The Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida, isn’t your typical vehicle cleaning business. You see, out of the 43 employees, 35 or a staggering 81 percent of their workforce is on the autism spectrum, which even more spectacular if you consider that 90 percent of adults with autism are unemployed.
The family owned operation came to life in 2013 by veteran entrepreneur John D’Eri and his son, 25-year old business school graduate, Tom. John’s other son and Tom’s younger brother Andrew D’Eri is diagnosed with autism and works at the car wash.
In the video, by NationSwell, John said that the family wanted to help their son, as well as other people with autism, to enter the workforce and live more productive lives.
“I don’t want him to sit in a room, taken care of by others once I’m gone. I want him to have a life,” John D’Eri said in the report. “I want him to have a job, I want him to have friends who are like him, so this car wash creates an answer for Andrew, and also creates an answer for their mom, whose taken care of him and has done all the heavy lifting.”
Before opening their business, John and his son Tom said they spent around two years testing systems and coming up with a training protocol, NBC News reported.
“Typically people with autism are really good with structured tasks, following processes, attention to detail,” said Tom who is the COO of Rising Tide Car Wash. “So we thought there were really important skills that people with autism have, that make them, in some cases, the best employees you could have.”