Nobody skips servicing the van. The van earns a living, so the van gets its oil, its filters, and its MOT on schedule, without debate.
Every March, they arrive at our Leighton Buzzard workshop in a procession. Pressure washers that "worked perfectly last autumn" now pour water from somewhere inside the moment they are switched on. The owners suspect seals, pumps, and mysterious wear.
Valeting has one of the kindest entry tickets in self-employment: a few thousand pounds of kit, a van, and graft. Which is exactly why the trade splits so visibly into two populations: valeters whose equipment earns quietly for years, and valeters back at the counter every few months replacing another dead machine, mid-diary, at panic prices.
