Columbus, Ohio · Work trucks, vans, fleets
We letter one van first.
You drive it for two weeks.
Vehicle graphics for Columbus work trucks: lettering, decals, partial graphics, window perf. If you run six vans, the expensive mistake is putting the same artwork on all six before one has been on the road.
Three ways to put your name on it
Most callers ask for a wrap when lettering is what they need. The difference is thousands of dollars.
| Level | What it is | Relative cost | When it’s the right call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut vinyl lettering | Your name, number and web address cut out of solid-colour vinyl and squeegeed straight onto the paint. No background, no print. | Lowest | Your truck is already white or black and your logo is one or two flat colours. The lowest-cost option on this page, and it does most of the job. |
| Partial graphics | Lettering plus printed panels — a colour block down the side, a shape over the rear quarter, doors done properly, hood and roof left alone. | Middle | You want the vehicle seen before it is read, without paying for panels that are rarely looked at. |
| Full wrap | Every panel. Printed, laminated, seams tucked, handles off, edges into the jambs. | Highest | The truck is a colour you do not want, or the artwork has photographs and gradients that cannot be cut out of solid vinyl. |
Relative cost, not a quote. A corrugated box truck with a roll-up door is not a Transit.
Why there is no price here
A price for “a van” is not a price for your van. A high-roof Sprinter is three times the vinyl of a Transit Connect, and rivets, corrugation and roll-up doors cost hours that a flat panel does not. Call the shop with the year, make, model and roof height and we will price the vehicle you own.
Lettering before a full wrap
Ask for your artwork to be reviewed before anyone quotes a full wrap on a white van. A white van with clean lettering reads better at a red light than a busy full wrap does. Spend the difference on the second truck.
What we need from your designer
Send the file your designer built, not the picture off your Facebook page. If the picture is all that is left, we can still work with it — say so first.
- Vector artAI, EPS, PDF or SVG, with the fonts outlined. That is the file your designer already has.
- Not a JPEG off your websiteA 600-pixel logo enlarged to four feet is a blurred logo at four feet. If a JPEG is all you have, say so on the phone — we would rather redraw it than stretch it. Redrawing is its own work, and we tell you what it costs before we start.
- Pantone numbersPMS numbers, the swatch off your sign, or a business card — something we can hold up against the film.
- The number that reaches youConfirm the phone number and web address before we cut. Vinyl is cut once.
- Your DOT number, if you run oneTell us the number and which door it goes on. We size it to be legible.
- Photos of the truckBoth sides, from far enough back to see the whole panel. Door handles, body lines and rivets interrupt lettering. We plan around them before we cut, not after.
Colour matching
“Will it match our brand blue on every truck?”
If your colour exists in the cast vinyl book, we cut it — and it is the same colour on truck one, truck six and the one you buy next year, because the colour is pigment inside the film, not ink sitting on top of it. It is the most repeatable process in this trade, and it is why we specify lettering first.
“And if it has to be printed?”
No printer matches a Pantone chip exactly. What we commit to is that your vans match each other— same printer, same profile, printed in one run — and you hold a printed proof strip in your hand before we commit the fleet. Add a truck two years later and we go back to that same file, not to somebody’s memory of it.
Window perf
Printed on the outside, see-through from the inside. It turns the back glass into a billboard you can still reverse with.
- In-band
Rear window and rear side windows. Ohio puts no darkness limit on those, as long as the vehicle has both outside mirrors.
- Over the legal limit
Front side windows. Ohio requires them to let at least 50% of light through, plus or minus 3. Perforated vinyl is nowhere near that limit, so we do not fit it there.
- Ask about this
Perforated vinyl goes under a clear laminate or it does not survive a car wash. Confirm that any quote you compare includes the laminate.
One truck first
We letter one van first so the artwork is proven on the road before the other five are committed to it.
- 01Letter one
The van that sits in front of a customer's house longest. Not the cleanest one.
- 02Drive it two weeks
Rain, salt, a car wash, a hot week in a parking lot. Vinyl laid wrong shows itself quickly.
- 03Stand 40 feet back
That is the distance your customer reads it from at a red light. Check that the number is legible from there.
- 04Check the calls
If inbound calls did not move, the rest of the fleet can wait.
After the pilot, nothing about truck two is guesswork. The file is cut, the placement is measured off a real door, and running the same artwork six times is less setup than running six different files once. That is the reason to do a fleet in a batch.
The work
Before you bring it in
Wash it
Vinyl does not adhere to road salt. Every panel is cleaned and de-greased again in the bay, but a winter of 270 grime should come off before the vehicle arrives.
Tell us about paint
If a panel was repainted, tell us the date. Fresh paint has to gas out before vinyl goes over it — weeks, not days — or the film lifts and takes the paint with it when it comes off.
Indoors, on purpose
Vinyl is a temperature job. It does not lay down in a cold parking lot in February, so the work is done indoors in a climate-controlled bay.
Bring us one van.
Tell us the year, make, model and roof height, and send whatever artwork you have. We will tell you which of the three levels the job is.
5220 Trabue Road, Suite D, Columbus, OH 43228
Trucks come to Trabue Road from Columbus, Hilliard, Dublin, Powell, Plain City, Upper Arlington, Worthington. Ohio tint limits quoted from Ohio Administrative Code 4501-41-03 — see the law page for the whole rule.