Carwash Industry Data with the CCA’s Wash Volume Report
The Canadian Carwash Association (CCA) publishes the results of the Wash Volume Report (WVR) on a monthly basis. It is the single most reliable source of marketing data for the Canadian carwash industry when it comes to evaluating marketing, as well as earning performance and potential. Highlights include:
- Free participation with your CCA membership with your participation;
- Monthly national and regional reporting comparing your performance with other carwash locations across Canada;
- Monthly national and regional same store reporting comparing your performance with other carwash locations across Canada that have been open continuously for two years; and
- Monthly national and regional reporting by carwash types;
Nearly a thousand carwash sites from across the country participate in the WVR, providing wash volume data to Kalibrate. Kalibrate’s primary area of expertise is in gathering national gas volume information; which the oil companies subscribe to. In 2005, Kalibrate (formerly Kent Group) was approached by CCA to undertake a similar service for the carwash industry, and in January 2006 the WVR program began.
In 2019 the WVR program underwent a vast update, now providing users with an enhanced reporting interface that includes robust analytics and graphical displays. Users now have the flexibility to filter out or group together different regions, periods, or carwash types to modify views and display only the data that suits their specific needs. Fundamentally, the WVR saves carwash owners time; all available data and analytics is in one user-friendly file, providing ease of access and use.
The WVR is divided into 14 regional areas and participants receive detailed information from the region or regions they report in, as well as the national data. The CCA only reports on top line national or amalgamated regional data; individual regional data is not released. All responses are confidential and names are not used in the reporting, nor released by the CCA office.
There is more than 15 years of carwash trend data available, but why should Canadian Operators care? The WVR is vital at putting your business in a competitive position to show you how effective your marketing is compared to others around you.
Without data to use as a benchmark and for comparative purposes, operators are making decisions in a vacuum. With that said, the next hurdle is joining the process and producing the data needed by CCA’s independent research firm.
If you are a CCA member, there’s no extra cost and joining the WVR program is an email or phone call away. The data is easy to collect as most equipment used in the car washing industry reports the number of cycles, number of times a bay is accessed and what options have been selected.
Monthly participants complete an electronic spreadsheet for Kalibrate. It is simple and confidential. Generally, a single site will only need to complete one or two columns. For each type of service you offer, we just need the number of cycles (individual washes) and the total revenue per month. If you are a coin operator with one or more bays, you just take your monthly gross carwash related sales revenue divided by $4 to come up with a comparative number of cycles. If you own an automatic, the number of cycles is one of the pieces of information your high priced equipment should generate, and your monthly sales.
Click Here to view a sample of the latest Wash Volume Report Summary. These high level results are available to the public. The data that you will receive as a participant is much more detailed.
Curious about how the Wash Volume Report works? Here is the recording of a webinar that was held on October 25, 2022 featuring Suzanne Gray of Kalibrate.