From Purchase to Pavement - Part 2 of 3

The Branded Fleet — Part 2 of 3

By Jason Scott | Fleet Intelligencer

Buying the vehicle is often the easy part.

The harder part is getting that vehicle ordered, delivered, upfitted, branded and put into service without it spending unnecessary time sitting somewhere waiting for the next step.

For companies operating more than a handful of vehicles, that process can become surprisingly complicated. There may be a dealer involved, a leasing company, an upfitter, a graphics provider, a fleet manager, a marketing department and, eventually, the employee who is actually going to drive the vehicle. If those groups are not communicating well, even something as straightforward as installing graphics can create unnecessary downtime.

That is why I believe fleet branding should begin much earlier than the day a vehicle arrives at the graphics shop.

Ideally, the conversation begins when the vehicle is being ordered.

If the graphics provider knows the year, make, model, configuration and expected delivery date in advance, much of the work can already be underway before the physical vehicle ever appears. Artwork can be prepared. Brand standards can be reviewed. Production requirements can be established. Installation time can be reserved. If the vehicle will have ladder racks, toolboxes, service bodies, refrigeration equipment or other upfit components, those details can be discussed before they become installation surprises.

The goal is simple: reduce the amount of time between the vehicle arriving and the vehicle being ready to make money.

That matters because a commercial vehicle has an entirely different economic role than a personal car. A service van that sits for an extra day is not simply parked. It may represent missed appointments, an employee without a vehicle, rescheduled work or a temporary reduction in the company’s operating capacity.

Fleet managers understand that very quickly.

This is also why repeatability is so important.

Once a company has approved graphics for a particular vehicle, that design should become part of an organized fleet branding system. The artwork, brand colors, logo files, material specifications and placement standards should not have to be recreated every time another similar vehicle is purchased.

When the next Transit arrives, the process should feel familiar.

When another pickup is added six months later, the graphics program should already know what to do.

That may sound obvious, but it is one of the biggest differences between handling a single vehicle and managing a fleet.

With a single vehicle, almost anything can be handled as a one-time project. With a fleet, every small inefficiency gets repeated. A missing logo file is annoying once. A missing logo file on the fifteenth vehicle is a system problem.

That same thinking applies to scheduling.

Regional fleets rarely operate from one parking lot. A vehicle might be purchased from one dealer, upfitted somewhere else and assigned to an employee who works in another part of the region entirely. It may never spend much time near the company’s headquarters.

That is one of the reasons multiple installation locations can be so valuable.

FLEETWRAPS.ai is powered by WrapJax, and our fleet customers have access to WrapJax locations in Tacoma, Woodinville and Silverdale. For companies operating throughout the Puget Sound, that creates flexibility that can make the entire process easier.

A South Sound vehicle may make more sense in Tacoma. A vehicle operating on the Eastside or north end may be better suited to Woodinville. A Kitsap-based vehicle can often be handled more efficiently through Silverdale.

The important point is not simply convenience.

It is reducing unnecessary vehicle movement.

Every additional hour spent driving a commercial vehicle to or from a vendor is an hour that has to be accounted for somewhere. Sometimes that may be unavoidable, but when a fleet has options, the logistics can often be improved considerably.

The same is true of vehicle drop-off and pickup.

Fleet schedules do not always line up neatly with standard business hours. A technician may finish a route at 5:30 in the afternoon. A vehicle may need to be back in service first thing the next morning. A branch manager may be trying to coordinate several vehicles without disrupting an entire workday.

Where arrangements can be made in advance, secure before- and after-hours drop-off and pickup options can give fleet customers another way to work around those realities.

For one vehicle, that may save a few hours.

Across a larger fleet, those hours begin to add up.

Communication is really the thread that holds the entire process together.

The person approving the design may not be the person delivering the vehicle. The person ordering the vehicle may not be the person responsible for scheduling the installation. A marketing department may be approving artwork from another office while the fleet manager is trying to coordinate a dealership and an upfitter.

A good fleet graphics provider needs to understand that it is part of a larger operating chain.

That means keeping track of the right vehicle, the right artwork, the right version and the right schedule.

It also means thinking beyond installation day.

Commercial vehicles get damaged. Doors are replaced. Bumpers are repaired. Phone numbers change. Companies update logos. Fleets are reorganized. Vehicles move between branches. Businesses acquire competitors. Lease terms eventually end.

If the graphics program has been organized properly, those events are easier to manage.

Replacement graphics can be reproduced from existing files. Vehicle-specific artwork can be identified. Material information can be referenced. A damaged panel can be repaired without rebuilding an entire design from scratch.

That is one of the reasons I often think of fleet graphics as a lifecycle issue rather than an installation issue.

The installation is simply one step.

The vehicle may remain in service for years, and the branding program needs to be able to support it throughout that period.

Material selection should reflect the expected life of the vehicle. A leased vehicle that will leave the fleet relatively quickly may create different considerations than a long-term company-owned service truck. The graphics provider should be thinking about removal, replacement and repair at the same time it is thinking about installation.

When a fleet branding program is working properly, the process eventually becomes routine.

The company orders a vehicle. The graphics provider is notified. The specifications are confirmed. The correct artwork is assigned. Production is scheduled. The vehicle arrives. The graphics are installed. The vehicle goes into service.

There should not be a long chain of emails trying to figure out which version of the logo belongs on the door.

There should not be unnecessary downtime because nobody remembered to schedule the installation.

There should not be confusion about whether the new vehicle is supposed to match the current fleet or the graphics package from four years ago.

The best fleet branding programs become almost boring in their predictability.

That is a good thing.

At FLEETWRAPS.ai, we approach fleet graphics with the understanding that our customers have far more to manage than the wrap itself. They are buying vehicles, scheduling people, maintaining equipment, coordinating branches and trying to keep everything productive.

The graphics provider should make that easier, not more complicated.

That is why having multiple Puget Sound locations, repeatable graphics programs and flexible scheduling options matters. It is not simply about installing vinyl well. It is about fitting that work into the reality of operating a fleet.

Because fleet graphics really have two jobs.

They need to make the company look good.

And they need to get the vehicle back to work.