What’s it cost to letter this semi cab?
Knocking out a routine one-color vinyl lettering job
By Rob Estes
Posted on Thursday, June 20th, 2019
Materials:
6 sq. ft. of Dark Green Oracal 751 vinyl film: $12
Application tape: $3
Miscellaneous supplies: $2
Total materials: $17
Labor:
Design/sales: 1 hour
Cut/weed/mask film: 30 minutes
Clean/prep vehicle: 20 minutes
Install lettering: 30 minutes
Total labor: 2 hours, 20 minutes
A new client called and explained that he had eight new semi trucks arriving at their facility during the next few weeks. He said he would receive four sleeper cabs and four day cabs and would need them lettered on site at their facility.
That afternoon I drove over to their truck lot to get some measurements and to color match the vinyl that was previously being used. A few days later I received a call from my client telling me that he had a new sleeper cab on site and was ready to have it lettered.
This project was more a matter of identification than advertising. It was one of those routine jobs that most of us handle on a daily basis. The client provided the layout files on a USB drive to match the rest of their fleet—nothing fancy, just clean basic lettering to let people know who they are.
Such clients often prefer that I do their vehicle graphics on site. It saves them dropping it off and picking it up, and since a one-color application like this goes fairly quickly, it’s not much of an inconvenience for me. Plus this client was within 5 minutes of my shop, making it even easier.