MONTEGO BAY, St James — Total Energies, operators of Total service stations, says it will officially open an automated car wash in Ironshore within a couple of weeks.

There are also plans to open another at its Gilmour Drive service station in Kingston. That will bring to three the number of automated car washes in Jamaica.

"It will be opened in a couple of weeks, if it even takes that long. It's ready, we're just doing some final checks to make sure that it is ready for the public," Corporate Communications Manager Toni-Ann Reid told the Jamaica Observer's weekly Auto magazine at the location on Wednesday.

Ironshore, she said, had been selected to house the drive-through car wash as it is Total Energies' flagship location in that end of the island.

"It's one of our larger service stations and services a lot of individuals, especially because of its location. We know that there is a lot of vehicular traffic that is going to come from the hotels so that's a lot of taxi services and operations like that. So we figured it might be the best location to kind of service those customers," Reid explained.

The gas station is located on a heavily travelled highway that leads into St James. Ironshore is home to many upscale properties, villas, hotels, and commercial enterprises. It is also the proposed location for St James' first PriceSmart club.

The automated car wash, Reid said, is an attempt to provide customers with a vital service, even before they realised they needed it.

"Creating a faster, more efficient way of conducting vehicular cleaning would be advantageous to our busy customers," she reasoned. "The wash offers a variety of options that allows customers to customise their experience based on the state of their car. Overall, we strive to provide fast and efficient value-added service at a reasonable price."

In April 2021, the company became the first to offer the service at its Portmore Pines location in St Catherine. It had promised then that it would be branching out to other sections of the country. True to its word, build-out of the car wash at the company's Ironshore location is well underway. The distinct structure of the automated car wash is visible at the location: two large fluffy columns of cleaning bristles stand on either side of the driveway through which cars pass. Vacuum bays are also already in place.

She said prices will be in the range of those at its Portmore Pines location and customers at Ironshore will also have a suite of options from which to choose. When the Portmore location was opened, there were six options, priced from a low of $600 for a Quick Wash to the $2,000 Lotus Wash, which includes wax and polish services.

"All they need to do is to enter the service station, purchase their ticket, and they will be guided through the process by attendants at different intervals," said Reid. She said it will take less than 10 minutes to have a vehicle washed.

And even as they get the Ironshore automated car wash ready to roll out, Total Energies is eyeing other locations where it can add the automated wash service. The main factor, she explained, will be the size of the location and whether it can accommodate the structure.