It has been a long held struggle with trucks and trailers to eliminate or prevent salt from corroding important components of their vehicles. But what does this really mean in terms of life expectancy?

According to a study by School Bus Fleet Magazine, a survey across North America had some stunning results. In the survey 81% of the respondents encountered salt on their roads, 19% did not encounter any salt on their roads:

Average bus retirement age:

• Large Bus WITH SALT 14.1 years
• Large Bus WITHOUT SALT 18.3 years

That is an average of almost 25% longer life for a bus!

What does that mean? Well, for anyone washing and eliminating salt from their vehicles, we can do the same math and extend the life of your fleet by 25%? We have to believe this would be true.

The story has to be, washing works for extending life of our vehicles as well as promoting a clean image to the public as you drive the highways.

How do you wash and eliminate salt all depends on the methods you are willing to invest in:

1. Mobile Spray company in your yard – do they remove that fine film of salt that is beginning to oxidize on your metal? It is better than nothing, but not the preferred method.

   Note: Most of the time the back door is not accessible, thus the most visible part of the truck stuck in traffic is the dirtiest!

2. Public Wash – professional companies you drive to that use a variety of methods:
   
   1. Touchless – maybe a bit better than the mobile company, but still leaves a film
   2. Brush – mechanical or by hand will remove that film

   Note: How much does it cost to send a driver, fuel and time to do this?

3. Your Own Wash Bay – here you can determine your needs, your cost and your equipment to satisfy your image and life of your trucks.

   Note: It’s not as expensive as you think to have a wash bay or convert an area to wash automatically. Water restrictions and costs are minimized with low cost water recycle systems that are available.

How do you wash your trucks today? Can you do better?