If you’re in central Kentucky and your car is a little grimy, just remember one simple piece of advice: look for the parrot. While that might seem like strange advice, it makes more sense if you get to know Safari Falls Car Wash.

Safari Falls is an outstanding car wash chain that serves the areas of Liberty, Danville, and Bardstown. You’ll recognize Safari locations by their trademark parrot logo and bright green awnings. The chain is owned and operated by Dakota Hoskins. His father Todd helped him get a start in the car wash industry and helps run the wash. Although only 23, Dakota has more car wash experience than most would expect from someone that age, and impressively handles a vast majority of operations for the business. We were fortunate enough to visit their Liberty location and get more familiar with Safari Falls.

Getting Into the Car Wash Industry

Todd works in the insurance industry, and he had a client that owned a car wash and was looking to sell it. After getting some assurance that the previous owner would help him learn about the industry, Todd purchased the car wash in 1995. He successfully ran the wash for a number of years, but eventually found that it was becoming too much to handle along with other career and life responsibilities.

“I had a lot of irons in the fire and started getting burnt out. My fifteen-year-old son comes along and started showing more interest in car washing. Probably by the time he was sixteen, he pretty well took over the car wash and all operations, and I handed it over to him.”

The Safari Falls Car Wash Brand Grows with Dakota’s Influence

There are some people that just seem to perfectly fit to run a car wash. Dakota is one of those people. With a natural draw to tinker with machines, rebuilding a pump or diagnosing a leaky hose is more of a fun challenge to him than a dreaded task. Dakota remarked, “When I was younger, I loved taking things apart. I was always kind of obsessed with how things work from a young age.” That has proved to be a huge asset for him in running Safari Falls.

Dakota attended college while still running the car wash. In his junior year, he had the opportunity to purchase four more nearby locations and seized on it. He would attend classes until about lunchtime, then hop in his utility truck and service the washes. His commitment was obvious, and it quickly set him off on the route to building the Safari Falls brand. As Todd describes it, “He pretty well chose his career path there in the middle of college.”

Safari Falls Car Wash Today

Safari Falls is now a well-established business, and along with Dakota’s hard work, has been fortunate to hire top notch employees along the way. Dakota was keen to credit them, noting, “I’ve been blessed with my staff. I have very good attendants and my maintenance staff helps day in and day out. They’re very helpful.”

We always like to ask operators what their favorite thing is about being in the industry, and both Hoskins men had great responses to the question.

Dakota answered, “To me, it’s just waking up every day, and until the first phone ring I don’t always know exactly what I’ll be doing. I love that, I love to be out on the road. I could never be at a desk all day, that’s just not what I am.”

Todd’s answer to the question is directly related to being able to observe Dakota’s passion in action:

“When I got in, the nuts and bolts and changing hoses and all that, I could do. But I didn’t understand the technology, or the wiring and electrical. That’s where Dakota came along. He took some classes in high school and got a super good knowledge of computer systems and programming. So, that’s what really helped. And it kind of re-energized me to see him come along and do what I wasn’t able to do. That was exciting for me.”

A Promising Future

Regarding new technology, Dakota has even created his own innovation in the car wash industry – Safari Solutions. He was looking for a way to do text message marketing using barcodes. Vendors at a car wash show he attended told him that the scanners he needed unfortunately didn’t exist. He took matters into his own hands and developed his own barcode scanner that works with any pay station. They are now being used at Safari Falls locations and even some outside car washes. Explaining his appreciation for smart, measured use of technology to improve car washing in the future, Dakota said, “Too much tech can be a problem, but innovating the industry is going to help with marketing and the overall customer and owner experience.”

With that kind of ambition, and settling nicely into his role as the primary leader of Safari Falls, Dakota shows maturity beyond his years. Support from his parents has clearly been invaluable in building that confidence. Todd’s glowing words about his son demonstrate that: “We’re really proud of him. He’s got a unique gift of impeccable work ethic and a great knowledge of mechanical, computer, and electrical systems. That’s helped him excel in the car wash business.”

After visiting Safari Falls, we completely agree with that sentiment and can’t wait to see what the future brings for Dakota and the business. We’ll always know that if somebody in Kentucky has a clean, shiny car, they must have found the parrot!