On Demand Car Wash

 The success of Uber and Lyft not only highlights the potential of privately held venture backed digital technology companies, but also the on demand economy. While postmates, grub hub and other related on demand services emerging and finding a decent market for themselves the market for on demand housekeeping, auto detailing and elder care have been areas that might have received attention yet failed to really develop into anything substantive. In the house keeping world you have Two Maid and a Mop which is an on demand maid service that allows the customer to sign up for a regular interval to have their house work and cleaning performed by two maids that are paid for performance. This company Two Maids and A Mop has done a little franchising and does seem to be growing. In Tallahassee FL we do have a franchise that does seem to be getting some business although not being affiliated with that organization I am not sure what the numbers look like. The elder care market is also an area that has failed to develop as an Uber like on demand service as customers require such care don’t want to play Russian roulette on who is in fact going to show up each time. In services such as ride share or grocery / food delivery we might be more susceptible to allowing it to be a commoditized service that we might view as interchangeable between service providers.

With housekeeping and auto detailing there is more concern over what exactly you will be receiving. The success of McDonalds is an interesting example as many may feel that they can make a better back yard burger than McDonalds yet few if any are able to sell more burgers than McDonalds. The McDonalds brothers in a way helped propel the fast food revolution with their mass manufacturing approach to serving hamburgers, fries and Colas. Another part of their success is the consistency that they supposedly enforce across the entire system, although I personally will say the French Fries in say a McDonalds location in Utah taste quite different from the French Fries from a McDonalds location in Alabama. Although in a high level sense they do enforce consistency that might be unmatched in other industries.

The market for housekeeping or auto detailing are areas where consistency isn’t enforced to the same degree if it is all coordinated with some on demand web application to route random service providers to people that require service. The auto detailing area is a place where there has been a few on demand car wash systems started up in the past decade that are not currently represented in Tallahassee FL, but have footprint in the more metropolitan cities where possibly the convenience factor is much more of an issue. These on demand car washes are providing basic car wash and detailing services at the customers location and this is nothing new, but the differentiating factor is that the vans are newer and the consistency and vetting of the employees is more comprehensive than say the “Two Dudes & A Stolen Van” operations that might have been the norm in times past.

As a general matter I feel auto detailing or on demand auto washes should have a bigger presence than they currently do as the old methods of automatic mechanical washes are just damaging automotive paint and clear coat finishes across the country. Tallahassee Auto Detailing specializes in restoring paint and clear coat finishes damaged by automatic car washes, but it sometimes hurts to see someone take a nice vehicle through an automatic car wash and not consider or fail to realize the amount of damage that is occurring even if you are lucky enough to not have physical body damage. Those tunnel car wash systems with the brushes and harsh chemicals may do something, but the fact that people actually pay to destroy their clear coat finish is beyond me. The little leaguers next to the batting cages probably do a better job than a mechanical car wash and certainly with a little time car owners could perform a very decent driveway car wash with a little car wash soap and some effort. If not I feel some on demand car wash service should fill the void. The only issue comes with the pricing, those mechanical car washes have anchored in people’s minds a certain price and really for that price all you are going to ever get is a hard water rinse  with harsh chemicals utilizing the assembly line approach. Maybe those tent set up ghetto hand car washes will be the future, but then there are downsides to that as well. It will be interesting to see what happens as the old self service car washes don’t seem to be popping up anywhere and seem to be a thing of the past and well related industries have shifted. The quick service oil change business was a new business model that became very popular as full service gasoline stations shifted away from providing full service gasoline retailing and basic mechanical services to being convenience stores that happened to also sell gasoline. That shift created the opportunity for those quick service oil change places to pop up and grow although in recent times dealerships are trying to drive more revenue through their service departments and are even putting the squeeze on the quick service oil change franchises and so it truly will be interesting to see if on demand mobile car washing will become popular and fill the void for the changing car wash market.