If you’re supporting a fleet of vehicles, you’ve got three choices – in-house cleaning, paying a cleaning service to come in, or partnering up with a local car wash. Well, four, if you count never washing them.
For the fleet manager who wants to clean their vehicles in house, you’ll need the right chemicals and equipment. Whether you’re running a limo service, a taxi service, school buses, tour buses, rental cars, or a municipal fleet, cleanliness plays a part in the perception of what you do. So, what should you be stocking up for in-house fleet cleaning?
Evaluating Your Fleet
Obviously, the vehicles you use and their function makes the biggest difference in what you need to stock up on. We understand that for some fleet sizes – or for convenience sake – you may work out a contract with a local tunnel wash and just use whatever they use. But for many with smaller fleets, or fleets with special care needs, they may have to tackle the cleaning in-house. Let’s take a look at these different segments, and how each one may require different solutions! Let’s look at the different types of fleets and the supplies you may need for in-house cleaning.
Limos, Taxis, Rental Cars, Municipal Passenger
These fleets require the utmost attention inside and out. A beat-up limo, dilapidated taxi, or a trashed rental car is likely to cost you return business!
Exterior
No one wants a dirty, scratched-up limo taking them to their wedding, or a grimy rental car! Softer brushes, in particular hog’s hair brushes, are the way to go with these vehicles. You don’t want to run the risk of leaving scratch or drag marks on the paint or chrome. Pair good brushes with high-quality detergent to break loose and scrub away dirt with ease.
Limousines and rental cars in particular need to shine to fulfill expectations. Use a professional level polishing wax to make it look like it has been detailed recently. While hand-waxing is a bit of a task, the result will be worth the effort.
Being thorough on the exterior is important as well, and this means paying attention to the tires and wheels. A dedicated tire and wheel cleaner, along with the appropriate tire and wheel brushes, will get your tires and wheels clean. Finish it off with a round of tire dressing for a lasting impression.
Interior
With these vehicles being so passenger-centric, interior cleaning is super important. No bride wants to sit in something sticky on her wedding day. A rental car with the last passenger’s soda still spilled in the cupholders is certain to generate bad reviews.
Consider a commercial vacuum unit with an on/off switch that workers can use as needed. Sure, a shop vac might be cheaper. However, these permanent fixtures are much more durable, and made for years of heavy-duty usage. They provide stronger suction and larger debris containers, so they can really get into the nooks and crevices. These will shorten the amount of time you have to spend as they do a better job of picking up debris. For large taxi, rental car and municipal fleets these are time-savers.
An interior detailing extractor may also be beneficial for quickly cleaning a fleet of vehicles, particularly smaller rental fleets and limos. Spot-shampooing can be effective over the short term, but sooner or later you’ll have to do a deep clean. Machines like the Mytee Grand Prix combine vacuum and extractor tasks into a single unit. If you prefer chemical-free cleaning for sensitive workers and clientele, Vapamore’s steam cleaners, including easy-to-use handheld units.
Stock up on glass cleaner, all-purpose solutions and surface-specific cleaners like leather protectants and conditioners. Brushes to get into all nooks and crannies, including specialized vent brushes will be helpful as well. Finally, give your customers and clients welcoming aromas with vent wraps, hanging trees, and odor neutralizers.
Tour Buses, Public Transportation
While these require much of the same attention as the previous fleets do, it’s a much larger scale. This means you’ll need different tools, chemicals, and more to tackle the job!
Exterior
For mass people movers, you won’t need to worry as much about the softness of the bristles or tiny details – you want big, burly, and aggressive! Truck brushes like those from Erie Brush can tackle large areas with ease. Inexpensive yet durable, the nylon and feathered plastic brushes last for a long time, and can take the abuse. There’s also the option for hog’s hair brushes. While these are more expensive and perhaps not worthwhile for public transportation, a tour bus company that is invested in its image may want to invest in these brushes for scratch-free scrubbing!
Interior
These fleets will most certainly be judged on the interior quality. Not to mention, public transportation can get pretty dirty over time given the wide swath of the public that it serves!
