Write the brief around the vehicle, not the machine
A truck cleaning brief that starts with a machine specification will get you a machine. One that starts with the vehicle gets you a working process. So describe what you actually clean: vehicle type and size range, cab and box or trailer, underbody, wheels, curtains and tarpaulins, the tail-lift, and whether the load area itself has to be cleaned between loads. State how many vehicles per day, the height and width restrictions at the wash point, and whether the truck has to be cleaned where it is parked or driven to a bay. Those facts decide reach, hose length, water volume and whether the machine has to be mobile at all.
State the soil and the standard you have to meet
Truck soil is road film, diesel soot, grease at the wheels and chassis, and on some operations food or feed residue with a hygiene standard attached. Write the standard down in the form you will inspect against: which surfaces have to be visibly clean, which have to be clean to a hygiene requirement, and what counts as a fail on re-inspection. Without a stated standard, the supplier optimises for the wrong thing, and the crew argues about a "clean" truck every week.
Put the water and drainage constraint in the brief
This is the line item most buyers leave out and the one that most often stops a project. State where the wash water goes, whether an oil or grit separator is fitted, its capacity and its service interval, and what your site is permitted to discharge. Then ask the supplier how much water their machine uses per vehicle. High-temperature steam is worth specifying as a question here, because it removes grease with far less water, which loads the separator more slowly and cuts the disposal volume — a real cost per truck, not a marketing claim.
Specify the utilities you can actually supply
Give the machine's power and water assumptions as facts about your site, not as wishes: available supply and voltage, whether mains water reaches the wash point, whether there is drainage and where, and whether a charging position exists if the unit is battery-fed. A mobile unit needs a route as well as a supply, so include the surface, the ramps and any doorway or gate the unit has to pass. Published equipment figures only help once those site facts are in the brief — PowerDe's HW02 fixed unit, for example, is listed at 220 V, 6 kW heating power, 160° steam temperature, 0.8 MPa vapour pressure and an 80 L tank, which is a fixed-position specification you can only judge against your own supply and drainage.
Ask the question about mobility explicitly
Truck sites split into two cases: a fixed wash point the truck drives into, and a yard where the machine goes to the truck. Say which one you have, and if it is the second, state the distance and the surface. PowerDe's mobile range is offered in both driving-style and hand-pushed configurations, and some models are listed with and without a battery — so write the mobility requirement in the brief and let the supplier answer against it, rather than assuming a battery version is needed.
Ask for the figures the brief depends on
Some figures are not published on the product pages, and the brief should request them in writing rather than infer them: run time per charge and charging time for battery units, water consumption per vehicle, and accessory list and lengths. Add these as required answers in the brief so every supplier answers the same questions and the quotations are comparable.
Include the commercial terms the process needs
Close the brief with what you need around the machine: warranty scope and duration, response time, who stocks consumables and critical spares, training for the crew, and what happens if your vehicle mix changes. Then set how you will judge the answer — a trial on your own worst vehicle, with minutes of labour, water used and re-inspection failures recorded. Send the vehicle list, site facts and drainage situation to PowerDe through the contact page and ask for the configuration and those missing figures against the same trial.
