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Truck Washing’s a Growing Business, Especially at This Company

<img width="150" src="http://www.automotive-fleet.com/fc_images/blogs/m-img-6985-1.jpg" border="0" alt="

Washing trucks on a customer's property eliminates the need to set up wash bays or run them through facilities while on the road. Photos: Fleet Clean USA 

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Washing trucks on a customer's property eliminates the need to set up wash bays or run them through facilities while on the road. Photos: Fleet Clean USA 

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Cleanliness yields a positive image for truck operators, and regular vehicle washing protects against the ravages of corrosion. Those are among the reasons truck washing in the United States has become a $12 billion industry.

That's a number cited by Fleet Clean USA, a relative newcomer to the mobile washing business but one that's growing fast – 40% yearly on average since its start eight years ago, and 50% since this time last year.

The company says it currently services more than 1,000 businesses in 18 states, with 22 independently owned franchised locations and six corporate operations. It has no stationary wash facilities, unless you figure that its service trucks must stop for crews to begin working on customers' trucks.

“We save our customers a lot of money over having to do it in-house or taking it to a wash bay,” says the company's founder and CEO, Scott Marr. Fleet Clean's trucks go to customer sites, eliminating the need to take vehicles elsewhere or run them through facilities while on the road.

He got into the industry in 2009, the result of experience doing pressure--washing of buildings and such while in high school. After graduating he didn't attend college, but became involved in establishing a new bank in the Atlanta area.

While there, he continued to run a washing business on the side and recalls, “A customer had a fleet of trucks and I offered to wash them.” That led to the realization that he made more money washing trucks than working at the bank. In 2014, he began the franchising program, which accounts for most of the growth.

Marr is now 27 and riding a self-generated wave of wash ...Read the rest of this story

Freight conditions stay positive, FTR says

Research firm's index indicates truck utilization is nearing 100%, yet ELD mandate remains a “wildcard” where industry capacity is concerned.

The Trucking Conditions Index (TCI) compiled monthly by research firm FTR Transportation Intelligence remained “basically unchanged” in May but also indicates that a strengthening spot market indicates that freight conditions for trucking companies are becoming more positive.

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DAT releases TruckersEdge Pro

New load board expected to deliver rate transparency for owner-operators.

DAT Solutions announced the availability of DAT TruckersEdge Pro, a load board for owner-operators with access to more than 485,000 load posts per business day.

DAT TruckersEdge Pro search results show the average lane rate paid by brokers for loads that moved within the past 15 days, delivering the kind of rate transparency that was previously affordable only to the large players in the industry.

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Geotab partners with J. J. Keller and TMW Systems

Partnerships bring J. J. Keller Driver DataSense, TMWSuite, and TMW TruckMate to the Geotab Marketplace.

Geotab announced the launch of Driver DataSense from J. J. Keller & Associates and integrations to TMWSuite and TMW TruckMate from TMW Systems.

Selected specifically to address the needs of their mutual customers, J. J. Keller and TMW Systems join a portfolio of mobile apps, software Add-Ins and hardware Add-Ons, enabling Geotab customers to customize and extend their fleet management.

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