However, unlike the previous group, space is an issue here. These are large, long vehicles with a minimal space to maneuver – but also with limited access points. It can be hard to navigate through them with a hose from a stationary vacuum. That’s why we recommend the use of the Mytee extractors here as well. There are also shop vacs and backpack vacuums on the market that are useful for this, and may be worthwhile looking at – but only the Mytee extractors offer the dual uses as both vacuums to remove bulk dirt and as extractors for a deep clean!
School Buses
While these need scaled-up treatment like you’ll need for the previous fleets, they require a little less detail-oriented cleaning. However, they do require higher levels of sanitation, and definitely need to be cleaned more often due to the heavy usage.
Exterior
Much like tour buses and public transportation, school buses need big brushes that can tackle a lot of real estate quickly. Use those same nylon and feathered-plastic brush heads. The ubiquitous yellow colors and the fact that school buses are rarely seen as show pieces makes investing in expensive hog’s hair brushes a pointless expense – stick with the cheap and durable!
A low-pressure power washer is also a great option for dealing with school bus fleets. This allows the washer to head to the bus parking areas, instead of having to maneuver the buses around. The main focus of cleaning the exterior of a school bus is simply to take a fair amount of the dirt and road grime off. No one is expecting shiny chrome or spotless windows here.
Interior
The good news about school bus fleets is that the interiors are bare bones and easy to clean! A broom cleans up dirt and debris, and they can be hosed out for the most part. The plain metal floors, rubber aisles, and vinyl seats are super easy to wash clean. Glass cleaner for the windows, and potentially vinyl treatment or cleaner for super dirty seats. Simoniz Proselect Sanitizer and Disinfectant in convenient 5-gallon jugs is perfect for sanitizing and disinfecting school bus fleets. Use the bulk containers to fill up individual spray bottles, and sanitize and disinfect both hard and soft surfaces, from metals to vinyl upholstery.
Emergency Vehicles
These get their own special segment because they have unique needs. Like school buses, they require high levels of disinfecting and sanitation. However, they are generally on a smaller scale. One unique twist here is that many emergency departments have vehicles that are highly visible in the community. They get used for everything from responding, to parades, to outreach days at schools, and other events.
Exterior
For daily use, emergency vehicles get pretty standard exterior cleanings. Much like school buses, it’s focused on knocking the dirt, smoke, and grime off between callouts. Go with the same detergents, wide brushes, and perhaps a power washer. We would recommend cleaning the exterior glass fairly often, as visibility in emergency vehicles is of the utmost importance.
There are special cases where emergency vehicles may call for exterior treatment that goes above and beyond most other fleets. Everyone remembers the shining fire trucks and ambulances leading the parades, or being used for school visits! They didn’t get that way using just soap and water. Aside from a good soap to clean up the outside, pick up some wax for a great paint finish. You’ll even want specialized chrome polish to make the trim shine even brighter – consider Flitz metal polishing products, perfect for bumpers, diamond plate, sirens and horns, and other stainless and chrome parts. Just like with limos, you’ll want to make those big bright wheels and the massive tires shine, so get your tire and wheel cleaner, the necessary brushes, and tire shine to make that lasting impression.
Interior
Just like the exterior, there are differing ways this is addressed depending on the purpose of the cleaning.
For everyday use, simple mixtures of glass cleaner and all-purpose cleaners serve the needs of emergency vehicles. They certainly need to be strong, but you don’t need any high-end treatments for everyday use.
When they’re being shown off, again, there are different, higher requirements and expectations. The trim needs to be shinier, the vinyl needs to be glossier, and glass needs to be clearer. EMT services and firehouses don’t need to invest in heavy duty vacuums or extractors, but they will need to invest in durable, deep cleaning brushes to grind away at impacted dirt, tough interior all-purpose cleaners, trim shine for interior surfaces, and glass cleaner.
Ambulances get a special mention here, due to what can go on in the back of them. Both OSHA and the CDC have recommended guidelines for the cleaning and decontamination of ambulance bays. These bays also contain equipment that must be cleaned, disinfected, or replaced. This is equipment that requires solutions that are approved for use in medical situations. While we carry a number of disinfectants – including Simoniz’s RTU Antimicrobial that is rated for health care usage – ambulance crews may have access to even stronger cleaners and disinfectants through the hospitals they serve.
