Time is the most undervalued cost in fleet vehicle management. When employees drive to a car wash, wait for service, and drive back, the business absorbs a hidden productivity loss that rarely appears in any budget.
Waterless mobile fleet valeting eliminates this loss completely.
The Time Cost of Traditional Fleet Cleaning
The Journey
Average round trip to a car wash facility: 30–45 minutes. For a fleet of 20 vehicles cleaned fortnightly, that’s 20–30 hours of employee time per month — purely spent travelling to and from a car wash.
The Wait
Average time at a car wash (including queuing): 15–30 minutes. For the same fleet: 10–20 hours of additional waiting time per month.
The Total
Combined monthly time cost for a 20-vehicle fleet:
| Activity | Time per Vehicle | Monthly Total (20 vehicles, fortnightly) |
|---|---|---|
| Travel to facility | 30–45 min | 20–30 hours |
| Queuing and washing | 15–30 min | 10–20 hours |
| Travel back | 30–45 min | 20–30 hours |
| Total | 75–120 min | 50–80 hours |
At an average fully loaded employee cost of £25/hour, that represents £1,250–£2,000 per month in lost productivity.
How Mobile Waterless Valeting Recovers This Time
Driver Involvement: Zero
Drivers park their vehicles as normal. MMCC technicians collect keys from reception or a key safe, complete the service, and return keys. Drivers aren’t involved at all.
Vehicle Travel: Zero
MMCC comes to your premises. Vehicles stay in your car park throughout.
Scheduling Impact: Zero
Services happen during normal parking hours. Vehicles are cleaned while employees work, attend meetings, or are otherwise engaged.
Time Recovered per Month
For the same 20-vehicle fleet with fortnightly waterless valeting: 50–80 hours recovered — equivalent to 1.5–2.0 full working weeks.
The Annual Impact
| Fleet Size | Monthly Hours Saved | Annual Hours Saved | Annual Value (at £25/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 vehicles | 25–40 | 300–480 | £7,500–£12,000 |
| 20 vehicles | 50–80 | 600–960 | £15,000–£24,000 |
| 50 vehicles | 125–200 | 1,500–2,400 | £37,500–£60,000 |
These savings alone often exceed the cost of a professional valeting programme.
Beyond Time: What Else You Gain
Consistency
When cleaning is the driver’s responsibility, some do it well and some don’t. Mobile valeting delivers the same standard to every vehicle, every time.
Quality
Professional waterless valeting with PureShield ceramic protection delivers results that no automated car wash can match. Vehicles are cleaner, better protected, and in better condition long-term.
Documentation
Every visit generates condition reports through the Fleet Insight Platform. This data supports lease return negotiations, insurance claims, and ESG reporting — without any fleet manager effort.
Environmental Performance
Waterless valeting saves 150–300 litres of water per vehicle per service. For a 20-vehicle fleet serviced fortnightly, that’s 78,000–156,000 litres saved annually — significant data for sustainability reporting.
Making the Case Internally
When presenting mobile waterless valeting to senior management, the time-saving argument is often the most compelling:
- Calculate current time costs — number of vehicles × trips per month × average trip duration × average hourly cost
- Compare to mobile valeting — zero driver time, fixed monthly cost, superior results
- Show the net position — time savings minus valeting cost = net benefit
In most fleet scenarios, the business saves money AND gets better results.