A blank white van pulls in front of your shop. The potential customer comes in with a business card and asks “how much to wrap my van to look like this?” 

 

To answer that question there are three main areas to look at—Design, Graphics and Installation. To accurately price each of those areas requires a little groundwork.

 

A simple checklist ensures that necessary questions are asked and installation and expectations are reviewed.

ACCESS THE VEHICLE

At this point there are three things you should grab—a wrap checklist, a generic template of a similar vehicle and a tape measure. The wrap checklist helps organize the questions you need to ask and the steps you need to take to get all the necessary information.

 

At our front counter is a binder with clear plastic sleeves. Using Digital Auto Library’s Pro Vehicle Outline templates we printed out commonly wrapped vehicles. Many cargo vans and box trucks look similar so a couple generic templates will work.

 

Having the template makes it a lot easier to accurately record the measurements you take. When you draw rough boxes and add measurements, you quickly forget where you held the tape measure to get that size. 

 

Vehicle templates are helpful for taking accurate measurements, sketching out the wrap design and marking problem areas on the vehicle.

One of our recent wraps was on a Unicell van. I was able to find a template for a Unicell, but for unique vehicles, or ones with a lot of obstacles, it’s also very helpful to snap a few pictures, print them out and write your measurements directly onto the print out.

 

For all of our vehicle wraps we lay the artwork out on the actual photo of the vehicle. While the templates can be very accurate, I prefer to use the actual vehicle for sizing and presentation. 

 

Since we size the photo to actual size and work the artwork on that template, we make sure that we get a few really accurate measurements of windows, trim or doors that we can easily reference to size the photo. Even though I can typically rely on these measurements to get an accurate overall sizing, it’s still important to know how much the graphics will need to wrap around the top and bottom, as well as from the sides to the back or front.

 

On the template or photo we also mark problem areas like peeling paint, rust, dents or cracks in the windows. By tracking these items from the beginning and reviewing it with the customer, we release ourselves from liability for graphic failure in these areas. This step can also be done once the customer has been given an estimate if you don’t think it will affect the pricing. We also recommend documenting problem areas with photos.

 

It’s important to take accurate measurements when designing wraps on a scaled photo of the vehicle. Showing the proof on the photo gives the customer a good idea of how the final product will look.

Once we have photos and measurements, we assess the body of the vehicle. Box vans and trailers will typically have rows of rivets. How far do they stick out? Is there an abnormal amount? Does the customer want the graphics molded to the rivets?

 

Corrugations are very time consuming to wrap and extra time will need to be taken in the design phase. Vehicles with compound curves and deep concaves will require extra time to wrap. 

 

We recommend the removal of any vehicle emblems before the vehicle is wrapped. Take into consideration how many emblems will have to be removed, whether mirrors or lights can be removed and if there are any parts that can’t be removed and will make installation more difficult.

 

It may seem like a lot of information to gather, but having a checklist and doing this process a few times will make it go quick. The customer should be impressed with your thoroughness as well.

 

Rows of rivets, corrugations, compound curves and concaves are a few of the obstacles that need to be assessed. Design and installation pricing for box trucks may be less expensive because of fewer obstacles.

PRICING DESIGN

Dick Freeborg owner of FASTSIGNS in Victorville, Calif., offered up some great information on what his company considers when estimating a vehicle wrap. One of the items he mentioned was how his company prices the design phase of wrapping. 

 

According to Freeborg his company starts the design charge at $2 per square foot and then takes into consideration the size of the job, the complexity of the vehicle, and the labor that will go into prepping the vehicle. The price for design will then go up or down from there.

 

Our company prices design somewhat similarly. Instead of a per square foot charge though, we charge a flat minimum rate based on a ¾ to full wrap, and this fluctuates based upon the assessment of the vehicle. 

 

Sometimes customers don’t fully understand what the design fee buys them. Not only do we have to cover ourselves on the graphics and typesetting of the design, but we also have to cover our time to properly fit the graphics to the vehicle itself. 

