CCC - Car Cleaner Cartel

You don’t have to be an expert in economics to know that the automobile industry in India has grown like crazy in the last decade and more, with the 4-wheeler segment making significant strides in terms of volume. A relatively undocumented offshoot of this is the job opportunities it has created for non-car owners. There are more mechanics, more puncture shops, more drivers and most importantly, a lot of car cleaners.

I first observed this in 2003, when I used to carpool with a friend of mine who lived in a high-rise apartment. There used to be around 50 cars in that complex and my friend pointed me to a guy cleaning one of the cars and told me that he was the watchman; one who took up an additional job that paid him well and was co-located with the place of his main job.

For a long time, I used to be hell bent on cleaning my car on my own, but there was a limit to how long I could procrastinate enjoying laziness (is there an oxymoron somewhere there?).  I too started using the services of the local guys who cleaned cars and this is going on now for a long time.

Most of these guys are actually kids in their late teens and take up this work in the morning, before leaving to school/college. But in the last one year, I have a much older guy doing the job and he was definitely doing a much better job than any of the other guys before. For reasons better known to him, the guy has been absconding from July and though some people have spotted him in the neighbourhood, he hasn’t come back to this car cleaning job.

So, we had to reach out to the local kids and that is when we found out about the existence of a cartel; a Car Cleaning Cartel. Apparently, there is a youngster in his early 20s who scouts our adjoining 5-6 streets and identifies cars that need to be cleaned. He then reaches out to the owners and offers his services and quotes a rate. When the owner checks with his friend in the next building, he pretty much hears the same rate and decides to employ him.

But on the day of the job, this youngster brings along a friend who proceeds to clean the car. And then on, this kid is tagged to this house and car. At the end of the month, the car owner pays this kid his monthly pay and the kid, gives a subscription fee to the youngster who brought him this job! When this kid needs to take a day off, one of his friends, who is also in that youngster’s net, shows up and ensures that the car owner never has to deduct a day’s salary.

This looks and sounds (and probably is) like the way the mafia works. Or how, a monopoly market is created. Anybody who needs to have their car cleaned has to reach out to this cartel. If not, you have to search high and low to find a cleaner and even if you do, on days that person is on leave, you have a dirty car. Not so, if you use the cartel. They ensure that someone always shows up at your doorstep and in matter of 7-8 minutes, leave you with a less dirty car.