What should I put on my work truck?
Five things, and nothing else: your company name, the trade you do, a phone number in letters at least 4 inches tall, a short website address, and your CCB number if you are a licensed construction contractor in Oregon. The Construction Contractors Board requires that license number on any business vehicle carrying signage, and every other element you are thinking about has to pass one test: can a driver read it in the three seconds your truck sits in their mirror?
Why five and not fifteen
We have been putting graphics on work vehicles for 33+ years and the pattern has not moved. The trucks that produce phone calls carry one number big enough to read from the next lane and one plain statement of what the company does. The trucks that produce nothing are the ones carrying a nine-item service list in 1.5-inch type, two social icons, a QR code down by the bumper and a tagline set in script.
A work truck gets read at distance, in motion, by someone who was not looking for you. Every extra element on that door takes size away from the two that get used. If you want a QR code to do any work, put it on a yard sign where a homeowner is standing still, not on a panel moving at 45 miles an hour.
How big the letters need to be
The rule we work from is one inch of letter height for every ten feet of reading distance. A 3-inch phone number is legible from about 30 feet, which covers a truck parked in a driveway and not much past it. The car behind you at a light sits 20 to 40 feet back, so 4 inches is the floor for a number you want dialed, and 5 or 6 inches is better on a full-size van or a box truck.
The company name goes larger, usually 8 to 12 inches on the side of a cargo van, because that is the piece doing the recognition work on the second and third sighting. Contrast decides whether any of it reads. Dark vinyl holds up on a white or silver vehicle in Willamette Valley winter light, white or reflective works on a dark vehicle, and a thin script face that looks sharp on your laptop vanishes at 40 feet. Reflective material on the rear is worth the money if your crews park on a shoulder after dark.
The back of the vehicle outearns the sides
Most owners spend the budget on the two front doors, and that is the surface a homeowner sees for four seconds while you pull in. The rear doors or the tailgate are what the driver behind you reads at every light between one job and the next, sometimes for minutes at a time. Put the phone number and the trade back there, large and centered, and let the side panels carry the name.
Full coverage is not always the answer either. A cut vinyl package placed well on doors, rear and rack can read cleaner at 80 feet than a busy full wrap, and it stays legible when the truck is filthy, which in February it will be. Our signs, banners and vehicle wrap work covers both. The right call depends on the vehicle, how long you are keeping it, and whether you are lettering one truck or setting a fleet look you will repeat eight more times.
What a homeowner sees in a week
A homeowner who hires you sees your brand four or five times in a week: the yard sign at the neighbor's house, the truck in the driveway, the shirt on the person at the door, the invoice, and the website they check before they call. When those pieces come from four different vendors you end up with four different blues, two versions of the logo and a phone number formatted three ways. It reads as a loose operation even when the work is first-rate.
Your entire brand under one umbrella is the reason we work the way we do. One team sets the identity, then directs print, signage, crew apparel and merch, web and social off the same files. We design and direct, then produce through a supplier network built over 30+ years, so the vinyl on your tailgate and the embroidery on your crew shirts come back matching instead of close. There is more on how that fits together on our corporate branding page.
Settle this before anyone cuts vinyl
Start with the phone number, and use the one you will still have in ten years rather than a tracking line or a cell you might swap. Re-lettering a vehicle because the number moved costs you twice. Lock the business name while you are at it, because if you are weighing two names you are not ready for graphics.
Then the files. You need vector artwork you own, built for large format. A JPG pulled off your old website will not cut, and a mark drawn for a 1-inch app icon rarely survives at 10 inches on a door. Write the license line the way the board asks for it, CCB followed by your number, so CCB #123456, and add licensed and bonded if you want it there. Pin your colors to one written spec that every supplier touching your brand works from, or you will be matching by eye for years.
If you do not have final files yet, that is what The Signature Brand Day is for: $3,500 for a brand kit plus a custom website, built in one day. The Signature Brand Week is $5,000 and adds a guided content session that produces 15 content-ready images you can use on the site, in social and in print. Either one ends with the artwork your sign installer, your apparel decorator and your web build all need, which is the part most owners are missing when they call us about a truck. You can see how that day runs on our brand in a day page.
If your truck is due for graphics this month, send us the year, make and model plus a photo of each side, and we will mark up what fits and what to leave off.
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