 

If the customer provides us with corporate designed artwork or artwork they received from a graphic design firm, we are happy to use it. Provided artwork usually saves us a lot of time, but we still have to double check the artwork against the scaled photo of the vehicle and check that the placement of the artwork is correct. We always request a layered Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator file to make adjustments easier.

 

A box van or partial wrap with minimal obstacles is much easier to fit to the vehicle. If the customer is providing a lot of the artwork elements needed and has a clear idea of what they want on the vehicle, I typically drop the design flat rate down a little.

 

Excessive artwork or times when there is no artwork available may mean the pricing will need to go up. If we have to recreate the customer’s logo, purchase high resolution stock clipart or edit a lot of photos, we set a higher price from the beginning.

 

Sketching out rough designs with the customer is an important step in the design process. The vehicle templates also are very helpful at this point. You don’t have to create detailed works of art, but rough sketching text placement, design thoughts and noting colors on the template gives you a clear starting point to the design process and helps you accurately price out labor.

 

If I can tell that the customer is either very indecisive or very picky, it’s best to establish ground rules for the design fee from the beginning. Let the customer know what they can expect for the price mentioned and try to include a couple revisions within your price. If the customer wants to make additional changes beyond what was initially agreed too, let them know there will be an additional design fee.

 

Sometimes you don’t know how the customer will be until you get into the design phase. Accommodate the customer until you feel that additional charges will be warranted soon, then politely let them know that you need to try to make any changes they foresee on the next proof, otherwise you will have to charge an additional art fee. Let the customer know its coming; don’t spring the extra fees on them after the fact.

 

Whether using a base price or per square foot price for installation, pricing will fluctuate based on the assessment of the vehicle. Photos courtesy of FASTSIGNS, Victorville, Calif.

FIGURING COVERAGE & COSTS

There are a few companies that offer pricing software that helps streamline the estimating process. If there are multiple estimators within a company, using pricing software can also create consistency.

 

EstiMate software has a vehicle wraps plug-in feature that comes preloaded with common vehicle and media types. The settings can be customized for different sizes of wraps and also takes into consideration media and vehicle prep. Check out their website for additional information and a free trial at www.estimatesoftware.com. 

 

Cyrious software also offers similar features, allowing the user the ability to plug-in vehicle information and wrap coverage. The software can also factor material scraps and different media types. Go to www.Cyrious.com for a breakdown on how the software works and the features included.

 

You can also check into third-party graphics suppliers such as Aurora Graphics to get an idea of what graphics would cost using their templates.

 

Even if your company uses estimating software, I think it’s important to know how to quote a wrap based on the assessment of the vehicle and the amount of coverage. It’s helpful to know how the numbers are reached and where you can adjust the pricing to work within a budget, but still make a profit.

 

I quote wraps by hand based on the total square footage. I basically draw boxes to represent coverage and figure height x width to get the square footage for each area. I also take into consideration extra material needed to wrap underneath, up onto the roof or around the front or back.

 

The total square footage for vinyl is figured separately from perforated window film, which is priced slightly higher. I price the graphics using a sliding scale; the higher the total square footage there is, the cheaper the price is per square foot.

 

A premium cast film and overlaminate should be priced higher than a calendared wrap film and overlaminate. Perforated window film and reflective films should also be priced slightly higher than a cast film depending on your media costs.

 

INSTALLATION

The last item to be quoted is the installation. The information gathered during the vehicle assessment is very important here. Obstacles are time consuming to work around which means most van wraps will take a lot longer to wrap than a box truck with flat, square sides.

 

Freeborg also mentioned that his company starts the installation pricing at $2 per square foot and then again, based on the size and the complexity of the job, the pricing can go up or down.

 

Our company typically considers a project and the vehicle type; we assess how many hours we think it will take to prep the vehicle and wrap it, and then base our pricing on an hourly rate. After wrapping quite a few different types of vehicles, we’re able to get a good idea of how long it will take just based upon the vehicle type. 

 

The design, graphics and installation pricing is presented separately to the customer. Since we do not charge sales tax on the labor, there is only tax on the graphics. Providing a broken down price quote, along with an explanation for the pricing, helps the customer know that I am giving them a fair price based upon their specific vehicle.