Construction, Municipal Work, Delivery
The vehicles that get things done. These are tackling dirty work sites and daily heavy usage, and rarely get cleaned. They’re simply too busy to stop. But when there’s an opportunity, you take it. It’s a matter of public perception, of representing a business, and you can’t let vehicles get too dirty or shoddy by letting maintenance and cleaning fall by the wayside.
Exterior
From construction vehicles to delivery vans, your work fleets accumulate a lot of dirt and debris. They also need to be washed fairly often. You’ll need to be particular about the chemistry with these heavily soiled vehicles as well, as different soils have different composition to break loose. Low pH pre-soaks and detergents do well against soils with high mineral content – clays and the like. High pH, on the other hand, attacks oils and thicker soils. A two-step process of these may be a little more time and money than you want to spend on work vehicles, but for the heaviest soils, you may have to make that investment.
Work fleets is where a pressure washer is almost a necessity. Some of them operate at high enough pressure that they can break loose concrete and baked on dirt that can cover excavators, trucks, and other pieces of equipment. Some are even strong enough to break concrete loose from mixers and truck drums! Make sure you invest in safety equipment and be careful around these washers though. If a washers is powerful enough to take down concrete, imagine what it can do to a wayward hand.
Interior
These vehicles aren’t going to demand quite the attention that other fleets will require. After a cleaning, they’re just go back to being dirty pretty quickly. Still, they do require attention. For some it’s a point of pride – clean trucks show customers you pay attention to detail. Others will want to make sure their employees and drivers go out with orderly and clean work spaces to eliminate distractions or reduce the potential for issues. Get a durable dust brush, a bottle of interior all-purpose cleaner, a bottle of glass cleaner, and a few rags. Your employees won’t spend a ton of time doing this, but it’s still worth a brush-out and wipe down a few times a month.
Shop Needs
There are a variety of miscellaneous needs you’ll have around the shop. No matter what sort of fleet you have, here are some considerations for dealing with fleet cleaning needs.
Chemicals
When available, we recommend checking out our ultra-concentrate detergents for the recommended chemicals for each type of fleet. If your shop is low on space, or if you go through a lot of soaps, pre-soak, or other chemicals regularly, these will cut down on storage needs and also overhead cost. Simoniz powder presoaks, soaps, and other chemicals are also a popular choice for fleets, as they also take up a limited amount of space as compared to the traditional 55-gallon drums.
Towels
Not just for washing, having shop towels around is necessary for a lot of what you do with your fleets. You may even want to go as far as tossing boxes or stacks of towels inside your vehicles!
Limo, rental car, tour bus and emergency vehicle fleets will want to invest in some high-quality towels, particularly exterior drying towels. With the exception of limos, you won’t be doing too much body drying, but you will want to wipe down door jambs, trunk and hood borders, tires and wheels, and chrome. With limos, you may want to dry and hand wax the entire vehicle.
For work fleets, we don’t expect you’ll be drying them off after washing – you’ll just let them drip dry. However, if you’re running a work fleet, you might also need rags and towels to go in the trucks and heavy equipment when they head out to the job sites. You might also want some quick, easy-to-grab towels for around the shop. Our pop-up microfiber towels are perfect for this use!
General Shop Needs
For all fleets, there are some general shop needs you’ll need to have in hand, or want to keep in mind
Hand and surface sanitizing wipes can be handy to have around for vehicles that have multiple users. While spray bottles and towels are definitely useful for sanitizing at the garage, these can be taken out on the road – particularly for rental cars, limos, and taxis, they can provide peace of mind to passengers.
Proper protective wear is also necessary. Some of these chemicals may be caustic or hazardous, and you won’t want to get any on skin or in eyes.
While this is not an exhaustive guide to cleaning your fleet, this is a good framework to get started with. Here at Kleen-Rite, we’ve got experts on staff who can help you pinpoint the needs of your fleet, and help you find the best set up to take care of your vehicles – reach out to us today!
