USA Technologies & Coinmach Launch Credit Solution for Multifamily Laundry Market

By Teresa O’Dea Hein, Managing EditorMalvern, Pa.–USA Technologies has introduced eSuds Credit, an online laundry service for the nation’s multi-housing laundry industry. eSuds Credit enables residents in multifamily housing to go online to see what washers and dryers are available in their shared laundry facility, pay for their laundry services with a credit or debit card, and also be notified via email, PDA or cell phone when their wash or dry cycles are complete.This system has already been installed by Coinmach in Potomac Place Tower, a high-rise apartment community in Washington, D.C.“Many Potomac Place residents appreciate how the online service accelerates their laundry process and gives them more free time,” reports Danielle Harris-Mills, sales associate for Capital Residential Properties. Coinmach Service Corp. is a distributor of eSuds and is the largest laundry equipment services company in North America, operating approximately 875,000 pieces of laundry equipment in about 80,000 locations. The overall self-service laundry market is estimated to consist of 89 million people living in rental housing, with 85 percent in multi-housing and 15 percent on campus.“By adding credit and debit, therefore eliminating the need for quarters, eSuds’ use of credit cards is a premium online offering that responds to the emerging demands of customers in the multi-housing market,” says Dave Drake, vice president of ASI Campus Solutions, the college division of Coinmach Corp. “The additional electronic feature of knowing when machines are available and when they are finished is just another convenient addition to the old laundry procedure.”“We are working with Coinmach to expand our successful campus-based eSuds service to the multi-housing market,” says Len Crosson, vice president of global sales and business development, USA Technologies. “According to the Multi-Family Laundry Association, there are 7.5 million coin operated washers and dryers in the multifamily housing laundry market. Since this vast market is primarily untapped by online monitoring systems and credit card-activated equipment we see great potential for eSuds credit.”USA Technologies already offers the eSuds online laundry service to nearly 40 universities and colleges nationwide, where it is connected to about 6,000 washers and dryers. Students can use their campus ID cards to activate and pay for the service. Coinmach’s customers include property management companies, colleges and universities, and the United States military. The company also leases laundry rooms in apartments and dormitories, and rents machines to apartment residents, Laundromats and management companies.USA Technologies specializes in the networking of wireless non-cash transactions, associated financial/network services and energy management. It provides networked credit card and other non-cash systems in the vending, commercial laundry, hospitality and digital imaging industries.