The auto service business is alive and well, and we are a nation of cars. Because people care so much about their automobiles, and they spend so much to buy them, they also care very much about how they present themselves when driving. It is for this reason that folks spend a lot of money getting their cars washed and detailed. One of the services which has become very valuable to auto owners is that of mobile car washers who come to their office and wash their car.
However most of the mobile car washers have come under fire by environmental regulations, and competition. It seems that the fixed site car washers would rather not have the mobile car washing companies around. Why you ask? It's simple, every time a mobile operation cleans a car, well it is one less car that the carwash can clean. And there is another competitor - those waterless car washes, most of them are also mobile, they use a dry-wash smear on type product, which cleans the car without using any water.
Many of these companies are franchise based, or large business opportunities - and they are very much using the global warming and environmental movement to promote their products and services. Also in many parts of the world and in the United States there is a shortage of water. So, these companies say that carwashes and mobile carwashes use too much water.
However, the reality is that most mobile carwashes only use between three and 5 gallons for every car they wash, which is hardly anything compared to someone washing their car their driveway who might use 50 to 100 gallons.
Unfortunately for the mobile car washer that has a plastic water tank on the back of their pickup truck or on a small trailer, they do not have the wherewithal or the money to compete against the venture capital funded dry wash companies, who are busy lobbying local storm water regulators, and even using verbiage from the EPA site on their brochures, and company websites.
It's too bad that the dry wash type waterless carwashes cannot go about their business on their own and let the consumer decide which type of service they'd rather have. Using government regulators and the EPA to try to shut down mobile carwash operators makes some people wonder if the dry wash companies could compete without using the government to stop their competition. Additionally, the fixed site car wash owners are quite happy to see this little war going on, because it also means more business for them.
What we have now is a situation where "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" as the dry wash car wash companies and the fixed site carwashes gang up on the mobile operators and they are using their money and lobbying power to unbalance the level playing filled of the free market. This should be expected, and many entrepreneurs believe the only reason that regulators exist in the United States is simply to provide barriers to entry so one greedy business owner can hog all the business.
Yes, that's a cynical way to look at it, but I do also understand why people often say that, especially as they observe how some businesses get all the juice, and other businesses are forced out of business with new laws and regulations. Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping the environment, but the way that our environmental regulations are being used and enforced does pose a problem for mobile carwash operators who use water rather than smear on dry wash products. Please consider all this.
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