1. 40 TODAY’S TRUCKING
Shaz Khan has been at it all morning.
Working a swing stage like a window
washer, he scales the side of a trailer,
carefully applying 13 vinyl film panels.
Printing this massive piece of art took a
million-dollar printer just one hour, but
there’s an entire day of work ahead for
Khan as he trims around the heads of
fasteners, ensuring that all the material
stays snug.
Dozens more trailers are waiting.
Business is booming at Turbo Images,
where Khan has applied graphics for 20
years. In 2015 the Ontario company grew
30% and dominated the annual vehicle
graphics awards hosted by the Private
Motor Truck Council of Canada (PMTC).
The recent success at Turbo is just
another sign of the visual age, says Shelagh
Morrison, Turbo’s senior sales executive,
who spent more than a decade in various
roles at 3M, where Turbo sources film.
“We’ve become a very visual generation
and population. The truck is often the
face of the customer now,” she says of
the graphics business. “It’s also the age of
avoidance, and nobody can click you off or
zap you off on the highway.”
Emerging technology has made a dif-
ference too.
“The capability for printing now is
amazing. Imagination is the limit,” says
Marc Coulombe, CEO of Alex Coulombe,
which was honored in this year’s PMTC
competition. Its trailer was wrapped in
images of Montellier water bottles, com-
plete with bubbles. “You need to be able
to reach drivers quickly as they’re passing
by, and I think an image does this better
than words.”
The industry first took notice of vehicle
wraps in 1993, when Silicon Valley-based
SuperGraphics wrapped an entire bus
with a new vinyl adhesive product from
3M. They made the bus into a rolling
Pepsi ad. Nowadays, marketers are even
measuring the reach of these billboards
on wheels. Primarily it involves under-
standing traffic patterns, and how often
a fleet’s trucks use the same routes. GPS
can even be used to analyze related data
from a truck’s specific route. According
to the American Trucking Associations,
16 million drivers will see a typical high-
way truck’s graphics over the course of a
year. Graphics enhanced with reflective
materials reportedly boost the number of
impressions by as much as 40%.
With such a large audience, the designs
clearly deserve some thought.
“With trailer graphics we’re trying to
pull the observer into the scene,” explains
Morrison. “You want the people in the
scene looking at you, not looking off.” A
strategyofkeepingitsimplecanalsostrike
a balance between attracting attention
and delivering a message that actually
sticks in a motorist’s mind. The messages
on barn doors, meanwhile, can be more
detailed than those on side panels because
drivers spend more time staring at the
back of a trailer when stuck in traffic.
Given the general marketing rule that
suggests any letters should be no shorter
than 10 inches high when they’re expected
to be viewed from 100 feet away – and the
fact that moving vehicles add to the visi-
bility challenge – details like a website or
phone number should be at least that tall.
Value per dollar
Vehicle wraps give customers a strong
bang for the buck. A study touted by 3M
pegs fleet graphics at about US 48 cents
(Cdn 63 cents) per thousand impressions.
The equivalent TV time is worth US $23.70
(Cdn $31).
So if it’s economical and offers a great
reach, why doesn’t everybody wrap their
trucks? Apart from not having an identifi-
orning.
window
trailer,
panels.
took a
ur, but
ead for
ads of That’s a
wrap
By Dave Nesseth
Vehicle graphics can transform
equipment into rolling billboards
Photo:RosenauTransport

2. JULY 2016 41
able brand that can benefit from graphics,
Morrison says it often comes down to
proof of performance, especially with lim-
ited marketing budgets. Understanding
the financial investment of dispatching a
decked-out truck can be difficult for those
with or without a marketing background.
“It’s why a lot of trucks today are still
white. It’s because people can’t put a mea-
surement to it,” says Morrison.
Of course, there are other reasons.
Trailers often haul goods for a wide array
of clients. Other fleets would rather not
advertise a truck’s contents in the name
of security. Rented and leased equipment
moves from one operation to the next.
But in the right situation, graphics can
be an effective tool for promoting a fleet,
recruiting future drivers, or advertising
the products inside.
It costs in the neighborhood of $4,000
to wrap a 53-foot trailer in graphics.
Advances in printing have introduced the
option of cheaper materials, too, but those
are sometimes quicker to wear and tear.
In contrast, high-end graphics can be war-
rantied for five years or more.
Wrapping an entire trailer is not the
only option. Depending on budget and the
fleet’s design ideas, simply adding a logo
and company name to the trailer could
be in order.
James Steed, CEO of Steed Standard
Transport in Stanford, Ontario, hasn’t
had a customer request a trailer wrap for
years. It’s why the company usually sticks
to discretely using its name on the cab
and trailer.
There was one recent exception. His
fleet recently joined a trailer graphics
project for prostate cancer awareness.
It’s called #PlaidForDad. Utilizing a trac-
tor-trailer, the trailer is wrapped in green,
prominently featuring a man in a red
kilt. On the trailer, it asks, “Hey, Man!
Got Plaid?” in a Scottish-checkered font.
AnotherOntariofleet,Tandet,hadatanker
wrapped for the Prostate Cancer aware-
ness event that led up to Father’s Day.
Marco Beghetto, who created the
visual concept in his role
as the Ontario Trucking
Association’s vice president of
communications and media,
said it was great working with
Toronto Digital Imaging on
the project.
For Beghetto, it was import-
ant to tap into an emotion-
al response from people who
may see the trucks on the
highway. He says he had the
benefit of learning about crit-
ical messaging from an earlier
association trailer wrap that
worked to promote trucking
to the general public.
“It was really genius,” says Beghetto
of the campaign, which featured a trailer
proclaiming that the only thing not deliv-
ered by a truck is a baby.
The human connection helped inspire
him with #PlaidForDad.
“We wanted to get people’s attention,”
says Beghetto. “For them to say, ‘What’s
that?’” TT
Repair and removal
Removing and repairing trailer graphics is big business for a graphics house. If a driver backs into
something and dings a graphics panel, teams can remove only the affected graphic panel, so
customers save time and money. Removing the wrap is simply a process of manual labor that can
occur as fast as 14 square feet per minute, according to 3M.
Removing adhesive logos, however, is a different story. Once in awhile we all see a truck that
still has the shape of an old logo peeking out from under the new one. While best left to a graphics
house, a fleet can still tackle this job solo with just a heat gun, plastic scraper, elbow grease, and
an adhesive remover like Goo Gone or Rapid Remover. Whizzy Wheel also makes a rubber product
that attaches to a drill, skimming off troublesome lettering or logos.
That’s a Wrap
Mile Baric, installation supervisor at Turbo Images, prepares another panel. Below,
award-winning designs from this year’s Private Motor Truck Council of Canada competition.