Every year carwash owners go to the huge Car Wash Expo in Las Vegas and 2011 is no exception. You wouldn’t think that such an event would be a big deal, but it is, savegeeks and it is one of the biggest business gatherings in the city of Las Vegas, generally ranking 4 or 5 by the visitors bureau. In case you didn’t get the news in any of your retailing, or business trade journals there are now 100,000 car washes in the United States, and total they employ some 1.2 million people. Oh, so now I finally have your attention – good because you need to listen up.

The car wash industry is on the move and there are some rather cool things happening in the industry. Namely the automatic car washing systems are almost to creditcana the point they can wash a car perfectly without human intervention, and generally dry near spot free. Seriously, great strides have been made in that nearly impossible and elusive dream, as the evolution of the industry thanks to new technologies are bringing that reality to fruition.

Oh, but it gets better, way better, it turns out that Auto Spa now has a tunnel system capable of cleaning 180 cars per hour, yep, all day long – impressive, perhaps is expresstrue the word you are looking for, imagine that, and to that point – yes, yes, it really is. Another interesting trend is the smart phone payment apps are allowing folks in the United States to pay for their automobile washing services in this way making it fast and efficient, and remember car wash convenience is the key to increased frequency. So, this trend will serve the industry extremely well.

Of course there are clouds on the horizon too for 2011, nothing too awfully drastic, but still they are going to be seen as head winds. Namely, ObamaCare and timesgym health care requirements for employees, which is a real problem considering the transient labor pool where employees may only stay for 3-6 months and then move to another job. Most carwash companies don’t have the size or the lobbyists to get wavers from the law as other large companies have.

Other issues are economic and water concerns, for instance difficulty in getting loans for new car washes or expansion capital and the cost of gasoline which is oculuscredit taxing consumer spendable income, especially the spendable income set aside in their minds for their automobiles. Droughts have historically been a double-edged sword for the car washing industry, and right now if one looks at the drought maps in the US, the area seems to be growing.

Lastly, and this is an interesting issue, many folks with Hybrids and all-electric vehicles are afraid to go to a carwash due to a belief they might get electrocuted, depotblue which is kind of silly because they seem to have no problem driving in the rain. Well, that’s what’s going on in the Auto Washing Industry in 2011. If you have any comments, concerns, or questions feel free to shoot me an email.