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Clean up job

From a £500 pressure washer to a £50,000 chassis cleaner, how do you know which system is best suited for your operation and budget? We help you decide.

Words; Steve Banner

The widespread use of double-deck trailers is having an obvious impact on how operators are cleaning their vehicles. "They're installing taller, roll-over brush washes," says Tony Field. commercial sales manager at vehicle washing specialist Wilcomatic.

"Most of the washes we install are 4.5m high," he says. "Now, we're being asked to put in ones that are 5m high, so they can accommodate trailers with a height of 4.9m."

These tall washes are no less effective than their shorter stable-mates, says Field. However, they are around £1,000 to ,200 more expensive, he adds. "They have to be equipped with a bigger pump, more jets, taller brushes and a larger frame,he says.

At a cost of anywhere from £28,000 to around £35,000 delivered and installed, standard roll-over washes don't come cheap. "You need to have at least 20 to 30 trucks operating out of a single depot and returning to it to justify the expense," says Peter Spencer, responsible for Karcher's brush-wash operation in the UK.

And nor does the expense stop at just buying the kit.

You need a concrete wash-pad, which could set you back anywhere from £18,000 to £25,0000, depending on the ground conditions, says Field. but at least that bill will include the cost of installing an interceptor in the yard's drainage system.

The interceptor will cost £2,500, he says, and the oil, grease and dirt it catches will need pumping out with a sludge gulper and disposing of in an green manner once every six months or so. It will cost you £300 a time.

Bear in mind that wash water is only allowed to run into a foul drain, not into storm drains that funnel water into rivers and streams. That is the case even if hio-degradable cleaning chemicals have been used.

Fines of as much as £20,000, and even a three-month prison sentence for a really serious breach, await operators who flout the law.

Protecting the fixtures and fittings

If you really want to push the boat out, you can encase your brush wash in side screens, or even put it in a building to protect it from frost. Pursue those routes and you could end up spending a further £20,000, says Spencer. Also remember that those brush washes not housed in a building need a frost-protection system. "Once the temperature drops to a couple of degrees above freezing, all the water is automatically blown out of the pipes and the wash shuts down," adds Spencer.

Brush washes can be programmed to ensure exterior fixtures and fitting do not suffer damage, Field says. "Ours, for example, can be programmed to avoid the !Class VI front pedestrian mirrors that are fitted to trucks, so that drivers halted at traffic lights can see if there is anybody standing directly in front of their vehicle before they move off,he observes. They are sometimes mounted on flimsy stalks, he points out, and might otherwise be broken. Anything that the whirling brushes miss will, of course, have to undergo a separate clean.

No matter if they are using a pressure washer or a fullblown brush wash, many transport firms are investing in water-recycling systems. "Remember that the Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme run by HM Revenue and Customs allows businesses to claim 100% first-year capital allowances on specified water-saving plant and machinery in the year in which the expenditure is incurred," says Mike West, managing director at vehicle washing manufacturer Wesley Group.

Recycling systems

Recycling systems can set you back anywhere from £5,000 to £15,000, depending on the washing equipment you are using and the level of sophistication you require, but will retrieve and cleanse up 10 95% of the water used. Of the water that is lost, some of it disappears as a consequence of evaporation, the wind blows a proportion away and some — perhaps as much as 20 litres — remains on the truck and is carried off.

"One way of hanging on to more of it is to use a rinse aid," says Field. Silicon-based, it makes the water form bigger, heavier droplets that run off while the truck is still stationary, rather than leaving with it when it travels down the road.

"The recycler extracts the water from the interceptor and takes a number of steps to clean it up, including percolating it through an activated carbon filter," says Peter Morley, a director of truck cleaning equipment specialist Morelean "Additives are required, including a biocide in the summer, and aluminium sulphate to separate out oils and waxes."

Given that the unit recycles rainwater too, hauliers are in effect getting an endless supply of free water to wash their vehicles. Unfortunately, that is not quite the bonus it appears to be at first sight.

While it makes sense to have one installed if you are a major fleet operator constantly sending trucks through a rollover wash, the benefits for smaller hauliers, who rely on pressure washers, are less clear-cut. "Clean a truck with a pressure washer and you should be using about 15 litres of water a minute," Morley says. "Spend 15 minutes on the job and you've consumed 225 litres."

