Vinyl Wraps Offer Flexibility, Cost Control for Fleets to Showcase Branding, Colors

This story appears in the May 11 print edition of Transport Topics.

The color a fleet chooses for its equipment is about more than appearances. For many, those hues are as vital to the company’s image as its name.

So it was perhaps only natural that Lyon, France-based Norbert Dentressangle planned to launch its U.S. operation with a fleet wearing the same deep red as its equipment in Europe. But executives at the transportation and logistics provider, which ranks No. 25 on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of North American logistics companies, soon learned this wouldn’t be as easy as just spraying on a few coats of paint.

“We realized that painting would cost up to $12,000 per trailer, because not only would they have to be painted red, at the end of the lease they [would] have to be repainted white,” said Sherrie Miller, director of sales operations and planning for the company, which has U.S. headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. “Painting over Norbert red to pure white is very difficult. The cost to make sure we could get it back to the native color makes painting an expensive proposition.”

What’s more, the company learned that painting wasn’t even an option for its leased tractors. “We weren’t expecting that,” Miller said.

To get its U.S. fleets swathed in the right shade of red, the company turned to vinyl wraps. Norbert placed them on 35 tractors and hundreds of trailers, saving the company time and money, Miller said. Norbert paid about $3,200 for trailer wraps, $2,200 for sleeper tractors and $1,500 for day cabs.

Not only did the company save money, it saved time because it was able to wrap two tractors a day.

“That was faster than we could paint, which made it easier to pull our assets off of the road,” Miller said.

Wrap manufacturers and installers said business is increasing as a growing number of fleets turn to vinyl for the flexibility and messaging it can provide.

“For food franchises, the wraps are usually [like] a commercial,” said Tonja Griffin, general manager of the digital division at Houston-based Mountain Commercial Graphics. “For delivery trucks, they are normally done for branding.”

Allen Hovermale, the leader of the inventory business team for beer distributor Wantz Distributors in Hagerstown, Maryland, said the company utilizes trailer wraps to inform the public about product availability.

“Anheuser-Busch has the designs pre-designed, and we pick from what they have available,” he said.

Less-than-truckload carrier YRC Freight has used wraps to recruit drivers, celebrate veterans, highlight highway safety and promote charities.

“The ROI is employee pride — to see inspiring images on our new equipment,” said Mike Kelley, chief sustainability officer and vice president of external affairs for YRC Worldwide, the holding company for YRC Freight. “They are very popular with our drivers.”

The Overland Park, Kansas-based fleet ranks No. 5 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.

But with specialized initiatives such as these, plus seasonal or limited-time availability of some companies’ products, the length of time carriers leave wraps installed on equipment can vary.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, based in Plano, Texas, has more than 15 different wrap designs in its fleet.

“We will usually leave a wrap on for three to five years unless we have a major graphics change. Then we will attempt to get the newer graphics in the market as soon as is practical,” said Mark Jackson, vice president of immediate consumption and field execution at Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

“We try to keep our look fresh in the market as we know the graphics depicted on our vehicles are a reflection of our brands,” he added.

Jason’s Deli, a restaurant chain based in Beaumont, Texas, usually keeps trailers for five years and tries to use one wrap the entire time. It will, however, change a wrap if a design becomes unaligned with branding, said Aaron Mater, director of distribution. The company has four wrap designs in its 36-trailer fleet.

Mater noted, however, that Jason’s tries not to rewrap if the trailer has less than two years left in the fleet.

“Once it starts to fade or is destroyed, we will discuss putting on a new one, depending on the condition of the trailer and the projected amount of time it will remain in our fleet,” Mater said, noting that the cost of removing an old wrap and installing a new one, including the cost of the wrap, is about $4,500 start to finish.

To offset these potential costs, companies can design wraps so they can be updated without being replaced, said Steve Whitaker, executive vice president of sales at Signature Graphics, based in Porter, Indiana. Whitaker noted that YRC, for example, had a wrap design that promoted dates of annual summer musical productions. “We can go right on top of it and update the dates so they can use it the following summer,” he said.

Plus, since trailer wraps are produced in panels, those panels can be replaced if necessary, said Darren Keller, vice president of sales and marketing?for Lowen Color Graphics in Hutchinson, Kansas. “One panel is typically 54 inches in width by the height of the trailer — about 8 feet high,” he said.

Some carriers wring value from their designs by swapping out only the back panels, said Julie Martin, director of operations for AB Installation, a graphics installer based in Glenwood, Maryland. And, it’s a strategy that works for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Jackson said.

“The majority of our promotional emphasis is accomplished on our truck backs,” he said. “These are typically shorter in duration, and a truck-back campaign allows us the flexibility we need.”

Mountain Commercial’s Griffin said most companies leave wraps on for at least two years but warned that eventually the adhesive starts to harden and becomes more difficult to remove.

Martin said vinyl comes off but leaves adhesive behind that creates a headache for installers.

