When we first started talking to Per Mar Security, they were still in West Allis and they were looking for a lobby sign. That was almost two years ago. Nothing came of the lobby sign because the company shortly there after, began talks to purchase one of their competitors. The talks took some time, but in the end, they purchased the company complete with their offices and fleet of service vehicles. The company came back to us with an urgent need. We needed to come up with temporary building signs, change out the interior signs, and rebrand a combined fleet of 18 vehicles.
For the purposes of this blog, we will discuss how Optimum Signs handles fleets of vehicles. One of the first questions we get asked about when we are working with a company that has a fleet is what do we do when we are charged with handling the graphics for a fleet. There are multiple pieces to this so let’s start at the beginning: the design. Most companies that have fleets have the graphic design already complete. Our job is to take the list of vehicles and adapt the approved design to those vehicles. In this case, our customer has two types of small sedans. We created templates for each vehicle to help with the exact placement of the graphics. When then provided a mockup so that headquarters could approve the layout. Once that happened, we were able to begin managing the fleet.
The first vehicle that we worked on had a graphics package that was complete with reflective vinyl. We figured that the vinyl had been on the car for no less than 5 years. Ouch. Most vinyl manufacturers recommend 3-4 years before you have to remove the vinyl. Plus, the cars had been kept outside 365 days a year so the vinyl was baked on. So much so, we had to use an eraser wheel to remove the vinyl. After three hours of removal, we washed and then cleaned the surface of the vehicle with simple rubbing alcohol. That makes sure that there is no residual on the car and that the new graphics would stay put.
Now that the car was ready for graphics, we had to print the package. Because we know that we had 18 vehicles right now, we printed half of the necessary decals. The templates made installation super simple and very efficient.
With fleet graphics, some companies immediately print 50-70% of the number of packages that they think that they will need. Not us. Because we have some of the newest printers in the industry, we can take an order, set up the package and print the decals all within one day. No need for graphics to sit on the shelf and degrade. This also makes every install an installation with new graphics.
If you happen to have a fleet of vehicles that you aren’t really happy with the way your graphics house has been handling it, please, give us a call. We can be reached at 262.289.9481 or email us at info@optimumsignswi.com. We would love to show you the Optimum Signs difference.
