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Dusty weather in UAE: Residents wait up to 2 hours for car wash

Demand has doubled at service centres

Published: Tue 16 Aug 2022, 2:07 PM

Updated: Tue 16 Aug 2022, 5:33 PM

  • By
  • SM Ayaz Zakir

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Car washes are seeing brisk activity after dusty weather prevailed in the UAE for two days straight. Motorists are queuing outside car wash stations to rid their vehicles off the dust. Some have reported waiting times of up to two hours.

At a few centres, a full car wash takes up to 40 minutes, with a waiting time of over half an hour. Good Steam Auto Centre in Al Quoz, Dubai, has been witnessing huge demand for the car wash.

Amar Shahzad

Amar Shahzad

“On the first day of dusty weather, it was just 30 cars, our daily average,” said Amar Shahzad, operations, Good Steam Auto Centre. But on August 15, the number doubled, and the workers had to continuously work round the clock to cater to the heavy rush. “We cleaned nearly 80 vehicles yesterday, and it was mostly a full wash as the residents want to clean the dust which has accumulated beneath,” said Shahzad.

A service centre beside a petrol station on Shaikh Zayed Road washed nearly 120 cars on August 15. “It was a mix of automatic wash and manual wash. We cleaned more cars in the automatic wash as it is quick, and the wait time was comparatively lesser compared to manual wash,” said Patrick Bangcas, serviceman at the station.

Bangcas added that residents opt for a full manual wash after dusty weather. “Considering the wait time, the automatic wash has become a preferable option for the last two days,” said Bangcas.

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Dusty weather has kept mobile car washers busy for the last two days as well. Imamul Hassan, a private serviceman at the waterfront market in Deira, used to clean around ten cars daily. It came to his surprise as the number of cars he cleaned increased two folds on 14 August and four folds on 15 August. “It was dusty weather on August 14, and I thought it would subside by 10 AM. But people who were entering the parking of waterfront market hired us to clean their cars. I was in surprise as I was quite busy with cleaning,” said Hassan.

“I was prepared for the next day, and it happened as I expected. We all got the opportunity to clean nearly three times our daily average,” added Hassan.

Many residents have cleaned their cars more than once in the last two days. Anand, a resident of Barsha Heights, usually cleans his car weekly from a service station. “But in the last two days, I got it washed twice, and possibly I will go again to get it cleaned,” said Anand.

Shahid Khan, a resident of Sharjah, has also cleaned his car twice in the last two days. “I had been to the service centre twice, and I had to shell out nearly Dh100 for washing. But the dusty weather still prevails. Going to the service station is a bit expensive so I hired a private cleaner for Dh10,” added Khan.

ayaz@khaleejtimes.com



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