Marketing and image perception of running with a box truck?

[Will Reed]

In the AT thread I saw a few guys saying that they regularly get calls from their box wrap/lettering from customers that were impressed with the size and look of their truck. How much of an improvement would you say it is over a regular cargo van? I am looking at adding a box truck sometime next week hopefully. I don't have the capital to buy a 50K TM for it though and will just get a slide in. In my market none of the carpet cleaners here have what I consider to be a really good wrap even, it is mostly just lettering with few graphics. None have a box truck, I would be the first and only CC to have a box truck. I plan to get a high quality attention getting wrap on it and hopefully have it fully installed and up and running for next spring. This cleaning season is little more then half over and plan on spending a lot of the off season customizing the truck.

Anyways as a side question my market doesn't have many big houses. There is only one house I've ever cleaned where it took 200' of hose to reach all areas of the house. I do like to dual wand and have had good results dual wanding at 100' with a 40/47 ** TM, 90%+ of the houses here can be done with 100'. I am toying with the idea of maybe getting a 59 blower for the box truck instead of another 40/47. 59 Blower however seems to be almost double the cost of a 47.

Any advice and opinions are appreciated.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Whats a 40/47?

I think it will give you much better visabilty but if it actually translates into jobs would be tough to answer. It could just be one part of why they called you. ???

 

[Will Reed]

40 HP 47 blower.

 

[Mikey P]

30/47 is far more common.

Having spent the last 9.5 years driving around in a Vortex I can say with out a doubt the truck gets noticed a lot. A whole lot.

No fancy wrap for us but our lettering and the unique style of the box gets us comments about being seen so much they think we have more than one all the time.
The lettering is big so our bullet list actually gets read as well.


Study how Jim Martin set up his cab over. Awesome job.
Is a new truck out of the question?

Standard box vans are pretty ugly, have you considered a Sprinter or waiting for the new Ford?

 

[Will Reed]

Box truck I'm looking at has about 80,000 miles and the price is right.

 

[Mikey P]

free?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Change the fluid and filters in the tranny.

It will cost you more to run out of a box but hopefully having a shop on wheels and the marketing value will off set some of that expense.

 

[Will Reed]

free?

I wish but about 1/4 the cost of a new one with only about 80,000 miles.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We have (9) box trucks, I don't know that I could pin down any additional sales to that fact that they bring in any more work than our standard service vehicles but we are visible.

People always tell me "you must be busy, I see your vehicles everywhere".

 

[Shane Deubell]

In the AT thread I saw a few guys saying that they regularly get calls from their box wrap/lettering from customers that were impressed with the size and look of their truck. How much of an improvement would you say it is over a regular cargo van? I am looking at adding a box truck sometime next week hopefully. I don't have the capital to buy a 50K TM for it though and will just get a slide in. In my market none of the carpet cleaners here have what I consider to be a really good wrap even, it is mostly just lettering with few graphics. None have a box truck, I would be the first and only CC to have a box truck. I plan to get a high quality attention getting wrap on it and hopefully have it fully installed and up and running for next spring. This cleaning season is little more then half over and plan on spending a lot of the off season customizing the truck.

Anyways as a side question my market doesn't have many big houses. There is only one house I've ever cleaned where it took 200' of hose to reach all areas of the house. I do like to dual wand and have had good results dual wanding at 100' with a 40/47 ** TM, 90%+ of the houses here can be done with 100'. I am toying with the idea of maybe getting a 59 blower for the box truck instead of another 40/47. 59 Blower however seems to be almost double the cost of a 47.

Any advice and opinions are appreciated.

Not sure of the marketing benefit, have no personal experience but it makes sense in a smaller town. Definitely a practical benefit to have at least 1 box if you plan on adding restoration in the future. Some benefit for commercial work if you add floor stuff.

We have an advertising company all they do is drive around all day with these big billboard type trucks on main roads, must be some benefit.

Maybe joe b should be coming to you for marketing advice .

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree market size makes a huge difference in being visible. It takes many more vehicles in a large metro vs small towns like ours.

 

[Will Reed]

My town has about 80,000 and the populated areas of town is around 10 miles diameter.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yep we are 120K with a town 20 minutes down the road that my brother lives in having 87K