Fleet Graphics Cost Less When They Ride Along With the Refinish

Fleet rebranding is usually treated as a marketing project and refinishing as a maintenance one, and they get scheduled separately by different people.

They should not be, because they share most of their cost.

What is actually shared

Masking. On a graphics job, everything not being graphicked gets masked. On a refinish, everything not being painted gets masked. That is largely the same masking, done once instead of twice.

Surface preparation. Graphics adhere to a prepared surface. Refinish requires a prepared surface. Same preparation.

Booth or bay time. Both need a controlled environment. Two separate jobs means two separate bookings against the same finite bay capacity.

Vehicle handling and staging. Bringing a unit in, positioning it, and releasing it is fixed cost per visit regardless of what happens in between.

Documentation and administration. Per unit estimate, invoice, PO reference. Once instead of twice.

Across a fleet of twenty vehicles, doing graphics and refinish as separate programmes pays every one of those twenty times over again.

The numbers

At our posted rates, body and paint at $210 per hour with paint materials at $55 per paint hour.

• Fleet graphics and vinyl wrap: $1,500 to $9,500 per unit at 10 to 45 labor hours
• Full refinish and repaint: $5,000 to $30,000 per unit at 40 to 200 labor hours
• DOT reflective tape and compliance marking: $250 to $1,200 at 1 to 5 hours
• Cab body repair, if bundled in: $750 to $12,000

Bundled, the shared preparation and masking on a typical box truck saves somewhere in the region of eight to sixteen labor hours per unit against doing both separately. At $210 per hour that is $1,700 to $3,400 per vehicle, before you count the second downtime window.

On twenty units that is a number worth scheduling around.

The downtime argument is bigger than the cost argument

For most fleets it is.

Two separate programmes means each vehicle is off the road twice. One programme means once. On a fleet where a unit generates revenue every day it operates, the second downtime window frequently costs more than the labor saving.

And it compounds, because you are also managing two scheduling exercises against your own coverage requirements rather than one.

When it is not worth bundling

Honestly, a few cases.

When the refinish is not due. Do not repaint a fleet with sound paint because you are rebranding. Graphics on sound existing paint is $1,500 to $9,500 and it is the right answer.

When the rebrand is urgent and the refinish is not. If a brand change has a deadline, hitting it matters more than the saving.

When vehicles are being cycled out. No point refinishing a unit leaving the fleet in eighteen months. Graphics only, or nothing.

When paint condition varies wildly across the fleet. Then it is not one programme, it is a triage exercise: refinish the units that need it, graphics only on the rest. Still worth doing as one scheduling exercise even if the scope per unit differs.

Compliance marking, which gets forgotten

DOT reflective tape and compliance marking is cheap, at $250 to $1,200 per unit, and it is safety equipment rather than decoration.

Refinishing a vehicle removes it. Which means either it goes back on as part of the job, or the vehicle leaves non compliant. That should be an explicit line on any fleet refinish quote and it is worth checking that it is.

On municipal and emergency vehicles, conspicuity marking matters more still, and on those we treat it as part of the refinish rather than as an option.

How we schedule a fleet programme

Coverage first, always.

We agree the maximum number of units you can have down simultaneously before anything starts. Work runs in batches sized to that. Units return to service individually as they complete rather than being held for a batch.

Each unit is assessed, estimated and invoiced separately so it tracks against its own purchase order and cost centre, which matters for municipal fleets particularly.

And because we publish our labor rates on this website, a fleet or department spend gets defended against a rate anyone can verify. Departments tell us that is the most useful part of working with us, ahead of anything about the work itself.

Scope note

On commercial and fleet vehicles we do body, paint, structural and equipment installation only. No engine work, no drivetrain work, no DOT inspections.

Graphics, refinish, compliance marking, body repair and equipment installation are all in scope. A unit needing mechanical work at the same time means two suppliers and a longer plan, and it is better to know that when you build the programme.