Due to the difficulty in hiring employees, more petrol stations in Singapore have switched to automated car wash systems as opposed to manual car washes. Although some businesses have reported that costs can be cut by nearly half, other companies that pride themselves on providing more detailed services insist on continuing manual car washing.

The automated systems in use in Singapore are able to spray, scrub, and air dry vehicles in five minutes with absolutely no human effort required. The improved machines also recycle 85 per cent of the water used, further saving money.

Given these factors, more companies that run car washes at petrol stations are switching to machines to cope with escalating operating costs.

A spokesperson from one auto service company that has made this switch, Astee Autolution, told the Channel 8 news: “We have reduced workers’ wages and related taxes, which has saved us a lot.”

There, however, still exists car wash companies who are holding on to the quality of manual car wash services. To cut costs, these companies have instead switched to expensive but more efficient cleaning fluids, hoping to reduce the labor required to wash cars.

The owner of Boon’ Carwash said, “I don’t think the car wash industry should remove all human labor because we still need someone to look out for some missing or damaged or do some finishing touches.

Given the difficulty of hiring locals, auto service firms need to rely on quotas for foreign workers. At least one recruiting platform has said that applicants for car wash workers were about 35 percent less than other non-administrative jobs.