Fleet washing pricing calculator
Enter the client’s fleet by class, your minutes per unit and your own rate per crew hour. The calculator returns a price per vehicle and per visit, with travel and setup built in and a discount line for a weekly, biweekly or monthly schedule. It is a planning tool for commercial pressure washing: every default is an example to replace with your own numbers, and nothing leaves your browser.
Fleet wash quote
Pre-filled with example inputs. Set the counts to the client’s fleet and the minutes to your own timed washes.
Price per visit
$691
12 units, 5.9 crew hr on site, about $1,497 a month
| Class | Units | Per unit | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car / pickup | 6 | $33.35 | $200.07 |
| Box truck | 4 | $66.69 | $266.76 |
| Tractor-trailer | 2 | $112.08 | $224.16 |
- Wash labour
- $620.00
- Chemical
- $33.00
- Travel and setup (45 min)
- $90.00
- Frequency discount (7%)
- -$52.01
Per-unit prices carry their share of travel and setup, so units x per-unit adds up to the visit. If your hourly rate already includes chemicals, set chemical each to zero.
PSI & nozzle quick reference
- 0 degRed
- Spot jet. Etches most surfaces.4000 PSI
- 15 degYellow
- Stripping bare concrete.4000 PSI
- 25 degGreen
- General concrete and walkways.3500 PSI
- 40 degWhite
- Siding, wood, vehicles.1500 PSI
- ~65 degBlack
- Detergent draw, low pressure.500 PSI
What fleet washing pricing is
Fleet washing is priced per vehicle, by class. A pickup, a box truck and a tractor with a 53 ft trailer take very different amounts of time and soap, so each class gets its own price. The client sees a per-unit rate they can multiply by the trucks in the yard. You build that rate from the only numbers you actually control: your minutes per unit, your rate per crew hour, the chemical each unit uses, and the drive and setup that every visit costs whether you wash two trucks or twenty.
That is why this calculator asks for your rate instead of quoting a market price. Fleet prices vary with the region, the yard and the hours the client allows, and a survey figure tells you nothing about whether your own crew makes money at it. If you do not have a rate yet, build one in the hourly rate calculator first and bring it here.
How to use the calculator
- Count the fleet by class. Ask for the vehicle list, then check it on the walkthrough. Trailers parked without a tractor still count as a wash.
- Replace the minutes with your own. The defaults are examples. Time three units of each class on a trial wash and use the average.
- Enter your chemical cost per unit. Divide what a drum costs by the units it actually washes at your dilution. Set it to zero if your hourly rate already carries chemicals.
- Add travel, setup and teardown. Drive time, unrolling hose, setting containment and packing up. The calculator spreads it across the units by wash time.
- Pick the frequency and set your discount. A recurring schedule earns a lower rate because it fills your route. The discount percentages are examples too.
The call-out floor still applies
Worked example: a 16-unit delivery yard
A regional delivery firm runs 8 pickups, 5 box trucks and 3 tractor-trailers out of one yard and wants them washed weekly. At the example rate of $120 per crew hour, the wash itself is 7.0 crew hours, travel and setup add 45 minutes, and chemical comes to $45.00. Before the discount that is $975.00 a visit; a 10% weekly discount brings it to $877.50, or about $3,802 a month.
| Class | Units | Minutes each | Per unit, weekly | Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car / pickup | 8 | 15 | $31.24 | $249.94 |
| Box truck | 5 | 30 | $62.49 | $312.43 |
| Tractor-trailer | 3 | 50 | $105.04 | $315.13 |
The same yard at each frequency shows what the discount buys you: a lower price per visit, and far more visits.
| Frequency | Discount | Per visit | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-off wash | 0% | $975.00 | - |
| Monthly | 5% | $926.25 | $926 |
| Every two weeks | 7% | $906.75 | $1,965 |
| Weekly | 10% | $877.50 | $3,802 |
Every input in this example is an illustration, not a market rate. Weekly is 52 visits a year over 12 months; every two weeks is 26.
Chemistry, nozzle and machine
Fleet grime is mostly road film: traffic dust, exhaust soot and a thin oily binder. That is an alkaline-detergent job, the same family the pressure washing chemicals guide lists for oil, grease and road film. Detergent makers sell transportation detergents, high-alkaline degreasers and acidic cleaners as separate product lines, and some touchless fleet setups run two products in sequence. The order, dilution and dwell differ from one product to the next, so the label and safety data sheet on your truck set them, not a web page. Measure what your injector actually draws with the downstream injector calculator before you cost chemical per unit.
Heat is the other lever. On greasy chassis and plant, a burner can turn a slow wash into a quick one, which shows up directly in your minutes per unit. Whether that pays back is covered in hot water vs cold water pressure washers.
Surface damage risk
Where the wash water goes
Fleet yards are where wash water gets noticed. EPA’s stormwater fact sheet on vehicle washing names fleet management activities among the main sources of polluted wash water reaching storm drains, and reminds operators that storm drains lead to local waterways, not to treatment plants. Untreated water carrying detergent, grease or sediment is not to go down them; municipal permit holders treat it as an illicit discharge. The best-practice answer is to recover the water and send it to the sanitary sewer, or treat it on site before it leaves.
Check your local water authority
If the yard has no usable water point, the wash runs off a tank on your rig; size it with the buffer tank size calculator and add any refill trips to travel and setup.
Turning the number into a contract
- Write the per-unit rates down by class. The bid template carries the method statement a fleet manager compares bids on: chemistry, water recovery, insurance.
- Tie the discount to the schedule. The contract template has room for frequency, the minimum visit charge and notice to cancel.
- Have the certificate ready. Commercial yards ask for proof of cover before the first wash; see pressure washing insurance.
- Keep flatwork separate. If the client also wants the yard or a wash bay floor cleaned, that is square-foot work; price it from the bands in pressure washing prices.
Questions fleet clients ask
Should I price fleet washing per truck or per hour?
Quote the client per unit and build that number from hours. A per-unit rate is what a fleet manager can budget against and multiply by whatever is in the yard on the day. An hourly quote invites them to watch the clock.
What if half the fleet is out when the crew arrives?
Per-unit pricing handles it: you bill the units washed. Put a minimum visit charge in the agreement so a near-empty yard still covers the drive, and agree a cut-off time for the vehicle list.
Is the frequency discount worth giving?
Usually, if the visits sit on a route you already drive. A weekly yard is a fixed block in the diary with no selling cost. Check the per-visit figure still clears your own rate after the discount, and say in writing that the rate holds only while the schedule does.
Do I need a hot-water machine for fleet work?
It depends on the grime. Road film and light grease shift with an alkaline detergent and cold water; heavy diesel and oil on chassis and equipment is where heat earns its fuel. The hot vs cold comparison sets out the trade.