Companies Use Graphics on Trucks, Trailers to Honor Military Veterans, Recruit Drivers

This story appears in the Sept. 30 print edition of Transport Topics.

When Dave Anderson and his wife, Lois, purchased Bay & Bay Transportation in 1988, Dave, a Vietnam War veteran, wanted his equipment to reflect the sacrifice he and his fellow servicemen and women made for his country.

That sentiment continues today, nearly four years after Dave died in 2009.

Zach Little, vice president of operations at Bay & Bay, which is based in Rosemount, Minn., said his firm tries to add graphics honoring the military to several trucks each year.

“At Bay & Bay, we support our troops, veterans, and families of fallen soldiers through our theme-based trucks and organizations such as Wreaths Across America. Having these theme-based trucks in our fleet helps reinforce our support to the people that have family members that are currently serving in the military and for those that have given the ultimate sacrifice serving our country,” Little said in an e-mail.

But honoring military service is just one of several reasons trucking companies are turning their equipment into rolling billboards. Other reasons include promoting a fleet’s sustainability efforts, attracting drivers and providing advertising space for pet projects and other companies.

However, patriotic themes seem to have great appeal for the clients of companies that create the graphics.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, patriotism has been a big theme for fleets and owner-operators, said Dana Eastabrooks, graphic designer for JX Graphics, a division of JX Enterprises and JX Peterbilt.

Patriotic graphics “have really evolved, and whether it is a simple flag or an all-out truck wrap or air brush art work, displaying patriotism is a big theme,” Eastabrooks said.

After the Andersons bought Bay & Bay, they met with Dan Gust, president and owner of Action Plus Sign Co., in Apple Valley, Minn., to design a graphic with a prisoner-of-war/missing-in-action theme.

“The background was a picture of Vietnam with soldiers looking over a battlefield,” Gust said, adding that he was able even to incorporate a picture of Dave Anderson into the design.

Heartland Express, based in North Liberty, Iowa, combines a patriotic theme with one that touts the importance of truckers to the nation. Mike Gerdin, CEO of Heartland, said the fleet’s flag trucks feature the slogan: “It takes the heart of a trucker to move the country.”

Heartland ranks No. 47 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.

“We wanted to show America and other truckers that we really care about our drivers,” Gerdin said. “It is a way to show our patriotism and thank all the military veterans we have in the industry.”

Of Heartland’s 7,800 trailers, 100 have received this graphic treatment: “It is a small portion of our fleet right now,” Gerdin said. “We wanted to make the trailers special, so we decided not to put [the graphics] on every trailer.”

“At Bay & Bay, we have a commitment to hire veterans and active reserve military for both driver and nondriver positions,” Little said.

Graphics also are used to promote a carrier’s services. For example, when Salt Lake City-based C.R. England Inc. rebranded the carrier three years ago, company officials looked at their vehicles’ graphics and made some changes that include not only the company logo but also information on the services it provides — highlighting one of those services on each truck with a picture. But the fleet also has trailers with more elaborate graphics.

“We do some that highlight veterans to thank them for all they do,” said Stacey Brewster, director of corporate marketing. She said those trailers also are used for recruiting veterans as drivers.

In addition, C.R. England, which ranks No. 19 on the for-hire TT100 list, has special graphics for the fleet of liquefied natural gas trucks it runs in Ontario, Calif.

“We have five trailers that are wrapped; the scenery is rolling green hills and, instead of one of the service markers on the back, the words ‘dedicated to sustainability’ are used,” Brewster said.

Those trucks originally were commissioned for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the fleet, but Brewster said the reason the company decided to go with graphic wraps was to highlight its sustainability initiatives.

“We have won a lot of awards for sustainability. In addition, we put a lot of effort into making sure we have really efficient tractors and trailers, so we wanted to bring awareness to what we were doing,” she said.

And then there’s the desire — necessity, in some cases — of carriers such as Celadon Group Inc. to attract truck drivers.

Typically, the trucks at Celadon, based in Indianapolis, are “pretty vanilla,” said Monte Horst, vice president of sales and marketing, but to build awareness for its driver training school, it added graphics to the trucks students use for the driving portion of their lessons.

“We have four of these trucks driving around town, and we use them to generate brand awareness. Basically, it’s a giant advertising billboard,” Horst said.

