Data supplied by retail car wash locations through the International Carwash Associations Wash Count" program showed that the U.S. car wash industry continues to recover with the overall economy, posting gains in both average number of cars washed per location (wash counts) and average revenue per car washed (ticket average). In 2012, wash counts grew by 2.1 percent, while ticket average grew by 2.6 percent.
More than 500 locations are enrolled in Wash Count, which enables the data to be interpreted at a 95 percent confidence level (i.e., +/- 5 percent). The association estimates the total number of car wash locations in the United States at approximately 80,500.
Wash Count is available at no additional cost to association members. Participants receive valuable quarterly benchmarking data, unavailable to non-participants, which allow participants to compare their results to a broad cross-section of the industry by geography and car wash model type.