A Clean Fleet for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics
In 2010, the Winter Olympics landed in Vancouver, British Columbia. As hundreds of athletes poured into the city to compete for envied top-placing medals, Vancouver swelled with the attention of thousands of fans and tourists visiting to take in the once-in-a-lifetime sight of witnessing world-class athletes perform in the events.
More than 1,500 coach buses were needed to shuttle spectators, athletes, teams, coaches and other key stakeholders for the Olympics from place to place as there was no parking available at the facilities. As worldwide attention is focused on the games, image is a top priority. Filthy, mud-covered buses being broadcast on national television networks weren’t an option. As is common, networks covering Olympic events caught b-roll footage of the athletes and their support systems travelling to arenas and competition locations. Dirty buses would be a detriment to not only the bus companies but to the Olympics itself.
The Vancouver Olympics faced a unique problem. They needed to find a cleaning solution to handle the more than 1,500 coach buses being used for transportation during the internationally viewed, multi-week events.
That’s where Wash Bots came in to “play,” so to speak. We provided twelve 101 BB Electric Tethered Units for three locations, two in Vancouver and one in Squamish near the ski hills. At all three sites, they built tents specifically designed with drainage, asphalt, power and water to handle the volume of buses being shuttled in and out of the high-tech, power-cleaning systems.
We were the only company that could handle the volume of machine builds in short order, as well as install and deliver the high demand washing rates required. The Olympics were able to greatly reduce the amount of staff that would have been required to hand wash these buses.
The cleaning technology was a part of a system that fueled the buses, cleaned the exteriors and emptied holding tanks. One-hundred-forty staff members across all three sites worked around the clock 24/7 for the three-month project. Over 1,500 buses came from all over North America to work at the Winter Games. Up to 1,000 buses per day were cleaned over the three sites with absolutely zero breakdowns during the entire project. Staff members were quickly and easily trained and got the hang of using the machines rapidly to be able to wash and make ready high volumes of buses each day.
Wash-Bots provided high-quality machinery that allowed staff to effectively and easily clean more than 1,000 coach buses a day in and out to maintain and uphold the Olympics’ image and reputation.
