Well, you might have seen some successful Car Wash Businesses and then some which are not to so successful. Though there are a lot of factors which account for Success of Car Wash Business in South Africa, but the layout of your business plays a vital part in increasing the productivity and efficiency, which indirectly affects the bottom line of your Car Wash Business.

There is this challenge always that location which has high traffic does not have the enough space availability and you can easily get enough area when you are in a not so busy location.

Layout Configurations based on Internal Traffic Movement

Based on which option to go ahead, your Automatic Car Wash Business shall be primarily be of two types as show below :

1. Drive In and Drive Out - Configuration

This is one of the best configurations possible for an Automatic Car Wash Business. You have enough space for the customers to lineup. Every business has busy and lean times. If you expect about 12 - 13 cars in your peak time, you should have space for atleast 1 - 2 cars waiting to be washed.

This is the only option if you are using Payment Terminal at the Car Wash Bay Entrance. As also, this is the only option for you if you are planning for a Tunnel car Wash Equipment.

2. Drive-In and Back-Off Configuration

For locations where you do not have enough space for a car to turn around after the car wash, it is worthwhile pushing the car wash bay up to the end and having a person guide the incoming cars. For such configurations, an operator or a person is a must to guide the customers in and out. Preferably, you should have your own drivers which can drive and back off quickly without wasting time.

Layout Configuration Based on Type of Services Offered

The layouts change based on the type and number of services you provide.

1. Full-Service Wash

Full-Service Wash type Car Wash Business typically has a Tunnel / Inbay Car Wash equipment and an area to have the Cars towel-dried and vacuumed from Inside. Since this is done by the car wash employees, the equipment required is high-power centralised systems to get the job done faster.

2. Exterior Only + Self Vacuum

In addition to the Automatic Car Wash Equipment which does the exterior cleaning, if you offer self-vacuuming, either free or paid, you would fall under this category. In such a configuration the Vacuuming is done by the customer herself/himself, hence you can have the vacuum is drive through islands or drive and backoff bays which may or may not be covered. Since centralised systems are not used, the bays can be a little distant from each other.

3. Self Service

If you are planning to have self-service bays, it follows a totally different approach. Each bay needs to be accessible along with the equipment room being somewhere very close to all the bays. Many car washes, keep the equipment room in the centre to reduce plumbing and electrification costs. Systems like coin suction systems work much better if the distance of teh coin box is less.

Layout Configuration Based on Temperature

1. Tropical Climate

If you are lucky to be in a location in which sunny weather and the temperatures do not go sub-zero, congratulations, things are much simpler for you. You do not need to worry about many things otherwise you would have to. Your bays can be open only with sun shade to allow your car wash customers to easily wash or vacuum on a sunny weekend.

2. Sub Zero Temperatures

When you operate a Car Wash Business in Sub Zero Temperatures, you need to take care of a lot of things, the most important is the temperature obviously. You need to have a  heating system in the wash bay area to prevent the hoses and pipes of the Automatic Cra Wash Equipment and the other car wash equipment like pumps, tanks etc from freezing. Once you have a heating system, you need to have a system to hold the heat, which means that all the wash bays you were planning to be open, now perforce have to have a door system which will only open when a car comes in or exits.

Layout Configuration for Waiting Queue of Car Line Up

You might have the best equipment in the world, but when you have that kind of equipment, what you would get eventually is high traffic. Even though you planned in a way that your customers would not have to wait, but now the fact of teh matter is that the lineup is even longer and almost reaches the street. This is something which happens quite often. If that happens, you should really pat your back!

To get an idea about the number of cars for which you should plan space in the approach, you can use the Queuing theory which assumes 50% probability that the number of customers anticipated come to teh car wash at the same time. This is a statistical method of calculation and has its own limitations, but surely gives you some idea.

Type of Car Wash Layouts based on Physical Placement