personal feedback from drivers so that I can do things the way they would want it.

Might want to check a couple things first...
 

I went to truck driving school with a woman who had just given up on the truck washing business. She had a successful business doing exaclty what you said you want to do, mobile truck washing and detailing. The problem was that the government shut her down. Seems that the DEQ and EPA told her that if she's gonna wash trucks, she had to have a permanent drainage system in place to catch the water runoff. I guess that the government considers soap a bad thing for the environment, not to mention everything else that washes off a truck! So, just some food for thought. I know you said you're in Canada, so hopefully you can get around that little hurdle. Good luck to you, if you can pull it off you should be in for some good profits.

West_Coaster

I think a mobil truck wash is a good idea- I don't know if you'll make money though. There are many mobile truck washes out there, but I don't know of any that cater to otr truckers/owner-ops.

Many companies use mobile services rather than having a truck was on the property. It sounds to me, though, like you are focusing on the traveling truckers. You will be mobile vs. the Blue Beacon or 5-Star truck wash. You come to us rather than us going to you.

I think you'll need to see what truck stops are in your area. You may find that they won't allow you onto the property or that they will expect you to pay them for letting you use their property. You'll also have to figure out if you'll have the trucker pull forward or what. The guy next to the truck you're washing may not appreciate getting soap all over HIS rig that he just polished.

You may be able to develop a partnership of sorts with a local repair/service shop to use their lot. Or truck dealerships. I know a guy doing mobile laser alignment- he contracts mainly with regional companies but he does do o/o driving through, too. He uses the Freighliner shop- he has a good relationship with them and they do not charge him.

You will need to become a good salesperson and go to trucking companies. You will need to be BETTER than any competition you have- they don't call it the streaking beacon for nothing. And you may find that having your child with you is a problem... but better to beg forgiveness than ask permission. If your child is in a car seat in your vehicle when you are washing trucks, they may never even know about it (talking companies). I don't think truckers at the truck stop will care.

We hear truck cleaning ladies all the time at truck stops. Sometimes they can come on the lot but usually they are on the cb selling their services and say we have to drive to where they are parked. You have some research to do, girl.

Check with local repair shops, local companies, local dealerships, even local Wal-Marts to see if they will consider letting you use their paved lots. Make sure they are truck-friendly. No use using a lot we can't get in and out of easily. If you have a reputation for doing a good job at a good price, you will get customers. But that's not the same thing as being profitable.

BOL.