Free checklist
Car Wash Prep Training Checklist
The checklist (11 items)
Written as observable actions, so two trainers scoring the same shift land in the same place. In CrewSharp this is the Prep Lane checklist in the Car wash / Quick auto starter set, filed under Wash, and every item here is editable.
- 1Walked around the car to look for existing damageCritical
- 2Pointed out any damage to the driver before the wash
- 3Pre-soaked the heavy soil areasMust pass
- 4Scrubbed bug spots on the front bumper and mirrors
- 5Hand-brushed wheels and rocker panels
- 6Asked drivers to fold mirrors where needed
- 7Asked drivers to remove or retract antennasCritical
- 8Used the pressure wand at a safe distance from paint
- 9Rinsed brushes between cars
- 10Wore gloves and eye protection with chemicals
- 11Kept pace with the line without skipping steps
Print it, score it on a clipboard, or open it in Sheets. No email required.
What usually goes wrong
The damage walk-around is critical because it decides who pays. Damage not noted at prep is damage the wash is presumed to have caused, and that presumption is very difficult to argue with afterwards.
The items a good total should not outweigh
- Walked around the car to look for existing damage
- Asked drivers to remove or retract antennas
When to sign someone off
A workable bar for this checklist: no critical items missed, a score above a line you set for Prep Lane specifically rather than one number for the whole building, and observed on more than one shift with at least one of them busy. Then date it, so it can expire.
That last part is the one people skip. A sign-off with no date cannot be re-checked, which means a year later you have a record that says somebody was ready once.
Checklists that pair with this one
Someone trained on this one most often covers these alongside it, which makes them the sensible second checklist to train.
Common questions
Why check for damage if the customer did not mention it?
Because the claim comes at the exit. The pre-existing damage check is the only record that separates a car that arrived scratched from one that left scratched, and it only exists if prep made it.
What should be on a car wash prep checklist?
The 11 items above cover it: walked around the car to look for existing damage, pointed out any damage to the driver before the wash, pre-soaked the heavy soil areas, and the rest of the list. Keep it in that range. Fewer and a pass proves very little; many more and trainers stop finishing it during a real shift.
Which items should count as critical?
On this checklist, 2 items are marked critical: walked around the car to look for existing damage; asked drivers to remove or retract antennas. Missing one means not ready, regardless of the total score, because these are the failures that cannot be corrected after the fact.
Scoring it is the part that lasts
Run this Prep Lane checklist on a tablet between rushes and CrewSharp keeps the rest: who is signed off, when it was last checked, and which item your crew misses most.
30 days free. No card to start. Cancel in one click.