Mobile Detailing and Environmental Laws. Quality and Service - Yeah, Right!.
Mobile Detailers are required to prevent water from entering a storm drain while washing and detailing cars. Most professional detailers know this but few understand where these laws came from. Here is the history behind where these laws and rules came from.
It all it all started many years ago when Congress passed the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972. This was in response to major pollution issues involving polluting the nation's waterways from factories, strip mining and sewage treatment plants or lack thereof. It was actually quite a problem. It was an ecosystem disaster causing disease and death to wildlife and some people.
When it was discovered just how bad the problem really was, the Federal Government empowered the states to take care of the issues within their state. The states enacted state laws to help fix the problem. Meanwhile, the Federal Government tightened standards forcing states to tighten their standards or be in violation. With the threat of withholding federal monies to the states, the state continued to make more and more laws. Industry obviously wasn't happy and even government agencies were unable to comply. So, target dates were enacted to give time for everyone to comply. Overnight environmental consulting firms sprung up along with a whole new industry of environmental equipment and product manufactures, many of whom weren't in compliance themselves.
The State of California was the first to adopt rules for mobile washers and surface cleaners. They did this after they divided the state into nine different regions realizing that each region had different pollution problems based on industry types in the areas, shortly there after mobile washers were identified as a non-point source discharge and they decided to stop these wash water flows in to the storm drains. These nine regions were called &Regional Water Quality Control Districts', RWQCD. These were all controlled by the State Board that was defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).
The SWRCB was formed in California and is commonly called &The State Board'. The State Board regulates Water Quality Control, which is any activity or factor that might affect the quality of waters of the state and includes the prevention and correction of water pollution and nuisance. This sounds very encompassing and the State Board has too much power. Luckily, now they understand the issues enough to make an intelligent decision.
Recently, the State Water Quality Control Districts ten years ago the counties to submit for approval and receive permits to discharge the same waters they've been discharging for years. These permits were called NPDES permits. This stands for National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Usually the counties will assign an existing department to work on this permit. More likely than not, it is the county's Flood Control Department. Unfortunately, this part of the county deals with permits for land development, bridges, infrastructures, etc. Until now, they knew very little about pollution. The NPDES permits are approved by the state for local county urban runoff discharges. Each city in each county through municipal codes is supposed to pass ordinances and a plan for controlling their local runoff/pollution. The county remains responsible to the state and the states to the Federal Government. The NPDES requirements are an offspring of the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency even though they are enforced, permitted and regulated locally by cities, counties and states.
Many municipalities have unique ordinances dealing with various types of runoff. Some of these ordinances were written before lawmakers really knew what they were doing. Many, therefore, may be on the books but not ever enforced.
The basic rule of thumb is very simple; "Do Not Allow Wash Water Run-off to enter a storm drain, gutter or allow flows into a creek, river, lake or the Ocean. Block the water, dam it up or divert it, then all it to evaporate, flow into vegetation or vacuum it up. Simple, do it right, stay out of trouble and don't pollute.
"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
One of the critical drivers of business success is having a unique competitive advantage. Most managers understand that to attract a larger share of the market, or find enough customers prepared to pay a premium price, they must provide something of greater value than their competition. For most managers, competitive advantage boils down to providing superior quality and service. Think about it. Is this what you are aiming for?
Now, striving for quality and service sounds to me like what Americans call "motherhood and apple pie." The purity of these things has an appeal that you can't argue with. But I have a problem with the concept. You see, whenever I ask my clients what their competitive advantage is, realizing that there can be only one "cheapest" competitor, they almost invariably tell me that it is quality and service. The trouble I have with that is, if everyone provides quality and service, where is the competitive advantage?
The problem with just saying quality and service is that the concepts are too vague. Think about it. Can you give me a definition of the word "quality"? It's not that easy is it. There is something intangible about "quality" because it is a relative term. When I ask my clients what they mean by "quality" or "service," they have the same difficulty. The danger is that their idea of quality is something less than their customer's. Unless you can define exactly what "quality" and "service" means to your customers, you don't have a tangible competitive advantage.
What does "quality" mean for your product or service? How is that different from any of your competitors? You need to get very specific. Merely generalising about quality and service doesn't give customer's anything to go on. Can you prove your product is better, stronger, faster, more reliable? Just presenting quality and service in general terms isn't enough to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage. Customers don't believe vague claims and they don't believe you, unless you can back up your statement with irrefutable facts. The same goes for service. What does better service mean?
Is it faster, more personal, more user friendly? How can you support your claims?
Whether you use these statements in your advertising or selling situations, statements that are specific and verifiable will always be more believable and therefore more effective, than vague generalizations. So if you promote your product or service on the basis of superior quality, start working on defining exactly why it is superior and provide measurable proof of its superiority. This will achieve one of two things. First, you may find out that your product or service isn't really that much different or better than your competitor. That's OK. At least you now know and can get to work on finding out how to make it superior. Secondly, if you can define your superiority and provide measurable proof, now you really have a competitive advantage which gives you a unique selling proposition to advertise.
Look at the following claims. "Our product is the best on the market." Or. "Our product was shown in scientific trials to be 37% more effective in ..... than competing products." Which do you think would be more effective in advertising?
If you can't test your product or service to measure its superiority, you can provide independent verification of your claims in other ways. For example, using client testimonials is a very effective way of overcoming customer skepticism. When independent people talk about your product or service in a positive way, describing the benefits they have received, it is much more believable than when you say the same things yourself. It is even better if your customer is specific .
So, what is your competitive advantage? Don't say quality and service. That just doesn't mean anything to your market. Get specific, get the facts and be believable. Then use that unique selling proposition in all your promotions and selling activities to drive home your competitive advantage. You'll see a difference in your results that makes it worth the effort.
(c) 2004 Greg Roworth, Progressive Business Solutions Limited
Greg Roworth is the Managing Director of Progressive Business Solutions Limited, a business development consultancy firm with branches in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. Greg has created a unique business development program that assists business owners transform their business from a state of total dependency on them to a state where the business works so well they don't have to.
Greg is also the author of "The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential," which descibes the fundamental keys a business needs to achieve this transformation. Find out more, get 2 free chapters, or buy the book online at http://www.small-business-success.ws
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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