The Ultimate Guide to fleet wrap ROI

Wrapping a fleet of vehicles has numerous advantages, but it’s quite an investment to justify, so it’s important to have your facts straight.

In this guide I will cover strategy, cost, financing, resale value and what to look for in a good service. If you take these 5 tips on board, you stand to maximise the profit you make from your fleet wrap, whilst minimizing your upfront costs.

Fleet wrap strategy

A single wrapped vehicle can generate more than 18 million impression per year on an intercity route, so it’s fair to say fleet wrapping has enormous potential even without a strategy.

But if you really want to maximise every profit factor available and grow your business you should employ the following tactics:

1. Maximise your design – It must be eye-catching, I really can’t understate that enough. Pimlico is a great example of a truly outstanding quality wrap, they even wrapped the roof rack! This attention to detail really makes them stand out and I see their vans all over the place.
2. Unique contact information – Plaster it on your van in a font size large enough to be seen from a distance. Phone number, email, social media, QR codes- the lot!
3. Plan routes strategically – Think carefully about where you drive and how that might impact your business. You need to balance time with impressions, meaning weighing up the enquiry value of using busy main roads, with not wasting time while driving.
4. Park Strategically – Park somewhere that shows what you are doing and who you are doing it for. If you ply a domestic service for example, you’re a visual case study in action – neighbours are likely to see you parked on a clients drive and take down your contact details or follow up with the homeowner about your service.
5. Prioritise presentation - If you want to maximise your impact, keep your wrap in tip top shape. You’ll have to wash it by hand to avoid damage, but it’s worth it. Customers see your vehicle as a representation of you, so keep it professional!
6. Analyse your data - If you get really granular with the data you can use it to track what areas are netting you the most enquiries and profit. This allows you to heighten your business efficiency, after all time is money, and less time wasted driving equals more time working, increasing your daily profits.

How much does fleet wrapping cost?

This is the big one, and where most people go wrong. It’s understandable, business margins are often tight, and no one wants to feel cheated, but understand this: how much money you spend, and getting your money’s worth are two very different things.

Sure, you can get a cheap wrap, but it’s cheap for a reason.

Cheap fleet wraps are installed by cheap companies looking to upsell you on poor quality materials that won’t last.

They also just don’t have the branding experience to be able to help maximise your visual impact, meaning the end result won’t even be worth the cheap vinyl its printed on. In other words it won't look like the stunner above.

Maybe you’re ok with that, but you probably won’t be ok with how quickly the wrap will bubble, fade and begin to peel away. Cheap wrapping materials often last only 3-5 weeks, whilst premium materials can last 3-5 years.

If you want to really get your money’s worth you need to be willing to invest a bit of capital. At the fleet level wrapping starts from about £1000 per vehicle, though this will vary depending on vehicle size.

This price would include complementary services such as design support, branding advice and project management to ensure the end result delivers maximum impact.

Your vehicles would be wrapped in premium materials as standard by a very experienced and highly trained team, and if anything does go wrong you have personalised warranty and no quibble aftercare – now that’s getting your money’s worth!

Check out our costing guide for more on factors that can swing wrap pricing up or down.

How to finance a fleet wrap

Flexible financing is often key to getting your fleet wrap off the ground. The lower the threshold of investment is, the easier it is for you to commit to a project and the sooner you can start reaping the benefits.

Flexible financing also grants you the funds to work with premium companies, ensuring you get the kind of premium result that pays for itself, over and over again.

There are many ways to finance your vehicle wrap, including:

• Commercial package – many dealerships are partnered with wrapping companies, meaning you can include wrapping as part of your lease package, simplifying the payment process.
• Personal finance – A good option for smaller businesses a personal loan might cover the cost of a couple of vehicles.
• Business loan – this is ideal for larger businesses looking to wrap at the fleet level. You can easily put dozens of cars on a solid loan.
• Market spend – wrapped vehicles are a marketing initiative, meaning they qualify as a marketing expense. If you are wrapping as part of a commercial package both vehicle and wrap are tax deductible.
• Balloon Payments – this allows you to delay the cost of a loan with smaller monthly payments and one larger payment at the end, a good option if you know you will have extra capital down the road.
• Buy Now Pay Later – yes really! As you would expect you can buy and delay payment through BNPL initiatives.