Water, however, is relatively cheap in Britain, he says. It can cost around £3/m3, including disposal, and that's sufficient to wash four trucks plus the managing director's car. On that basis, it is going to take a business with a dozen or so trucks that washes its entire fleet once a week something like 10 to 12 years to recoup the cost of a recycler. Remember too that recycled water is not always suitable for rinsing.

There are other reasons for requiring a recycler. You may have to wash all your vehicles once or twice a day because of the nature of the cargo you carry, your yard may be in an environmentally sensitive area or one prone to suffering summer droughts, and the type of traffic you transport may oblige you to be seen to be green. For most small hauliers, though, a recyling unit is unlikely to make financial sense.

One way of getting a constant supply of free water is through rainwater harvesting. Rain can be funnelled from a warehouse roof, then pumped to where it is needed. A submersible pump is likely to be required, and that plus the associated pipework and filters will leave you with a bill that ranges between 15,000 and £6,000. In addition, you will need a 10,000-20,000-litre capacity holding tank, plus the ability to switch to fresh water if it fails to rain for a couple of weeks, although that may not be necessary if you have invested in a recycler, too.

Chassis washers

Operators who have suffered from the embarrassment of having a truck turned away from a test centre because the underside is caked with filth may feel it makes sense to invest in a chassis washer. It can be integrated into a wash pad that is already home to a rollover-type brush wash, but with prices starting at £20,000 and climbing to a wallet-numbing £50,000. this is going to be a bit pricy. However, if you need to turn a vehicle round quickly, it does have certain advantages.

"It takes 30-40 minutes to wash a truck underside using a dedicated machine, compared with as much as three hours to do it manually," says Nigel Ferris, managing director of chassis wash specialist FDI. Nor is manual washing particularly pleasant if the truck has been on and off a landfill site.

If you can't afford a fixed brush wash, it may be worth opting for a mobile brush wash — a single, vertical brush that's propelled around the vehicle. It will set you back from £8,500 to £12,000, and a pressure washer can be built into the package. "You can get one with a 4.9m-high rotating brush if you -111 need to clean double-deckers," says Field.

"Ours are powered by batteries, or a petrol or a diesel engine," he continues. "That's better than having a power cable trailing across the yard. Aside from the risk of somebody tripping over it, trailing cables can become frayed — not what you want with a lot of water about."

Wilcomatic's roving brushes can carry their own water and detergent. That, plus the weight of an engine, makes them stable, even if an extra-tall brush is fitted.

A flat wash pad is required for the moving brush to be deployed to best effect. Taking about 10 minutes to deal with the dirt, it is more suited for use on vehicles with flat sides — box-bodied trailers — than on tankers. A pressure washer will cost from £500 to £1,200. The price spread rises to £1,500 to £3,000 if you want a hot-water machine, Although mobile machines offer flexibility, a fixed machine in a lockable box bolted to the outside wall of the workshop is, in many ways, preferable — less likely to be stolen, suffer from frost damage, or be run over by a careless driver. The water and power are permanently connected, and a fixed installation makes it easier for the owner to preset the amount of detergent used.

Don't scrimp on the cleaning

The amount of pressure is not the only factor that has to be considered when selecting a pressure washer. The rate of water flow has to be taken into account, too.

The figure that matters is cleaning effort measured in kilowatts (kW). Multiply the flow in litres/min by the pressure measured in bar and divide the total by 600. For example, a machine with a flow of 14 litres/min operating at 100 bar will generate 2.3kW of cleaning effort; 2kW is the minimum that is required. A 244)v power source will generate no more than 2.5kW; if you want more, you will need a three-phase supply.

Not that you have to wash your truck yourself. Auto Gleam will turn up and do it for you from £40 to £45, and it will remove the waste water, too.

With truck cleaning centres at Avonmouth, Pin-fleet and Trafford Park, LPW Group has merged with Alpine Mobile Cleaning Services, with the ambition of setting up as many as 100 wash sites on motorway service areas. It charges £20 to £25 per clean, depending on truck size.

Operators trying to save a bob or two might be forgiven for making vehicle cleaning less of a priority. That would be ill-advised, reckons Field. "If a truck carrying food is filthy, people who see it are going to wonder what the inside is like," he observes. "They may think twice about buying the products the truck is carrying." •