Need Help SEMI truck 53 feet- How much should i charge it?

[Patentagosse]

I'm near Syracuse/Albany NY and we regularly get roughly $15,000 for full wraps on 53' trailers w/ rivets or flex seams. Every low ball, garage shop, competitor that pops up can't serve the needs of big customers like this and we aren't hurt by all these little pop ups. Actually I love the low quality low ballers, they chase the work right into my hands. Example: a local screen/embroidery shop was outsourcing their vehicle graphics to us, after a while they bought a Roland/laminator/plotter thinking they would stop outsourcing to us....initially I was butt hurt because I always took good care of them. 2 months later their Roland is printing bumper stickers and they are still outsourcing their vehicle to us, more than ever. 2 years later they are still outsourcing to us and we don't have to do the leg work or design...and we don't offer any discounts to them. We are now doing more of their work than ever lol! Just one of many similar examples. A lot of "sign shops" these days are a person at a desk funneling the real work to companies like us. It's a manufacturing consolidation of sorts, and the desk shops are more like sales reps that we don't have to hire, fire, insure, pay, etc!

We do at least one or two 53' wraps a year, often more, completely in house, no outsourced installs, using 3m180/8520. We also ship comparable graphic kits to the midwest for installation out there and we've had customers compliment us on the price and quality...one customer specifically mentioned that they received multiple quotes (nationally) and ours was the lowest at $15,000. Two installers get them done in about 4 business days. We just quoted a 30 trailer job at these rates. South Florida sounds harsh but in my market if you do good work customers will eventually recognize and pay for it. We find our bread and butter project types and push them instead of trying to take on all the crazy one offs that burn your time/money for little to no profit or good will. Thankfully the race to the bottom hasn't hit us yet,11 years and counting!

Good for you but in my market, with same quality film (i.e. IJ180) you get 2 trailers for 15k (maybe 1 side of a third...)

Large fleets like grocery chains, beer companies, etc... probably get 3 for 15k

 

[signman315]

Good for you but in my market, with same quality film (i.e. IJ180) you get 2 trailers for 15k (maybe 1 side of a third...)

Large fleets like grocery chains, beer companies, etc... probably get 3 for 15k

That's harsh! The trailers we are doing are for large fleets for yogurt manufacturing, also for Mobile medical services like MRIs and Dental services, craft breweries, bread manufacturing and the like. Most of my best customers have had a bad experience elsewhere and I bend over backwards for them on the turnaround/service end and make buying from me utterly convenient and they become loyal and ignore the low ballers. It only takes one time of them buying a junk wrap and then having to buy it a second time from me. That's actually one of my sales pitches...."you can get it cheaper from that guy but after it goes wrong you'll be getting it from me anyway, why pay for it twice?" I'm thankful to be so lucky, certainly I'm sure this will change but it's been so far so good for 11 years!

 

[signman315]

Your experiences, 315, may be what you say, but it's certainly not the norm. Over the years doing vans, pickups and graduating to 48' and 53' semi's has been a little difficult. There's not much money in this area to support trucks. We had one company we were dong the trailers and getting a nice buck, (not near $15,000), but along comes a company from outta this country and offers the prints for their fleet at around $2,000 per truck and they install them for $900 a truck. I forget the name of the company, but they are from Canada. When you look at the quality, its basically perfect and these trucks have rivets and lots of them. Two guys show up and do 2 trailers a day, and sometimes get a third one under way. That's 2 and a half trailers a day or $2,250 a day on installation(s). They have I think several crews and they just travel the country down here putting out the work like crazy. There is no sense racing to the bottom, so we focus more on the people who do and can spend a decent buck on vehicles and other signs. That's not many, but not in the wrap field.

I agree sir. I let them race to the bottom at those rates. I don't want to work that hard for that little haha! But I agree it's a volatile market for sure, I've just been lucky to find good customers who are less concerned with price (within reason). Also since it's a rural area, my market is less saturated. I recognize and appreciate it!

 

[Jester1167]

I agree with Gino. Signman315, if 2 installers take 4 days your getting robbed. I'm half a century and I can do one by myself in two 12 hour days.

More power to you if you can get it, but your pricing is almost $17 a square foot. That price is higher than most charge for a standard commercial full wrap on a car, van or pickup which has more detail and difficulty...

 

[signman315]

I agree with Gino. Signman315, if 2 installers take 4 days your getting robbed. I'm half a century and I can do one by myself in two 12 hour days.

More power to you if you can get it, but your pricing is almost $17 a square foot. That price is higher than most charge for a standard commercial full wrap on a car, van or pickup which has more detail and difficulty...

Thanks for your advice, I’ll certainly consider it moving forward. It’s always good to see what others are doing! Cheers!

 

[ARGENTO]

It is mindblowing to me to see such diference between prices in this area.
I have been in this business for about 5 years now....and it keeps surprising me how it works.
Pricing is extremely nuts.

South florida has become year after year worst and worst...it is not getting better all the time like the beatles song.

I am planning on moving to Tennessee. Knoxville to be precise.
Wish to get a better reality up there.

 

[jfiscus]

Your experiences, 315, may be what you say, but it's certainly not the norm. Over the years doing vans, pickups and graduating to 48' and 53' semi's has been a little difficult. There's not much money in this area to support trucks. We had one company we were dong the trailers and getting a nice buck, (not near $15,000), but along comes a company from outta this country and offers the prints for their fleet at around $2,000 per truck and they install them for $900 a truck. I forget the name of the company, but they are from Canada. When you look at the quality, its basically perfect and these trucks have rivets and lots of them. Two guys show up and do 2 trailers a day, and sometimes get a third one under way. That's 2 and a half trailers a day or $2,250 a day on installation(s). They have I think several crews and they just travel the country down here putting out the work like crazy. There is no sense racing to the bottom, so we focus more on the people who do and can spend a decent buck on vehicles and other signs. That's not many, but not in the wrap field.

Our guys here do about a trailer per day each, so if we have 2 trailers we send 2 guys for an overnight stay if they can't bring them here. Most of the time we send out 3 guys to do 3 trailers in 3 days. We do about a trailer per day (along with everything else) on average here, and also ship out a lot of graphics across the country for other installers. A big help to the installers was upgrading their equipment to the squeegees, rollers, etc that helped them get the trailers done faster. After a few trailers your installers should be able to figure out how to get them done easier/faster. I know our guys usually work as a team and one guy lays the flat portions down and the other guy runs the rivet rows down behind him.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

$6k (more for corrugated and unusual rivet issues) sounds about right for a typical commercial shop using typical equipment. That said, there are production companies out there that are running multiple Vutek GS5000 printers (or similar) on two shifts that can kick these 1000 sq. ft. cast vinyl/laminated prints out for around $2k and offer installation for under $1k. And as Gino has mentioned, their work is top-notch! You may get a local job here and there, but the big fleet managers know they can get the job done for around $3k/trailer.

I cannot afford a big Vutek, nor do I have the climate-controlled space, forklifts, trucks, loading docks, etc. needed to support such a business. I will, however, go after the design business, and offer field surveys and installation services for these large fleet graphics companies.