Funeral director Pieter Dekker washes funeral cars with his own rollover
Pieter Dekker, funeral director with a fleet of one hundred (mourning) cars in the Netherlands, discovered that traditional car washing by hand was no longer sufficient. He placed a rollover next to the funeral home and has been able to keep the quality of washing consistently high ever since. “Our business demands a perfectly clean look, where every detail counts,” he says.
Although owner Pieter Dekker is not necessarily a car enthusiast, the passion for washing cars is close to his heart. From the age of fifteen, he helped his father wash hearses. In addition, the family had a cab company, for which Dekker also washed the cars. “During the week I did the cars that were on the turn, and every Saturday I picked up the whole fleet. I thought it was fantastic; wash the cars, turn on the radio and play my shag. If I didn’t do it right, my father would kick my ass,” he says, looking back on his first years in the family business. Because they lived next door to the business, car washing was always an easy job. “I quickly changed clothes, slipped into a pair of jeans and went to work with a bucket and suds. Then quickly back into the suit for the funeral.”
Annoyance
Meanwhile, the family business has grown so large that it is too many cars to wash thoroughly by hand. The company’s own fleet currently includes about one hundred (funeral) cars. These are not only cars for funeral services, but also for rental to smaller funeral directors. “For a while we tried it with permanent employees, often with a distance to the labor market,” he says. A great initiative, he says, but not without challenges. For example, not all cars were washed daily or were not done thoroughly enough, while the importance of representativeness for the funeral home is very high. “I was extremely annoyed if a spot was forgotten, or if a car was not perfectly clean,” Dekker says. “While that is one of the most important things; a funeral car just has to be clean off the pad.” Therefore, Dekker went looking for a flexible and reliable solution and ended up with EenzetCarwash for an in-house rollover next to the funeral home. By automating and mechanizing the car wash process, the funeral home can keep quality high and the process is much more efficient. “Now we can even choose from different programs, such as a quick dry after a rain or a more intensive wash if needed.”
Having special tuning
The funeral home’s fleet consists not only of standard vehicles, but also of specialized hearse vehicles that are often longer and wider than average. “We therefore had the rollover specially tuned for our cars,” he explains. “The drive-through width is extra wide and the rear ends are well taken into account, which can sometimes be a problem with regular car washes.” Careful consideration was also given to the brushes on them. “We chose soft brushes. Because there is a lot of washing and there is never much dirt on it, it also comes off easily. So then this type of brush is fine for daily use.”
Compliments
The rollover runs quite a few washes daily, Dekker says. “It gets plenty of use; we don’t do anything by hand anymore.” The company has already received many compliments on its clean cars. “My twin brother also used to be in the business and is always very critical. He doesn’t give compliments easily, but the other day he said to me that he has never seen the cars so clean. That’s nice to hear.”
Facts & figures
Rollover model: Istobal M’Wash 2
Delivered by: EenzetCarwash
Passage width: 2.60 meters (extra wide)
Equipped with: high-pressure prewash with turbo-nozzles, rim chemistry, high-pressure wheel wash, 70 bar high pressure and frost protection for outdoor installation
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