“It is like when you buy a picture frame and it had a sticker on the front,” she said. “The paper comes off but the adhesive stays on, and you’re stuck at your sink using your thumbnail to try and scrape it off. Imagine that with a 53-foot trailer.”

Vinyl and adhesives manufacturer Avery Dennison guarantees removability for up to five years, but Dan Rozzo, the company’s corporate specification manager, agreed that adhesives left on too long can be troublesome.

“The longer the graphic stays on the more difficult it will be to remove,” he said.

For companies looking to run a short-term promotion, Avery Dennison manufactures a changeable adhesive that allows companies to place a smaller graphic on top of their full wrap, Rozzo said.

“It could be a quarterly promotion or something similar. It is a fairly new concept, and it is starting to catch on with more and more fleets,” he said.

To care for wraps, Avery Dennison recommends the protection of digital overlaminate — a flexible vinyl film designed to protect against scratches, abrasions and damage from ultraviolet rays.

Alan Miller, a tech service engineer at vinyl and adhesive manufacturer 3M Commercial Solutions in St. Paul, Minnesota, notes that wraps can withstand minor scuffing from leaves and cleaning brushes but not from tree branches or other large objects.

CHS, a farmer-owned cooperative and energy, grain and food company, also based in St. Paul, uses wraps on a small percentage of its trailers and sticks with vinyl decals and logos on the rest.

“You do sacrifice a little if you do a wrap because you’re targeting one specific message,” said Andrew Miller, a brand manager at CHS. “Do you want to promote the company as a whole or a specific product?”

He also said wraps don’t last as long as a decal: “For us, wraps last two to three years and then it is time to replace them.”

3M’s Miller said graphic manufacturers can help carriers select the films that will ensure brand messaging lasts as long as needed, whether it is months or years. He said 3M’s warranties for printed graphics last up to seven years, depending on the product.

But many companies won’t wait that long, said Jim Laber, president of IDEA! Printing & Graphics in Visalia, California.

“If you keep them clean and keep a good wax on them, they will last a long time, but most people are changing them out every three to five years because it is time to change their marketing approach or they lease and are ready to give leased vehicles back,” he said.

Getting the color and marketing message just right is important, but making sure a wrap fits is equally important. Manufacturers said having information up front about the equipment being wrapped can help.

“We must know the make, model and age of the vehicle so that what we design and engineer fits and looks like it has always been a part of that specific piece of equipment,” Signature Graphics’ Whitaker said.

Employees from the company usually inspect a vehicle prior to creating a wrap to make sure there are no aftermarket components that might affect the fit and determine if adaptations are necessary, he said.

Norbert worked with its pro-vider, TKO Graphix, to modify its designs for U.S. equipment.

“Where the hinges are on the doors in U.S. trucks are different than European models. We had to alter some of the scale and dimension of the logo for it to fit properly,” Norbert’s Miller said.

Installers also inspect equipment before installation.

“A trailer has to be in somewhat good condition as far as the paint is concerned for the wrap to adhere. If it is in poor condition, you have to basically paint it to have the graphic installed,” AB’s Martin said.

Equipment also must be cleaned prior to installation, Griffin said.

“Technicians remove any contaminants and go over the surface with a prep solution to clean off any wax or buildup,” he said.

Wrapping a trailer takes about 20 hours, which can equal one long day for two to three installers, Martin said. But the nature of the work means installers can travel to the equipment rather than having it shipped to an installer.

Martin said the right environment — typically around 60 degrees — is important.

“In the cold, it can’t be done outside; in other areas, it is too hot,” she said.

Once installation is complete, wraps require little maintenance, said Tom Taulman II, president of TKO Graphix.

“Basically, the only maintenance is keep it clean, which you want to do anyway to show off the wrap,” he said.

To clean wraps, carriers should either use caution with or avoid pressure washers, which can tear the film, Laber said.

“Pressure washers should not get close to the edges where wraps are sealed over body panels or get too close,” he said. “You can blow through the wrap with high-pressure water.”

Wraps are sealed well at the edges, making it difficult for moisture to get under the wrap. Taulman said that in 29 years, he has only seen one case of corrosion under a wrap, which was caused by contaminants not being cleaned from the vehicle.

Once carriers are ready to remove their wraps, heat is a vital element. Ideally, the vinyl, with the adhesive still attached, will come off in large pieces, 3M’s Miller said, adding that wraps are thrown away once they are removed since they are not recyclable.

“We recycle all the materials we can, such as packing, end caps and some vinyls, but many adhesives and inks cannot be recycled,” Taulman added. “Producing recyclable adhesive graphic material is something the industry’s working on as we speak.”

Development of recyclable materials could boost fleets’ environmental initiatives, but for the moment, wraps are helping lift morale, said Colt Reichart, owner of Red Gold Tomatoes.

“We’ve found that our drivers take pride in driving the full-wrapped trailers, and the wraps promote safe driving,” he said. “They’re driving a full-logoed truck, and they feel more responsible because of what they’re pulling down the road. That safety isn’t calculated in our [return on investment], but it is priceless.”