A work truck is the cheapest advertising a small business owns, because you already bought it and you already drive it. The question is how much of it to cover.
Most people ask about a full wrap, because that’s the impressive version they’ve seen. For a lot of trades, it’s the wrong first purchase.
What lettering actually is
Cut vinyl and printed graphics applied to the panels of the vehicle. Business name, phone number, website, license number, a logo, maybe a short list of services. Posted at $7 per square foot for vinyl print and lettering, which puts a well-executed van in a range most small businesses can approve without a meeting.
It doesn’t cover the paint. That’s the point. Done properly, a clean white van with strong lettering reads better at a stoplight than a busy wrap, because there’s less competing for the two seconds you get.
What a wrap is for
A full wrap covers the vehicle in printed vinyl. Imagery, color, the whole surface. It genuinely does turn the vehicle into a moving billboard, and it’s the right answer when the vehicle is the marketing: food trucks, retail and consumer brands, businesses where the visual identity is doing the selling, or a fleet where the paint is mismatched and the wrap is unifying it.
It also protects the paint underneath, which matters more on a leased vehicle than people realize.
How to tell which one you are
Answer these honestly:
What do people actually need to know? If a customer seeing your truck needs a phone number and a trade. Plumbing, electrical, landscaping, hauling. That’s lettering. If they need to feel something about your brand, that’s wrap territory.
Is the vehicle staying? Leased vehicles that go back in two years are a different calculation than a truck you’ll drive for eight. Magnets are the third option here, and an underrated one. They come off in seconds for the weekend and go back on Monday.
How many vehicles? With one truck, either works. With five, lettering across all five beats a wrap on one and nothing on the other four, every time. Consistency across the fleet is worth more than intensity on one vehicle.
What’s the budget doing? If the vehicle graphics budget is the entire marketing budget, lettering plus a good banner plus shirts beats a wrap and nothing else.
The advice we give contractors most often
Do one truck first. Not all five. Get the layout right on the vehicle you drive most, live with it for a couple of weeks, notice what people actually read and what they ask about. Then do the rest.
Your artwork stays on file, so truck two through five match truck one exactly whenever you get to them. Next month, next quarter, or after the first one has paid for itself. There’s no penalty for waiting and no design work to redo.
What to put on it, and what to leave off
The things that earn their space: business name, phone number (the biggest element after the name. It has to be readable from another lane), what you do if the name doesn’t say it, and your license number where the trade requires it.
The things that usually don’t: a long service list nobody can read at speed, a website that duplicates a phone number people will call anyway, social handles, and a QR code on a moving vehicle, which nobody has ever successfully scanned.
Practical notes before you order
Measure the panels, or bring the vehicle by and we’ll do it. Photograph each side straight on with something for scale. Tell us about door handles, body lines, sliding doors and windows. Those change the layout, and it’s better to design around them than to discover them during install.
And know that this isn’t same-day work. Printing is fast; application takes time and can’t be hurried without it showing. We schedule the vehicle and tell you a real date. More on vehicle graphics here, or send photos with a quote request.