Joe's taken a shine to doing business on wheels

Joe Miller can thank a serious fall from a ladder in 2018 for changing his life for the better.

The building industry worker fell backwards off a ladder and hit a drainpipe which broke several ribs that laid him low for three months.

“I decided during that time I didn’t want to go back into the building trade which was always rush, rush, rush which puts workers like me at risk,” he says.

“A mate who had a mobile car detailing business urged me to work with him, and after four years I branched out on my own when I moved from Adelaide to the Illawarra a year ago,” says Joe.

The 43-year-old father of two from Dapto and his portable business East Coast Car Detail is a member of Australia’s growing mobile workforce whose main selling point is doorstep convenience.

Over the past century the mobile industry has expanded from ice and coal delivery trucks to a range of services including mobile hairdressers, dog groomers and mechanics who find it cheaper and easier to run their business without bricks and mortar.

“I enjoy it because I’ve become pretty good at detailing and it provides a decent living,” says Joe.

“I start with the wheels which are usually the dirtiest and move up to the guards and doorjambs which hold a lot of dirt in the hinges … I then move on to the engine if it needs a clean and then I pressure-clean the car before a wash and dry. Last are the interior and windows.”

Joe says that in his five years of mobile car cleaning he has only rejected two cars.

“I had one young guy who lived on a farm and wanted to restore a dilapidated car that had been left out in the field for years. He wanted me to clean it up but it was too far gone.

“The other was somebody who wanted to sell an old car that was so dirty that the time it would take me to clean it would have cost him about $1000, which is more than what the car was worth.

“I only reject cars that are not worth the cleaning costs for the owner.”

Joe says everyday dirty cars don’t worry him; in fact, they’re a challenge he enjoys.

“I have opened up cars where cockroaches have sprung out and scattered, but that’s not an issue because I always carry pest control bombs,” he says.

In just one year, Joe has built up an impressive following including two big contracts – one involving a government department with 38 cars to clean each month, and a company that owns a holding bay at Kembla Grange that regularly needs cars cleaned.

But it’s not all plain sailing.

“If there is no shelter, bad weather can be a big issue. I don’t mind the heat, but if it’s raining, I normally have to reschedule,” says Joe.

With experience in toolmaking, welding and fabricating, Joe’s ultimate aim is to establish a workshop business, while still retaining a mobile detailing service.

“That has always been my ambition, to do things like car wrapping that protects the car exterior, as well as larger polishing jobs,” says Joe.

“I can get a car looking pretty good, but you can always go that extra mile in a workshop.”

For more information, contact Joe at East Coast Car Detail on 0405 221 981.