Mister Car Wash Inc., North America’s largest car wash network, selected managed service provider Interface Security Systems to upgrade and optimize its video monitoring and alarm systems.

With more than 350 car washes nationwide and rapid expansion plans, Mister Car Wash faced several challenges with legacy video monitoring and alarm systems that failed to inspire confidence among employees and fell short of ROI goals. Existing security vendors were out of sync with the solution Mister Car Wash needed to address critical pain points.

The network wanted to make a clean break from legacy solutions to tackle three critical requirements:

1.    Better design and placement of alarm sensors to secure areas of the car wash location where they were really needed, such as inside the waiting areas and employee workspaces.

2.    A complete revamp of the security camera system to capture events such as accidental vehicle braking, customers veering off track inside the car wash tunnel, and vehicle congestion at the end of the tunnel.

3.    Seamless integration of the camera system with a third-party vehicle movement monitoring system to minimize chances of accidents inside the tunnel and improve tunnel capacity.

“The way security cameras and alarm sensors were chosen and deployed created more problems than they solved,” said Jim Figueredo, director of asset protection at Mister Car Wash. “We were looking for a partner that understood our business goals with the capability to design solutions that elevate customer experience and maximize productivity for our staff.”

Mister Car Wash chose to work with Interface not only to address the immediate challenges associated with CCTV camera and alarm systems, but also to create a foundation for consistently replicating safety and security best practices across all future locations.

As a part of the upgrade, Interface successfully integrated security camera feeds with a third-party vehicle anti-collision system to increase efficiency and reduce the chances of accidents inside the car wash tunnel. The solution tracks the flow of vehicles inside the car wash tunnel and automatically stops the conveyor belt if an imminent collision is detected.

“Interface’s consultative approach to identifying key problems and innovative solution design was a breath of fresh air for us,” Figueredo added. “Interface was the only vendor who was able to seamlessly integrate our cameras and NVR with the anti-collision system. This has allowed us to reduce costs while improving operations. The true benefit of using Interface is their ability to really understand our problems and go the extra mile to suggest future-proof solutions that can scale.”

By upgrading and optimizing the video monitoring and alarm systems with Interface, Mister Car Wash has reduced false alarms, minimized instances of false reduced vehicle damage claims, general liability issues, and improved overall safety at their locations.

The solution also helped Mister Car Wash standardize the setup needed for any new greenfield location and addressed unique challenges in upgrading locations acquired from other car wash companies.

Having upgraded over 90 Mister Car Wash locations to the new solution, Interface is collaborating with Mister Car Wash to eventually bring most of its countrywide network of locations to the new technology standard.

“The true benefit of using Interface is their ability to really understand our problems and go the extra mile to suggest future-proof solutions that can scale. Their ability to bring together diverse systems from different vendors has tremendous value to Mister Car Wash. We now have the confidence to grow fast without sacrificing ROI,” said Figueredo.