T he trucks run by many big fleet operators have become
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sophisticated advertising hoardings. Liquorice Allsorts the size of footballs adorn one sleek trailer: another features eyecatching scarlet lips sucking a giant chocolate ice cream. Designer beers nestle tantalisingly in mountains of crushed ice.
What is the poor old owner-driver to make of this as he rumbles along in his unit emblazoned with the simple legend, "Joe Soap Transport"? As far as he's concerned "graphics" is the sort of language you might expect to hear from a driver kept waiting four hours in a supermarket loading bay.
But times are changing. Stick-on vehicle graphics are now available at a price which will allow the owner-driver or small-fleet operator to compete with the top image makers.
The technology behind these graphics has been given a boost by a collaboration between the Bracknell-based offshoot of the American multinational 3M and its Reading neighbour, Duramark: 3M has developed Controltac, a vinyl peel-off product as part of its Scotchpoint Electronic Graphic System, on to which Duramark is able to impose computer images from the simple sources.
Joe Soap Transport, for example, might be principally employed shifting fruit and veg. No problem—a picture of a greengrocer's display can be be blown up to cover the side of a 40ft trailer. If the operator does not have his own artwork, Duramark has access to a large picture library.
Or it may be the operator will use a signwriter which will have its artwork developed by 3M. But what if Joe Soap finds there is more profit to be made moving fresh flowers or frozen fish?
Never mind. Remove the old livery; stick on the new. "We can easily deal with a customer who has four vehicles and wants them all to be different," says Caroline PageBaker, marketing development manager for Duramark. "Because each print is individually produced you can change the telephone number or respond to an advertising campaign."
Typically an operator will pay £60 to 100 per square metre to livery a 40ft trailer. There is also a production and image manipulation charge. Application costs depend on whether the operator brings the trailer to Duramark or Duramark sends one of its nationwide network of applicators to the trailer, either at the operator's site or the bodybuilders. To cover the whole trailer in similar fashion to the high-profile Castlemaine XXXX beer trailers could cost up to £2,500. but it may be that a typical haulier would require less coverage,
Computer memory
Once the image has been created it is held on computer memory and can be called up at will. Duramark managing director Jonny Hawkins claims the 3M system is the only four-colour system on the market with a sixyear warranty: a period arrived at after accelerated weathering tests in the hot sun of Arizona and the freezing wastes of Alaska. "The warranty covers fading, abrasion, fuel spillage and lifting while in normal use," says Hawkins. Paint, he adds for good measure, has a "zero warranty". Page-Baker says the material is designed so that it cannot be damaged by vandals unless they have a lot of time on their hands. "The vinyl is very resistant to being picked off—it only comes off in little bits," she explains.
The graphics are reproduced by an electrostatic process: an image is scanned on to one computer and trans ferred to another which "rips" it for printing. Ripping breaks the image into "tiles"— matched printed panels 34in wide and up to 50 yards long.
Duramarkl3M's customers include some of the biggest fleet operators in the business, such as Bass, BP. John Lewis, Waitrose and Carlsberg Tetley. So isn't it all a little hightech for the owner-driver operating on a modest scale?
Hawkins agrees that persuading the small fleet users will not be easy. "Getting from someone saying "J Smith & Son" to a fullcolour graphic is quite a culture jump," he says. "Road hauliers
are conservative about their image but this is a big opportunity for the small
fleet owners to become rather more imaginative."
Controltac Plus 190 for curtainsiders, has been developed using a special dry adhesive. Early customers included Castlemaine XXXX which ordered 100 curtains liveried with the system. Hawkins says the development was "critical to us going through the recession" as 50% of new registrations are curtainsiders.
Fleet operators who are safety conscious—and want their message to be seen at night—can opt for reflective vinyl such as 3M's Scotchlite 980 diamond grade (CM 17-23 Nov 1994). Although more expensive than the standard option it carries the weight of public approval: the Deputy Chief Constable of Nottingham wrote to Boots to congratulate it on the concern for road safety displayed by its use of reflective livery Reflective liveries can certainly cut accident rates (CM 29 Sep-5 Oct 1994). Equipping a 38-tonner with reflective strips costs from £100.
Shy operators can adorn their vehicles with a vinyl incorporating perforated graphics that cover the windows, allowing the driver to see out but no one to see in.
Duramark's Hawkins admits the traditional signwriting trade did not immediately take to its brash, advertisingled approach to vehicle graphics. "There was a resistance in the early days from signwriters who did not like it when we introduced vinyl," he says, "but now they realise they can do the job 10 times as fast by buying it in."
E by Patric Cunnane