“We have two main thoroughfares here in Indianapolis,” he added, “and we believe we have the potential to make some impressions on individuals who might be looking for a job as a truck driver.”

Celadon, which ranks No. 44 on the for-hire TT100 list, tracks how potential students for the school hear about the program. The recruiting-themed truck ranks No. 4 on the company’s list that identifies how people nationwide hear about the driving school — following employee referrals, the Internet and “saw a Celadon truck.”

“With respect to Indianapolis-area applicants, the trailer wrap ranks No. 1,” Horst said.

These efforts to honor, advertise and attract have been enhanced with the introduction of digital graphics, which facilitate the use of art elements such as photography in addition to lettering, logos and paintings. All wraps used to decorate vehicles are considered digital graphics.

For example, the elaborate design on Bay & Bay’s military-themed trucks would not have been possible without digital printing. Prior to that technology, graphics had to be hand-painted or airbrushed onto a truck or were limited to vinyl lettering and cutouts.

And while there are laws mandating that carriers have their legal name and DOT numbers on their vehicles, Bob Pitcher, vice president for state laws at American Trucking Associations in Arlington, Va., said there are no other laws limiting the graphics that can be added to a truck.

With most fleets keenly focused on the bottom line, how do they justify spending funds on vehicle graphics? Basic lettering for a truck can be as inexpensive as $250 to $300, but full wraps can cost in the $3,500-to- $5,000 range, sign company executives have said.

Nick Swerdfeger , chief operating officer at BuildASign.com, in Austin, Texas, explained that, for full panel wraps for trailers, his company uses an area calculation.

“A full wrap on a 53-foot trailer will usually be on the higher end of the range,” he said.

The biggest part of the cost of vehicle graphics is the material itself, Swerdfeger said. However, a fair amount of labor also is involved. Gust said a typical installation can take two to three days. Before affixing the graphics, the vehicle must be thoroughly cleaned to remove oil, grease and dirt. The graphic then is printed out in sections.

Eastabrooks said that JX Graphics uses a 54-inch machine, which means each panel is 54 inches wide. The panels are then attached to the side of the truck or trailer. Eleven to 13 panels will be installed on a typical trailer in order to make the complete image.

Some carrier officials look at adding truck graphics “like you are buying a pair of pants or a jacket, which is wrong,” Gust said. “When they put graphics on their vehicles, it’s going to bring them business every day that it is on the road.”

Swerdfeger said fleets need to recognize the advertising value of the graphics on their vehicles. He cited statistics from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, which talked about the costs of wraps compared with other media.

“The study found that the cost per thousand impressions of vehicle wraps was around 77 cents,” he said. “Compare that to a billboard at $2.18, and then on the high end, you have a one-third page black-and-white ad in a newspaper, which is around $22.95.

“I think more people are realizing the cost per impression of wraps and, as the market continues to grow, I see more and more people wanting some type of branding on their trucks,” Swerdfeger added,

But a return on investment often is not a consideration for carrier managers.

Little said that the military-themed graphics project is one of the few projects at Bay & Bay that does not have an ROI on it.

“We use it as publicity and public relations,” he said.

And Heartland’s Gerdin said, “We get more pride from our employees and drivers being able to pull them down the road. They are not that expensive — the 100 trailers with graphics on them — to do a whole lot to hurt our bottom line. It is more of a thank-you to our military veterans and drivers in our fleets.”

He added, “We are not just respecting our drivers but all drivers in the industry out there moving the country. . . . We just want them all to know that we appreciate them, whoever they work for.”

David Kramer, executive vice president of corporate sales and marketing for C.R. England, said, “It is hard to put an ROI on image, but it does help us with driver recruiting. We also get quite a few compliments from our customer base. I don’t know what the ROI is, but it is a pride situation for us, and people want to do business with the good looking outfits.”

Bay & Bay trucks with the special graphics also are given to specific drivers.

“Some of our top drivers are awarded them,” Little explained. “It is a nice bonus for them.”

The promotion angle also no longer is limited to the fleet that owns the vehicle.

Herman Goth, general manager of JX Peterbilt of Madison, Wis., and JX Graphics, said some fleets already are “selling their rolling billboards to some other company to use for advertising.”

However, Brewster said that, although C.R. England has been asked to do advertising on its trailers for other companies, “we have not done that quite yet, and I don’t know that we ever will.”