Secrets of Washing Buses and Limousines

How do you wash a bus? Well, there are many types of buses such as: School Buses, Charter Buses, Church Buses, Shuttle Buses, Military Buses, Greyhound Type Buses and there are the buses that do tours, custom, gigantic buses that are really plush. The fronts of the buses always have lots of bugs and they are hard to clean. But generally they are not as hard to clean as the sides. And the greyhound style buses are hard to clean because they have those little ripples in the skin. Every time you hit another bodyline it is hard to get it clean. What you have to do is soap from the bodyline down by hand with a mit. There is no other way to do it. You can try brushing it sideways, but that is just not going to be as easy as you think.

Some of the buses that work for the cities have advertising on them. When you are cleaning the advertising you want to make sure you do not blast it at too close a range or use too much harsh soap on it because you will discolor their advertising and that makes them upset. The stainless steel part of the bottom of some buses is really hard to clean, so what you need to do is go back and forth and hand soap it. You have to really watch this part because you get a little corner and you will miss a spot. It really shows up every time you miss any little spot on a bus, so you are going to have to hand soap the sides and brush the backs and you are going to have to use a little extra chemical cleaners. And pay extra special attention to what you are doing. The fronts are rather easy. However you are going to have to rinse and dry off every single window. What a pain in the neck. Even if you are using de-ionized water, when you spray the top of a bus it usually has soot and things like that that roll back down and get on the windows. If you do not rinse and dry the windows this will leave water streaks.

Ok, let's generalize about buses. I don't care if it is school buses, shuttle buses or tour buses, you are going to have to dry the windows. There is just no other way around drying the windows. There are RTD buses, Metro buses, the kind of buses rapid transit systems use, town transportation buses, county buses and city buses. With all of these you have to dry the windows and you pretty much have to do a good job on them because people ride in them and those people look out the windows.

The wheels need to be cleaned. This is something people always look at. If you are going to miss wheels, miss them on the driver's side not on the passenger's side because the passenger's side is where the passengers get in. That has to be the cleanest side. So, make sure if you are going to miss a spot, miss it on the driver's side, not on the passenger's side. School buses, you know, obviously the windows leak. So do not spray exactly, directly at the windows, ok? Be careful with that. Just be smart about it. Charter buses, you are going to have to clean that inside back bathroom area. It is not that hard to clean, use a little window cleaner and wipe it up real quick. There are lots of big flat surfaces on buses. If you pay attention to the ripples and the bodylines and you hand soap the bottoms of them they will come off perfect every single time. This is what is important.

Washing Limousines (Exteriors)

Limousines, how do you wash a limousine? Well, if you do it in the sun you better do the sunny side first. And be careful because you are going to water spot the vehicle. A lot of limousines have vinyl tops. You may not have to soap the vinyl top. All you have to do is spray it with water and dry it off. Use a separate towel on the top to make sure any excess vinyl dressing from a previous cleaning is on only one towel. Make sure you don't use that towel to clean the windows. Make sure you always do the whitewalls and you clean in those rims on those limousines. You are going to have to spray the whitewalls and you are going to have to spray the rims. You may want to spray them at the same time and then come back and blast the rims when you are wetting the vehicle on your initial rinse. You may want to do limos one at a time. There might be a lot of chrome on a limousine. Even if there is not that much chrome, on the chrome that is there, you want it to shine. You better make sure your towels are dry when you are drying a limousine. You want to make sure the windows are done well. Go over them after the wash with window cleaner. There just cannot be any excuses. It is a big, black vehicle and it has got to be done right.

Limousines (Interior)

Fragrance, in the interiors of limousines is a very sensitive issue. Go light on fragrance or use none at all. Be very careful with fragrance. If the customer complains about the fragrance, you could lose a contract. Vacuuming is a little different in limousines. You have a big area. It is kind of like vacuuming a living room. So have the right attachment for your vacuum cleaner. Inside windows on limousines, be careful. There are counters and little areas where they have the wet bars. You have to wipe all of that stuff off on the inside of the limousines. If there are spots in the carpet you are going to have to clean them with your carpet spot remover. You have to kind of walk on your knees. You do not want your feet touching the carpet in the limousine. You are just going to put more spots inside, because remember, it takes a little more water to wash a limousine so you have a greater chance of tracking mud inside.

If you are doing it by yourself, or the person that is cleaning and blasting the rims is the one getting inside the limousine, you have got water on your shoes and you have got some gook from the rims. You do not want to get that on the carpets. Each time that limousine is cleaned it has to look like it is the first time anybody has driven in the limousine. That is what they are shooting for. Kind of like a hotel room, it has to look as if the hotel room is basically so clean that you are the first person that ever rented it. For further advice contact the Bus Wash Guys; http://www.Buswashguys.com and ask for the training director if you get into a situation you just cannot figure out how to clean.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs