automotive detailer

crew member

customer service representative

cashier/sales

car wash attendant

Waterway Carwash

I’ve worked at Waterway for about 4 years now. I promoted up into the rank below a manager, only making $10 an hour but with even more responsibilities. I would open the store until my manager would come in a couple hours later. I had the responsibility of leading my team, dealing with customer issues, answering the phone, and doing basic manager paperwork.  It was a lot of work some mornings especially when people call out. But the job on the line is pretty easy, but once the company raised the prices, the employees were getting less tips. I would work a full 8 hour day and make about $30-$60 a day. It really isn’t great considering I used to make about $90-$140 a day. Sometimes you’re working in the blistering heat, or shoveling snow all day until you can’t feel your hands. Sometimes there is drama between employees. And sometimes you’re so slow and your manager doesn’t cut you so you’re just making the bad wage. Also, once you promote, you make like a dollar more then the basic line associate and you have to train new employees, do payroll and audits, check cars, and deal with manager issues.  I feel like they also try and push you to become a manager, even if you’re not interested. But to the positives, most of the managers are young and they care about you as a person. The washes are pretty easy to learn. You get free car washes and a gas discount. A lot of your coworkers will turn into a friendship. You get to drive cool cars. It’s a fast pace environment and typically the days go by quickly. And the days can be fun sometimes. But overall, this is the perfect high school job or even college job. The managers respect your schedule and are typically flexible.  I would recommend this job to a high schooler or college student, but just stay a line associate. Don’t make this place a career or you’ll be working there forever.

A typical day at Waterway would insist of being busy from 7:30 am through out the whole day. Mornings are kinda slow but as you ease into the lunch rush it gets hectic! We usually have 9 line employees (including myself) on the lot to knock out cars. Since I've been working at Waterway I've learned how to properly wash/dry vehicles. I've learned how to steam carpets and cloth seats. I've learned how to properly wax the exteriors of cars, clean and polish vinyl interiors, clean and condition leather/ suede seats. I know how to properly vacuum cars out, and clean windows. The management at my location is decent. They could make a lot of changes that could better the experience for the customer as well as the employee. They could be a lot better with scheduling and staffing and hands on work. My co-workes for the most part are the greatest! There are those occasional slackers that fall into the bunch but the rest of my fellow employees work just as hard as i do! Everyone that i work with thrives on putting a smile on each others face so I couldn't ask for a better team to work with! The hardest part of my job I would have to say would be working outside in the extreme cold. The most enjoyable part of my job is knowing that my customers are fully satisfied with my line of work! I love the fact that when my customers are greeted by the managers they can only give good compliments and gestures for the wonderful work that i do or request for me when they come in because they want a top quality cleaning job!

I started working at waterway in late september and let me tell you: the money was nothing short of insane, even though i only work 14-16 hours a week.  It was also decently busy in October so the tips were usually more than satisfactory, but right when mid november came around the tips just plummeted, as with december. Based off of what ive seen so far, the tips in January have been quite low (i was making around 
$55-$60 on an avg day in september and october, now i barely even make half of that even on a “busy” day since its January). It also doesn’t help that they pay you only $7.80 an hour when the tips are less than satisfactory. Since im not making much money, i am starting to work longer on the weekends in hopes that i catch the daily rush. At this point, me and everyone else are looking forward to march/april/may, when the tips will skyrocket. But especially in the wintertime, when you’re dying to sit inside to escape the cold you gotta be tough to survive on this job.


The work culture is OK around here, but there is some immaturity with some of the line employees and even the management. Sometimes, other line employees will ask if you can close their shift and try to take advantage of you. 

Typical day would be a six hour shift starting at 8-10 am. You wash cars or detail until your scheduled push/pull shift (putting cars on the actually line that tows the cars through the wash or take them off the line). You do that for an hour and a half, and then go back to washing and detailing cars. After the shift is over there are clean ups that need to be done such as spraying the lot to get all of the dirt and armor all off, refilling the carts with window spray, armor all or exterior detailing products. This usually takes around a half hour to complete. The hardest part of the job is keeping your productivity up after a few hours. When the car wash is very busy it can get to be very stressful. You must be able to work fast but still maintain quality work. My co-workers at this job don't take it extremely serious, which is the downfall of the company. There are a few hard workers and the rest just stand around and mope about the work that is needing to get done. It isn't the most enjoyable job, but the tips you walk away with at the end of the day is decent. I've seen employees and managers come and go with seasons passing, and most of our good staff we had two years ago are now gone.

When I began working there the location had just opened up so I wont say much about the conditions of the location because they are likely to have changed by now. The people that I worked with were nice enough, most of them were in high school. The people that I worked with helped to contribute to a pretty relaxed work environment, plus the management was pretty nice. I wouldn't describe this job as even close to difficult but you will spend a majority of your time outdoors. The only thing that I didn't enjoy about the job was the pay. The ad for the job says something like $12-20 an hour, and that sounds great. Even $12 an hour for a job like this is pretty acceptable. The thing is, it wasn't made clear to me until the interview that the pay structure was actually $6 an hour plus tips. Your pay will depend very much on the day and weather. If it's a rainy day, then congrats, you've made less than minimum wage. Other than that though there isn't much to complain about, it's a carwash job, it's simple and easy and personally I think that makes it boring but hey, money. 

Started out as a great job.  Started at 13 an hour plus commission, worked up to 17.  It says you make 18-19 an hour, but that’s if you hit commission, which rarely happened for me.  It depends on if your whole team is trying to make sales or not.  It used to reward individual sales on a dollar amount, which was great, but now it’s team based commission based on sales percentages.  The people at waterway are great, but company changes killed the relaxed, fun atmosphere that existed.  Now it’s just stress and sales.  No breaks really, you have to ask for one, which will hurt the team because they have to shift people away from washing cars.  They run as few people on the clock as possible, which overloaded everyone who was there.  I was also not scheduled for my last week of work after putting in my two weeks.  Worked there for three years, wasn’t given a heads up.  All in all, used to be a fun place to work, I still really love some of the people there, but it’s not the same place anymore.  You can make bank if you want, but it’s not worth the stress and exhaustion.

Waterway is a great place to go if you're looking for a first time job or a job that's gonna give you some quick cash. There is a good variety of roles that you can do in the company so you can pick which one works for you. The work environment changes a lot depending on the manager and getting promotions are made easier or harder depending on if a manager happens to like you. There is a lot of manager turnover with about 2 manager changes a year. The work itself isn't difficult once you get the hang of it, the hard part is just being outside in all sorts of weather especially in winter because you are working in a moist environment. You do not get breaks, including lunch breaks but when there are not any cars to wash you can get a snack. If there isn't much business and nobody is making money then they'll try to send you home so you aren't stuck there making $4/hour to clean stuff but just realize that there will be days that you make no money. Overall it's a pretty decent job especially for a high school or college kid.

I started the job at Waterway with much enthusiasm because I was gonna be able to use my body to work. I was told it was going to be very busy and people would be tipping super well, expected $50 minimum in tips. My first day on the job I made $29 in tips in 8 hours. The next two days I worked I ended up getting sent home after 2 hours of work with $0 in tips both days because of how dead it was. The last day I worked there I was getting tipped very little and we had little to no business so I was asking to go home but they wouldn't let me even though we had 7 people there for a dead store. After I got sent home an hour before I was supposed to leave I left woth $19 in tips after 7 hours. The way they pay you and track your hours is through an app called "Paycom" where it's set to $5.50/hr off tops. So they don't or rather aren't willing to compensate you for the under minimum wage pay so I ended up not showing up anymore. When I got my check after 1 week of working there, 18 hours worked and ab $60 in tips total, my check was $0.04. Yep, they screwed me out of my check on top of not willing to compensate me. I would warn every single person to never work here ever!

My day at work would start off by me coming in around 3:00 and immediately starting on a car. I usually will leave with between $20-$45 in tips on the days that I work. During the week, I am scheduled to close so we all usually leave around about 8:30, and we close at 8:00. I've learned a few different things since working there like how to thoroughly detail a vehicle, also how to work different vehicles like hybrids and push to start vehicles, and I learned how to sell washes and how to properly work with the customers. Management does a good job of keeping things in line and professional. Also management has given me good compliments about my work multiple times. My co-workers all get along with me and I get along with them, we all have a good time at work, joking around a lot, talking to one another often. I would have to say the hardest part of my job is working outside in the heat during the day. The most enjoyable part of my job is having instant cash in my pocket at the end of the day.

You get paid $5 by Waterway and the rest is on you. There is a lot of hustling and competition in this job. There are three parts to this job: full service, ride through and the various non-tipped shifts. In full service you are cleaning the inside and out. Real back breaking work. And in order to make some real money you have to fly through the cars. In ride through you just have to dry off the car. This is the best part about the job. You can be making $40+ an hour on ride throughs. And it is easier than cleaning the full car. Then you have the the non-tipped shifts you get put on. You either are putting the car into the actual carwash or driving the cars out of the wash into the full service lanes (where the inside and out is cleaned). You do not get any tips and only make about $9 an hour during these hour shifts. Management was good while I was there however they started hiring anyone and the coworkers went downhill fast. Overall if you are young and want to make some good money ($80-$160 a day) it is a good job. However no one lasts because it is such tiring work and you are outside in the heat and cold.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive detailer 104 salaries reported	$17.05 per hour
Crew member 78 salaries reported	$17.63 per hour
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Cashier/sales 29 salaries reported	$15.86 per hour
Car wash attendant 2 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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