Fleet Vehicle Graphics - Are you being sold what you've been told?

When it comes to the specification of your fleet livery you might be told it comes with a warranty. That may be true, but it may not be the whole truth. When comparing your graphics options you need to beware that it's never that straight forward. There are many things to bear in mind to ensure you are getting what you think you are.

Aura Graphics - the new face of merged vehicle graphics specialists SSDM and Fenn Graphics - helps explain what's what when it comes to vehicle graphics warranties and ensuring you reduce the risks and costs of failure.

Choosing the wrong specification can lead to poor image/colour quality, health & safety issues, poor performance and material failures - to name but a few. The result - an impact on your brand & reputation, increased operational downtime and significant rectification costs.

The vehicle graphics market has many suppliers using a multitude of material types from a range of manufacturers. All these vary in inherent quality. Lower grade materials are not suitable for long-term branding requirements or wrapping due to their physical characteristics and processes of manufacture. For example, calendared films are cheaper to produce than good quality cast films making the initial cost look attractive, but they carry a significant risk of performance failure over time due to the way they are made. The most common failure types with these films being cracking and shrinking.

Higher grade materials – such as cast films are much more suited to the requirements of outdoor exposure and longevity. They are also a prerequisite if you need to wrap curves or into recesses. However there are still many varying levels of quality and support between material manufacturers.

At the very minimum all films should carry a statement of durability. This is not to be confused with a guarantee or warranty. A statement of durability is the material manufacturer’s advised life of a film after it has been applied to its substrate. This will vary between films and also is often reduced if the film is being printed, as often the inks will not last as long as the film itself (cheaper untested inks are a big risk to print quality and overall performance and longevity), making quality of ink just as important as film choice.

In the event of failure before the stated durability period has elapsed, the level of support from each material manufacturer will differ. This support will at best be the replacement of the original raw film material value and at worst could be on a sliding scale based on the amount of time the film has been on the substrate (i.e. at the time of the failure, the nearer to the maximum durability period it is the less you will get back). Any further support will be the decision of your supplier and that in itself will depend on the extent of the exposure, your business volumes with them and the financial strength of the supplier to underwrite the risk of failure.

It is important to note that the replacement of the value of the original material used does not account for reprinting, refinishing, removing the failed material or re-applying a replacement graphic. That peace of mind and level of support only comes from the larger material manufacturers such as 3M and to an extent Avery Dennison. This is where warranties come in. The warranty of a film will again vary between film type, its purpose, its application and its manufacturer, but also the way it is used with other components to produce a finished graphic. This is very important where printed graphics are concerned.

To make it more complex there are varying degrees of warranty cover depending on how and by whom the finished graphics are produced. When your supplier says that your livery has a warranty you need to question them on exactly what that will provide.

Putting this into context, if you asked Aura Graphics to provide your fleet livery, we would careful specify a solution that not only meets your performance expectations, but also one that meets the physical demands of the application and whole-life cost aspirations. This involves considerations including speed & complexity of application, life of the film, operating environment, livery design, removability at the end of the vehicle's life, etc. If your project is wrapping a number of vehicles then we more than likely offer you a 3M solution.

The reason why is that through years of experience and many happy customers, including some of the biggest UK brands and fleets, we know that 3M films, inks and laminates perform and that the warranty programme is the best available in the global graphics market. The full product solution is designed and quality tested to provide the highest levels of warranted performance, which means reducing your exposure to a graphic that fails within the first year or one you can't remove easily at the end of your vehicle's lease.

Some suppliers will offer 3M and claim to provide its warranties or offer a material alternative that purports to the have identical benefits and support, but in reality this means just the replacement of the failed material. Make sure you check their status directly with the manufacturer, what inks and printers they are using, etc. It all has a massive impact on graphics performance and you won't want to be left with a costly rectification programme if things go wrong.

If you are looking for the complete and comprehensive package you need to have 3M™ Scotchprint® Premium Fleet Warranty. Only finished graphics that have passed through a stringent system of matched components (film, adhesive, protective layers, inks, tapes) and are produced by a 3M™ Scotchprint® Graphics Authorised Manufacturer (SPGAM) using 3M approved printing technologies, then installed by 3M trained installers are backed by this industry leading warranty.

Using a 3M SPAGAM such as Aura Graphics provides the ultimate peace of mind that in the unlikely event of any failure of your livery, it will quickly be assessed, removed, remade and reinstalled under a full replacement warranty. It's important to remember that when comparing the cost and offer of one graphics supplier against another. Ensure you read the small print and ask for proof to back up the claims. For that small extra investment the performance of your fleet graphics can be guaranteed and the risk of failure, damaged brand reputation, extra cost and operational downtime all significantly reduced.

For further information on Aura Graphics and its warranted vehicle graphic solutions, please visit www.auragraphics.com, email info@auragraphics.com or call on 0845 0525 241.