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New to Car Washing
Starting in the car wash business can be overwhelming. Your initial considerations must include location, land acquisition, type of wash, capital investment, financing sources, equipment selection, design, and construction.
Rider helps customers through the entire process - from beginning to opening your new wash - and beyond.
We know the business. We can help you understand what to expect at each decision point, and, based on your specific needs and desires, we can tailor the process to fit your style.
Rider analyzes locations by developing demographics, site plans, and proformas to help in making decisions about location selection. Our extensive knowledge of the business, the customers, the competition and employees we can help you be successful.
Rider has installed many types of washes over the last 20 years. Based on your desired level of involvement in management, total financial investment, and desired location, we can help you get into the right wash for you.
Self-serve car washes are typically lower investment, require less land and are easier to maintain than other washes. The equipment we supply for self-serve washes is manufactured by Coleman-Hanna in Houston, Texas.
In south Texas we have seen a resurgence in this type of wash for the person that still wants to wash their car by hand. Features such as new wax products, better vacuums and carpet treatment options and credit card acceptance have made this type of wash very attractive to new investors.
In-Bay automatic car washes can be stand-alone or included with self serve wash bays. The level of investment in an in-bay is typically higher than self-serve but the return is also greater. We supply and service in-bay automatics from both Belanger, Inc. and from Coleman-Hanna depending on the location and your specific desires/needs.
An exterior express car wash uses a conveyor system to pull the car through a tunnel full of equipment that washes, waxes and dries each car. Customers ride through the tunnel in their cars delivering a clean dry shiny car in as little as 3 minutes. They can be run with just a couple of employees on-site.
A typical exterior express will feature free vacuums for the customer to self-vacuum after the wash. The level of investment is higher than self-serve and in-bay, but again, the return is greater. We represent Belanger and Coleman Hanna for wash equipment systems, Vacutech, LLC for vacuum systems and DRB/Unitec for POS systems.
Flex serve is an exterior express model with detailing option added. The customer can pay for the wash and extra services up front, ride through the tunnel in their car and then wait in an air conditioned waiting room while the detailer cleans the interior, vacuums, waxes the car and cleans windows or anything else that is offered in the flex package.
We represent the same manufacturers in this a model as we do for Exterior Express and, in addition provide all of the detail supplies and products from C.A.R Detail products.
Full service car washes have become less popular because of their high employment level. You can expect to have 15-20 employees on the property at all times. In this model the customer leaves the car to an attendant when they pay, and waits in a waiting room for 30-45 minutes. The waiting room usually has gifts, cards, and other merchandise for sale.
This is the highest investment level for car washing. The average sale per car is also usually the highest of all types of washes though the volume of cars per day tends to be less than exterior express.
