How to acquire fleet business and what are the pros and cons?

[RPDAZ]

I have been detailing for some time now and I want to step into a different field of business? I want to obtain companies with fleet vehicles to bring in more prophet. What is the best approach and what would be the proper ethical way to charge future prospects?

[AuroraDetailing]

In my experience, fleet vehicles are not something you want to waste your time with. Most places that need to have them detailed/cleaned have near minimum wage employees that do a "good enough to get by" job. Other places may have employees that clean them as busy work when they aren't really busy. I got some work for some Navy recruiters because they are given a $25/ month stipend to wash their government vehicles. I said I would just charge them $25 each for a quick waterless wash, machine wax, and dressing on the tires. Threw in vacuuming too. I did 3 sedans and one van. Took longer than I wanted on the van, but averaged about 30 minutes on each car. But now they just blew their entire month stipend on one wash. They would normally pay $7 about once a week for a drive through wash and vacuum it themselves. I wasn't going to sit there and act like the results I got them was much different than their drive through wash other than a coat of wax, which wouldn't even last a month in the sun. I didn't bother trying to get more business on the government side from them, but did get a full detail for one of their personal cars.

I've been to big dealerships, little dealerships, rental places, and all kinds of places marketing for detailing. What I've found is that if you aren't doing a vehicle that someone has a personal affinity for, you'd be wasting your time making chump change.

My buddy did happen to get repeat business for some ambulances though. Cause those guys don't have time to wash their own vehicles, and they don't exactly fit through car washes, and it's not coming out of their pocket to pay for.

[AuroraDetailing]

But I'm not saying it can't be done. There may be a niche establishment that would make it worth your while. But they are going to have to really want better results than what a drive through car wash will give them, and as a business, keeping costs down is a priority. Most aren't going to care about the baggy test or swirl marks. If you want some steady repeat business, an idea I would suggest is go to businesses where employees have their cars parked out front all day, and offer the cheap wash/wax/wheels and tires. Just find one person at the establishment to coordinate/liason for you and schedule a reoccurring day of the week that you could return regularly. Offer the liason an incentive like half off if he gets at least a certain number of people wanting it that day. We would make it a minimum of 4 cars for us to show up, but of course it's up to you on what you are willing to drive out for. We charged $40 per car (in Hawaii) and left envelopes with the liason, who would have the payments in the envelope with the plate numbers and car description written on the outside. Then those people get to walk out of work to a freshly waxed car. Took us about 15 minutes each car and usually did 4-6, which would all be done way before lunch. We ended up not doing a lot of business like that though, only because we would be booked solid for usually two weeks at a time with full details.

One good location that I was venturing to do myself (until weather started not cooperating and I got into some road work for welding) are smaller independently owned gyms. I was going to one where my good friend was friends with the owner and dating the manager there. The owners usually make good money and have nice cars that they like to spend money on. I tried to arrange detailing his truck, but it got hail damage and he was waiting on repairs and a new hood to come in, then weather kept pushing it off and I never got to it before winter came. But the deal was, I would detail and maintain his truck for free, and he would let me advertise at his gym and do my "wash wax wheels and tires" in the parking lot for patrons. They would get their car washed and waxed while they work out. I would charge $30, and could knock them out about two an hour. Then could schedule full details to other interested people. That's $480 if I put in 8 hours of work in a day.