How to Price Fleet Washing per Vehicle: Trucks and Vans

Here is how to price fleet washing when a customer runs a yard of trucks and vans and wants one number per unit. Put every vehicle in a class, time one of each, cost the labor, chemical, water and fuel under it, add your margin, and sell a route visit every week with one invoice a month. The prices below come from published pages; the minutes come from your stopwatch.

Fleet washing prices per vehicle: one price per class

A fleet manager compares washers on the price per unit, so the quote needs a class list, not a lump sum. A class is a group of vehicles that take about the same minutes, chemical and water; time one of each on the first visit.

Write the class on each quote line and list the units by number beneath it.

The cost under each unit: labor, chemical, water and fuel

Price from the cost of one unit in each class, not from a competitor's flyer.

Labor at the published wage

O*NET's wage page for cleaners of vehicles and equipment, crediting BLS 2025 data, shows a median of $17.23 an hour and $35,830 a year, the figure the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook's hand laborers and material movers page lists for May 2025. Add the employer's payroll share from IRS Topic 751, 6.2 percent for Social Security and 1.45 percent for Medicare, and the loaded floor is $17.23 × 1.0765 = $18.55 an hour before insurance and overhead.

Two step truck wash chemicals from a supplier's page

A two-step wash lays down a low pH presoak, then a high pH one, and rinses; no brush. Kleen-Rite lists Kleen-Track 1A, a low pH presoak sold "as a first step in a two-step touchless wash," at $52.87 for a 5 gallon pail at 75:1 to 120:1, and Kleen-Track 1B, the high pH second step, at $48.17 for 5 gallons at 64:1 to 90:1. Both pages flag a $38.50 hazardous material fee that may be added to the order.

At the weak end of each range, 5 gallons of 1A at 75:1 makes 5 × 76 = 380 gallons of mix, $52.87 ÷ 380 = about $0.14 a gallon; 5 gallons of 1B at 64:1 makes 325 gallons, $48.17 ÷ 325 = about $0.15. At 3 gallons of each mix on a box truck (your own count), the chemical on the unit is under a dollar. Oxidized aluminum is its own step: Technichem's Mighty Brite brightener is $102.00 for 5 gallons at up to 20:1, and the page warns that it contains hydrofluoric acid: a separate line with the training and gear under it.

Water by the minute on the trigger

The water on a unit is trigger minutes times the machine's flow. Tool Nut lists a Mi-T-M 4000 PSI direct drive machine at 4.0 GPM for $2,909.99: six minutes on the trigger is 24 gallons, and the tank carries a route's worth. The machine's price spread over the hours you expect from it is the fifth line, wear.

Fuel for the drive

The drive is a cost of the visit, not of the unit, which is why a stop needs a minimum. The Energy Information Administration's weekly retail prices put regular gasoline at $4.331 a gallon and on-highway diesel at $6.179 for the week ending October 12, 2026; miles there and back, over your truck's miles per gallon, times the price, is the line.

Weekly fleet wash route pricing versus biweekly

A fleet is route work: the same yard, the same units, the same night. Three things follow.

• A stop minimum. The drive and the setup cost the same for 4 units as for 40, so a yard below the minimum pays the minimum.
• A per-unit price that drops with frequency. A unit washed weekly carries a week of film and takes fewer minutes than one washed every other week, so quote both and show the weekly price lower.
• A line for units that are not there. Trucks on the road at wash time are skipped, not billed, and not credited against the minimum.

Access decides the schedule. Most yards want the washing after the last truck is in and before the first one leaves: nights or weekends, a gate code and a light. Ask where the spigot and the drain are and who signs when the office is closed; with nobody to sign, photograph each unit after the wash.

Put the unit prices, the minimum and the schedule on one page and the quote reads as a contract: "Thursday nights after 8, 14 units as listed, price per class, minimum per visit, skipped units not billed, one invoice at month end."

That is the floor, not the market. If the fleet pays more today, the margin is where the difference lives; if it pays less, check the minutes first.

Wash water and storm drains: what the city expects

Wash water is the cost a new operator leaves out and an inspector does not. Portland's vehicle and equipment washing page says the city "prohibits the discharge of wash water into the stormwater system," tells a business to "Ensure the mobile washer contains and collects all wash water," and warns that "If a mobile washer generates a prohibited discharge from your site, your facility may be held responsible." That last sentence is why a fleet manager asks about reclaim before price.

Austin's page for power washers and mobile car washes says the water "may not be discharged into the storm sewer if it contains pollutants or cleaning compounds and has not been treated before entering the environment," may go to the sanitary sewer only when "collected and transported to a private fixed-site facility" with pretreatment, and that "all industrial wastewater discharges must be authorized by permit." Two cities, one rule.

For the price that means berms, a drain cover, a vacuum or sump into a holding tank, the minutes to set them up at every stop, and a disposal fee where the water is hauled. Read the yard's own city page before the first quote, ask whether the wash area drains to the sanitary sewer, and put "wash water contained and disposed of per city rules" on the quote as a line the fleet can show its inspector.

The rules sell for you too. Under 49 CFR 393.9 the lamps and reflective devices a commercial vehicle must carry may not be obscured by dirt, and a truck that fails that at roadside is the fleet's cost. A regular wash keeps lights, reflectors and DOT numbers readable; say so on the proposal.

Good to know: This is general information, not legal advice. Stormwater and wastewater rules differ by city and change; read the current page for the yard's city and ask its stormwater office or a lawyer before you rely on it.

One monthly invoice per fleet, one line per vehicle

Bill a fleet the way its office pays: one invoice a month, a line per class with the count and the rate, unit numbers beneath.

In MakeHay the fleet is one customer with the yard as its job site, the quote carries a per item line for each class with the customer's approval and signature online, the weekly visit is recurring service on the calendar, and the invoice goes out by email with card and ACH payment online; a fleet that would rather not touch an invoice goes on autopay. Photos of each unit after a night wash reach the fleet through the client portal.

Packages on a detailing quote; a fleet quote uses a per item line for each vehicle class instead.

For the owner's own cars, mobile detailing maintenance plan pricing prices a visit the same way, and estimating a pressure washing job without a site visit covers the yard's building when the fleet asks.