Interesting comment about having a sign on your service truck

[Frank Cox]

I just came across this comment in another forum:

There was a post here about effective forms of advertising--here's a great reason I like having a big, legible sign on the side of my truck (Note: not those car signs people get that have tiny, flowery fonts that you can't figure out. "What are they selling?"):

Not dying.

It seems like many are trigger happy these days, and since I work in pretty remote places in the mountains of Oregon and the far north of CA, I want people to know who I am when I pull up to the door and ring the bell. People out in the woods can be pretty paranoid, especially if they forgot they had a service appointment or have memory issues or rarely see any traffic.

Also, another factor in this part of the country is the cannabis trade: The woods are crawling with legal and illegal pot grows, many run by cartels. If you show up in a truck, those people can get pretty edgy wondering why there's a guy in a truck driving around.

It's not limited to rural areas, though: when I drive up to any house, I try to park right near the front door so that the customer can immediately see it's me.

On the other hand, I remember talking to one of the service techs that used to come here who drove a plain white van. He said he didn't want anything written on the truck because someone might decide it was a good target to steal tools out of.

[Mike Blakesley]

Contractor guys around here tend to not have signs on their trucks because they are all so busy they can't handle the calls they get as it is. If they advertised their phone number they would never get a minute's peace. We could really use another plumber or general contractor in this area, but there's not that much new construction so they all tend to head for the big cities. There's a ton of work around here but it's mostly rebuild, repair, etc. type jobs.

[Steve Guttag]

Every Cardinal van with our logo and name was broken into (to steal stuff) and/or steal the van itself. We then went to plain white full-size and Harry-Homeowner mini-vans (Astro has been our van of choice, while in production). To a degree, we want the would-be-thieves to see inside and know it isn't worth breaking into (we don't leave vans loaded with equipment) and the non-commercial Astros have thieves think "diapers" not "tools." Not a single one has been broken into or any equipment lost inside the van.

Unfortunately, vans are prime targets for catalytic converter theft due to high ground clearance so we've been hit a couple of times with that. Flooding them with security cameras pointed at them at night cured that problem too.

Now, the reverse problem has happened...some sites we service require "commercial" vehicles to park in a service parking spot. They don't want john-q-public to think that they are public spaces, especially since some of the service spots seem like they are on or are adjacent to sidewalks for museums. Our solution, the logo and stuff on a magnet. Just slap those on the sides and "Ta-da" we're commercial.

[John Eickhof]

Years ago, I had magnetic signs made, small towns were ok, but they would be removed in larger cities like SF, Portland or Seattle mainly for the theft reason, however some jurisdictions required special permits for commercial vehicles too as well as higher bridge tolls thus the signs would come off. Eventually, the signs were retired as I found it no advantage to advertise mainly because I was serving a limited market thus most my business was within one industry. However, I had jobsite signs I used on new and remodel projects for advertising as well as location identification for receiving shipments. Back in the seventies, on my first visit the see Charlie Wolk in Chicago, he warned me that signs were a no-no and windowless cargo vans were too as they would stop you for permits! Years later, after I wore out the cargo van I had, I bought one off the lot with windows, used tinting so you could not see inside! My last van was a surplus USAF aircrew 16 passenger type, It s a one-ton so it handles any load you want to carry plus iI still have it today!, I used it for camping the last 15 years!