When Camel Express Car Wash went from one location to three in just nine months, they had a problem most fast-growing businesses know all too well: everyone was working hard, but nobody was working the same way. Six years later, they're about to open their sixth site — and training isn't just something they do. It's who they are.
Here's how a car wash in Nashville turned Trainual into the heartbeat of their company.
Camel Express by the numbers
- 175% → 62% turnover within two years of adopting Trainual — and holding there or lower since
- 80% of their team uses Trainual on mobile
- ~20 logins per employee every 90 days
- 4.6 stars across 1,000+ customer reviews
- 1 → 6 locations (and counting)
The problem: three locations, three different training manuals
Camel Express had processes. What they didn't have was one version of them. As they scaled from one wash to three in under a year, their paper manuals quietly drifted apart — different versions at different sites, some six months old, some brand new, some nobody could even account for.
"We had everything precise, but not every site, not every person had the same exact training manual. That's why I was looking for a company that had everything all in one place — digitally." — John Sproul, Training Director
The fix wasn't more paper. It was a single source of truth that every location pulled from.
Going mobile: training that lives where the work happens
Here's what makes Camel Express unusual: 80% of their team uses Trainual on their phones — and that's by design. They put NFC tags directly on their mechanical equipment, so when something needs troubleshooting, a team member taps their phone and the right training appears on the spot. Pair that with AI-powered search, and you've got a team that can answer its own questions in real time.
"We love the NFC tag option. We have the tags all over our mechanical equipment — they scan it and pull up the training. We want to enable them to find the answer for themselves." — John Sproul, Training Director
Before, the smaller questions just… never got asked. A customer-facing hiccup would get a band-aid, or get skipped entirely. Now the answer is one tap away — no hammer-dialing a manager mid-shift. And there's a knock-on effect John didn't expect: people feel empowered. Instead of worrying they're bothering someone, they get to solve the problem themselves — and that confidence shows up on the floor.
The secret weapon: make it funny
John has a theory about training, and it's a good one. The worst thing you can do is have no manual. The second worst thing? A boring one — because the moment people get bored, they stop paying attention. So Camel Express built humor right into the content. There's a section on fingernail policy paired with a GIF of Wolverine's claws. It gets a laugh every time — and that laugh is the point.
"I absolutely love when I hear someone chuckle during onboarding. That's how I know they're actually paying attention." — John Sproul, Training Director
New hires consistently say the same thing: they're shocked at how organized — and how fun — it all is. The GIFs are usually the first thing they mention. And that's the whole strategy in a nutshell: fun leads to learning, and learning makes everyone better.
The culture play: when training becomes identity
This is where it goes from "we use a tool" to "this is our company." Camel Express runs everything through Trainual — weekly performance videos from John, company newsletters, event announcements, even Mother's and Father's Day moments. "What did Trainual say?" is a real sentence people say out loud. So is "we've got to make a Trainual for that," which gets deployed any time someone fumbles something (locking themselves out of their car, included).
The culture is so baked in that the Camel team started calling him "John-ual" as an inside thing — and it spread so far that people across the car wash industry now think it's his actual name. There's even an avatar of him in their Slack.
"Everyone at Camel Express knows what Trainual does for us and how much it's changed things. And everyone knows I'm the number one champion for it." — John Sproul, Training Director
The gamification helps, too. The leaderboard turns updates into a competition, and a handful of team members will do whatever it takes to hold onto the number one spot.
The customer experience: "if it's not written down, it didn't happen"
Almost nobody plans their day around a car wash. People stop in on the way to work, on the way home — and sometimes on the way to a funeral (one Camel location sits near a few funeral homes). The Camel team is trained to remember that they never really know what a customer is carrying that day. So the standard is simple and it's everywhere in their training: improve the experience, every single time.
"It's all about improving the customer experience. We're not going to make it perfect — just improving it, over and over. And if it's not written down, it didn't happen." — John Sproul, Training Director
That consistency shows up in the scoreboard that matters most: a 4.6-star average across more than 1,000 reviews.
The results: a number that speaks for itself
The car wash industry runs hot on turnover — 175% is considered normal. That's where Camel Express started. Two years later, they were at 62% — and the drop began almost immediately. Six years on, they're still there or lower.
A big part of it is trust. In those first few days, new hires spend hours hearing their manager's voice walk them through Trainual. By the time something goes wrong, they don't disappear — they own it.
"Our turnover was about 175%. Within two years we got it down to about 62% — and we've held there or lower ever since. People are more likely to admit a mistake and own up to it — because they trust these people — instead of just quitting and never showing up again." — John Sproul, Training Director
It also makes their multi-location model frictionless. When someone transfers sites, the nerves fade fast: same hand signals, same packages, same way of talking to customers. Same Camel.
The advice: one step back to take eight forward
So what does John tell the business owner who's hesitant — worried about the time, the cost, the change?
"It's like taking one step backwards to take eight steps forward. Whether someone's with us for three months, three years, or 30 years, they leave a better person than when they joined us. And a big part of that is the experience they have with training." — John Sproul, Training Director
What's next for Camel Express
Camel Express doesn't chase a magic number of locations. Their CEO's answer is always the same: just one more. The growth exists to serve a bigger goal — taking better care of their people and their customers.
"We're always focused on just one more. We grow so we can take care of our team." — John Sproul, Training Director
Their sixth location opens this summer. Number seven is already on the horizon. And every one of them will run the same playbook — the one that lives in Trainual.
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