Smart technologies for vehicles are constantly evolving. With access to seemingly endless information, data, and analytics, the automotive industry is constantly adding new automation and features to their vehicles. This has a knock-on effect on all related services, including car washes.
At PSD Codax we supply cutting-edge car wash access systems to provide a streamlined, convenient experience for you and your customers. In this article we’ll define telematics and vehicle technology, offer ways to reduce their impact, and discuss how you may even be able to benefit from them.
Connect your customers to your car wash with our access systems – get in touch today!
What are Telematics and Vehicle Technology?
Telematics is a blend of the words “telecommunication” and “informatics”; it combines the meaning of these two words into a single phrase that refers to the use of computers to gather and analyse information which is then delivered to another location.
Basically, telematics tracks your vehicle’s data and sends it to the manufacturer. This information is then used to further develop vehicle technology – which is all the aspects of a car’s components and systems.
Why are Telematics and Vehicle Technology Impactful for Car Washes?
Safety and efficiency are at the forefront of developments in vehicle technology. While efficiency has little impact on the effectiveness of a car wash, safety surprisingly may. Collision-avoidance tech is a primary cause of issues relating to car washes and new vehicle technology developments.
A study from the International Carwash Association stated, 38% of a sample of their members were having issues with forward-collision avoidance, and 39% had issues with stop/start systems.
Another issue caused by vehicle technologies is from “shift to park” systems. These prevent the car from running in neutral while the door is open, hindering any internal cleaning or vacuuming from being carried out during a moving car wash process.
These issues can cause a range of detrimental effects for car washes, from delaying the car wash, requiring extra attention for a specific vehicle, or even collisions due to vehicles stopping unexpectedly.
Finding out how to mitigate these issues can improve the efficiency, safety, and customer satisfaction of your car wash experience.
How to Reduce the Impact of Telematics and Vehicle Technologies
To help you with minimising the impact of new smart technologies on your car wash, we’ve created a list of a few different insights on alternatives to current practices you may want to consider.
Our top three methods to reduce the impact of telematics and vehicle technologies on your car wash are:
1. Awareness of Vehicle Technologies
Whether or not your customers are aware of the technologies in their vehicle, if you’re aware then you can prevent issues before they arise. For example, many Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can be disabled manually.
If the driver isn’t aware they can do this, or even if they have an ADAS system, you can inform them on how to do it. This should help streamline the car wash process, preventing the issues these technologies can cause. Just make sure you tell them how to turn it back on afterwards!
2. Different Car Wash Techniques
Adapting to new technology can be a way to mitigate its effects. Being aware of what new tech there is and what vehicles are likely to contain it is a good step, but there are more things you can do to evolve alongside the changes brought about by innovative telematics.
An example could be to utilise a new cleaning method that can operate with the doors to the vehicle closed or have additional services such as waxing that may need the car to be still anyway – allowing you to synergise your efforts and still run multiple services simultaneously.
3. Alternative Car Wash Systems
A conveyer-belt system is a useful way of keeping your car wash flowing. With a good access system like the ones from PSD Codax, normally you won’t encounter any issues with car overflow or blockage when utilising such a system.
However, smart technologies like stop/start and automatic collision detectors can hinder these processes. To solve this issue you could consider swapping to a non-conveyor belt or brush system, such as one utilising high pressure water jets or self-service systems.
These aren’t for everyone, and changing your business model can be costly and time consuming. Take a look at the options that are out there and weight up the cost-benefits of each before making a final decision.
With technologies constantly progressing, no one can say for certain what the future will hold. In fact, data from telematics could eventually lead to benefits for your car wash business.
Leveraging the Benefits of Telematics and Vehicle Technologies
To help you capitalise on new vehicle technologies that have been brought about by progressively advanced telematics, we’ve outlined some tips you can use to improve the operational efficiency of your car wash business.
Subscription models.
These are a growingly popular way to run a car wash business. Rather than operating on a per-wash model, this allows you to have a sustainable source of income. It also ensures brand loyalty, meaning your subscription customers won’t be taking their business anywhere else.
The International Carwash Association Consumer Study 2017 revealed that 21% of PRO customers knew about the existence of subscription products, but 60% of these customers utilised them – showing their success.
Better car wash access systems.
There’s no better way to ensure your customers get a good experience with your car wash than by having a streamlined point-of-entry that clearly and concisely shows them what is on offer and how to access it.
These systems are based off the latest developments in technology, brought about in part by data that has been gathered from telematics.
Awareness campaigns.
By spreading awareness of considerations like ADAS systems you not only position yourself as an authority on vehicle technologies and their impact on car wash systems, but you also put your car wash services at the forefront of potential customers’ minds.
This can act as part of an overarching awareness and outreach strategy to bring in more customers to your business.
There are also steps that car manufacturers can enact to improve the impact of vehicle technologies on car wash systems. These include:
Allowing copyrighted materials to be used in educational information for specific car makes
Establishing a standard method for car washing
Using telematics to let a car know it is in a car wash and activating a specific set of system settings in response.
Whatever model you choose, be sure you’re aware of what vehicle technologies there are and how they can impact your car wash.
Making sure you’ve got an adequate, functional, and innovative car wash access system will always help in reducing confusion and incidents that result from a lack of customer understanding and poor entry management. It will also help in other aspects of your business such as offering additional services and streamlining your car wash process.
Improve Your Car Wash Further with an Access System from PSD Codax
While telematics and vehicle technologies may have led to incidents in the past, there is a large amount of untapped potential in these fields to benefit car wash businesses and customers alike. Making sure you’re aware of these aspects of smart technologies puts you in the best position to prepare for and receive advantages from them.
Bring your car wash to the next level with cutting-edge access systems from us. Get in touch to find out more, check out our products and business model examples, or read on with some related articles!