In a prior article we discussed servicing an auto dealership showroom. Now let’s consider the challenges of servicing the mechanic’s bays. As we discovered, the showroom is open seven days per week whereas the mechanic’s bays are open six. As mentioned early, the challenges of maintaining mechanic’s bays are very different from the showroom and different tools, chemicals and processes need to be utilized to deal with the different floor textures, oils, traffic, etc.

Although the showroom has a high profile, many customers will wander into the mechanic’s bay area to speak with the mechanic or just want to observe work being performed. Many dealerships, including this one, has separate rest rooms for the mechanics which is great since they can trash a customer rest room in one visit due to the soils they have on their feet and hands. They usually need a far more aggressive hand soap and need the ability to clean up without concern for the next person coming in behind them.

We noted the mechanic’s bay floor is an applied epoxy that has a built in slip resistance while being resistant to oil spills and even gasoline. I highly recommend you keep one or more emergency buckets available with a cleanup mop and solution of degreaser and water so that they can mop up any spills promptly without going after your showroom tools. Color coding or simply labeling these items can help to avoid a costly mistake. Using posters and even having an orientation meeting periodically may help as well as getting management behind you in this endeavor.

Your crew will need to understand the differences between the showroom and mechanic’s bays since you will need aggressive degreasers and traditional mops since microfiber simply will not work in most cases. A right sized autoscrub can cut time so long as the mechanics stage their carts and clean up behind themselves before service is to be performed. The rest rooms will take more time and consider a pressure washer type system or foam gun to clean up all the grease and tracked in soils.

Remember that scheduling after the showroom and bays are closed is important.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net


posted on 6/9/2016