It’s worth noting that your wrap company may offer flexible payment options too. At Raccoon we offer budget friendly payment options that won’t break the bank.

If you are struggling to get the funds for your wrap together, we are happy to work with you to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. We may ask for an upfront of 50% instead for example, followed by smaller monthly payments.  

How well your fleet wrap preserves resale value

Fleet wrapping has a hidden ROI benefit – resale value. The layer of vinyl we wrap around your fleet acts as a second skin, protecting the paintwork underneath from nicks and scratches.

This means when it’s time to sell or your lease is up, you will get a far better price and minimise end of lease charges. The quality of materials used to wrap your vehicle will determine how effective this barrier is at protecting your vehicle.

The fact you didn’t paint your fleet also enhances resale value. Customisation in general always devalues vehicles. This is why yellow vans are worth less than white for example, because everyone wants to start from a blank canvas.

To put this in perspective, at the time of writing this article white vans made up 44% of all stock available on Autotrader, whilst yellow made up just 0.43% - more than 100 times less!

Wrapping your fleet means you can offer a blank car, van or truck when it’s time to sell or end your lease: exactly what a prospective buyer wants.

There is a reason why Sky wraps its fleet of more than 4000 vehicles. They get a great deal when it’s time to sell, and Sky vans are actually preferred by many dealers.

AA meanwhile who paint their vans are not so fortunate. Not only do they have a colour that’s harder to sell, they also don’t have the benefit of vinyl wrapped protection.

The level of service offered by your vehicle wrap company

Simply put, the more experience a company has, the deeper insight they will have into fleet branding, the better they will be able to guide and advise you, and the higher quality the end result will be.

To find a company with those kind of credentials, you have to do your research. A good company will have:

1. Decades of experience – both teamwide and operationally.
2. The ability to wrap at the scale and pace you need – as an example Raccoon has the ability to wrap 150 vehicles a week.
3. A good track record – case studies, reviews, ratings etc.
4. Highly trained and skilled employees – if in doubt, ask!
5. Access to premium quality materials – wrapping companies will often state their material suppliers on their website. Look for established brands such as Oracal, 3M, Metamark, Arlon or Avery Dennison, who provide high quality vinyls that are proven to last.
6. A dedicated branding and design team – In order to guide you through the design process, map your ideas to templates, give you advice on what will look best and what factors to pay attention to maximise the wrap’s effectiveness.
7. Project management services – if you have dozens or even hundreds of vehicles to wrap, having a dedicated project manager is invaluable.
8. A secure site to wrap your fleet or the ability to wrap on location – security is paramount with often hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of vehicles coming in and out of a business at all hours. sometimes it can be more efficient logistically for a service to come to you, if you have an appropriate site for wrapping.
9. Adhere to quality control and compliance requirements – check their website for certifications, the ISO 9001 is the gold standard.
10. No quibble aftercare and personalised warranty – if you have a problem, they take care of it, simple.

For more on what to look for in a good company, check out these 10 questions to ask a vehicle wrap company, which you can use to screen wrappers for quality and professionalism.

What are my next steps?

Paying attention to strategy, cost, financing, resale value and service factors will help you to maximise the return you get from investing in fleet wrapping.

Thinking about fleet wrapping? Just hit the button below to get a custom quote, sent straight to your inbox.

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To learn more about vehicle wrapping, check out our Ultimate Guide to Fleet Branding.

You will learn the benefits of branding your fleet, how fleet wrapping works, how much it costs, how to maximise the effectiveness of your branding, different types of fleet wraps, how other companies use vehicle wrapping and frequently asked questions.