RFID Helps Car Wash Customers Cruise Through Lines

When a car approaches the entrance to the tunnel designated for unlimited wash membership, an AWID RFID reader positioned 8 feet high on the driver's side captures the ID number encoded to the label's tag. The interrogator transmits that data via a wired connection to the back-end system, where the ID number is linked to a customer's payment plan. Cruz Thru's software system then instructs the gate to open.

The RFID labels can be utilized at any of the five Cruz Thru stores in Bakersfield. Since the original store does not have room for a dedicated membership lane, however, attendants at that location scan the bar-coded number on the RFID label.

According to Roselle, the initial set-up employed both license plate and RFID technology, with the system first capturing a digital image of the license plate and, if that license plate was not recognized, the reader then attempting to capture an ID number. However, Roselle says, the shortcomings of the license plate system eventually convinced the business to terminate it entirely and offer RFID labels to all of its members, including those already utilizing license plate recognition.

There were some challenges the company had to overcome in installing the system, Roselle says. Metalcraft designed an RFID tag that could be placed on the outside of the windshield, making it easier to read. Therefore, the tags needed to be robust enough to withstand the rigors of the car wash, as well as weather. To test the tags, he explains, Cruz Thru and Metalcraft placed several inside the car wash for one month of heavy washing, to ensure they did not fail. In addition, the tags were designed to break if anyone attempted to remove a label from one vehicle's windshield and attach it to another in an effort to obtain free washes for an unauthorized vehicle.

"That was challenging," Roselle says, "getting a tag that could live in this environment outside but be destructible enough so that if it is removed, the tag would be destroyed." However, says Aaron Hobert of Metalcraft's RFID sales support team, Metalcraft was able to accomplish this by combining a KSW Microtek inlay with its own custom-designed label. Metalcraft is now offering the same labels for other similar deployments.

The system has been working successfully for about a year, Roselle says. When the car washes are busy, he claims, each processes approximately 100 membership vehicles per hour per store, with little delay in queues. Those who do not purchase membership, he notes, often wait in lines five cars deep. The business currently has around 5,000 members and provides about 35,000 washes monthly for those members.

A New Jersey car-wash operator, Deptford Shammy Shine, is using a similar system (see Car Wash Operators Find RFID Helps Them Clean Up), provided by Innovative Control Services (ICS).