THERE'S a new van sitting in your car park, its paintwork sparkling in the sun, its mileage reading still in single figures, its interior clean and free of scuff marks. It's ready for service. All it lacks is a little bit of branding to promote your company – a nice bit of signwriting, some colourful vinyl, perhaps even a fancy full vehicle wrap.

But can you be bothered to go to the trouble and the expense? The prevalence of white van man shows that a huge number of van operators don't. Some do this for security reasons but the truth is that most are missing a pretty significant opportunity.

Nicholas Lees, managing director of Freight Media, a company which specialises in selling advertising on vehicles, estimates that the value of the space on the side of a van is typically worth about £60 per month in advertising. Multiply that over the life of a fleet van and it'll pay for even the most expensive four-colour full vehicle wrap.

He said: 'A lot depends on the places in which a van is being used. If it's parked in the corner of a car park all day then the exposure is limited. It may even be a waste for vehicles on dual carriageways that flash by at high speed before people can see the design on a van. But if it spends all its time in daylight hours driving around a busy city centre where a lot of people will see it, then it's worth putting in some effort.'

Research by signs and decals specialist Signs Express indicates that a van finished in an eye-catching design will register something like 3,000-3,500 'impressions' on pedestrians and other road users every hour. Again, over the years that you operate the vehicle, this adds up to some pretty significant numbers.

The question is: what graphics technique to apply to your vehicle?

Traditional painted signwriting is a thing of the past. It is creatively limited, takes a lot of time, requires no small amount of money, and creates problems when you come to disposal.

For most van fleets today, the preferred livery comes through vinyl application. It's cost-effective at about £100–£200 per vehicle and peels off with a relatively small amount of fuss at the end of a vehicle's fleet life. However, it is largely limited to lettering and simple shapes in single colours - and is therefore starting to look just a little dull next to the latest technicolour developments in full vehicle wrapping.

Vehicle wrapping - where a section of your van or even the entire vehicle is literally encased from bumper to bumper and sill to roof in film - is still pretty new, having been available in the UK for no more that two or three years.

Compared to vinyl techniques, it is undeniably pricey. A full four-colour wrap can cost about £2,000 and even sections such as van sides and doors can add up to almost £1,000. However, it can turn your van into a genuine all-singing, all-dancing mobile billboard.

One of the pioneers of full vehicle wrapping in the UK has been Mike Phillips, principal of Vehicle Wrapping Services. He first became interested in the process as an alternative to the costly process of signwriting taxis in full advertising livery.

He explained: 'My background is in selling media space on taxis and the old-fashioned process of painting them, like we did on 100 cabs for an Evening Standard campaign in the 1980s, was expensive and slow.

'We became aware in the late 1990s that wrapping film existed that was suitable for vehicle applications. After experimenting, we came up with a process that was even more flexible than signwriting, was faster, much cheaper and could be removed when that was needed.

'One of the reasons we now so strongly target the commercial vehicle market is that the vehicles adapt very well to this purpose. If you look at a taxi, it has a relatively small amount of space that you can use but a panel van has large, blank spaces that can be used for very colourful, creative designs. It is ideal for wrapping.'

The fact that wrapping does allow the use of large scale graphics, a complete spectrum of colours and full colour photographic images means that much more thought needs to be given to design than is usual for commercial vehicles.

Neil Henstone, of vehicle graphics specialist Optima, said: 'With normal vinyl lettering, the final word on the design applied is often left down to the fleet manager – the customer's marketing department is likely to only take a passing interest.

'However, with wrapping, the impetus is likely to come from the marketing department itself and they are much more interested in finding out about the effects available and exactly what can be achieved. We have our own studio here with software that can show the customer exactly how the design will look.'

He points out that it is because of the involvement of marketing departments that more companies are becoming willing to pay the higher price for wrapping: 'Going for the full effect wrapping is clearly a lot more expensive than using traditional vinyl but many of the larger van fleets that we deal with – like Cadbury's – recognise the marketing value. When people see a van, they will not always read the lettering applied but they cannot help but see and remember a well-designed image.'

Dan Archer at Signs Express confirms that wrapping is starting to gain more notice: 'Last year, we did no more than a handful of vans. This year we are talking about hundreds and are getting involved with some well-known names like WD40. We're even wrapping a vehicle for Lotus and looking at new finishes like snakeskin.'

However, while everyone is starting to agree that a full vehicle wrap looks good, how can fleets be sure that it will stand up to life in difficult working conditions?

All suppliers of vehicle wrapping are confident of the longevity of their product but strong evidence comes from Valormatic, specialist in car wash equipment.

Its van fleet has been wrapped by Optima and is subject to an unusual test of wear. Every time a car wash is repaired or serviced, the wrapped van is put through as a final test. The film is reportedly standing up well to this very tough, day-to-day treatment.

Which leads us to the final but still one of the most important aspects of vehicle wrapping: peel it off at the end of the vehicle's life and you should find pristine, untouched paintwork that will help your van get the best price possible at auction.

But as most van fleet operators know, getting ordinary vinyl off a panel van is a tricky job – so how difficult is removing a full wrap? Mike Phillips of Vehicle Wrapping Services explained: 'It takes about two days to apply a full wrap to a panel van and about a quarter of that time to take it off. In theory, anyone can do it with the right solvents but we find most clients come back to us and we charge about £200.

'We like to include the decommissioning cost in with the initial bill for the wrapping then the customer can amortise it over the life of the vehicle. It makes the company accountant much happier than having to spend money on a van that is being sold.'