Creating Vehicle Graphics on a Grand Scale

One key to keeping a Coach USA bus – or any Class 8 vehicle – on the road is top-notch repairs and maintenance. For more than 80 years, Coach USA's Perfect Body shop, now located in North Bergen, New Jersey, has handled the repair, service, and ID packages for Coach USA's line of buses as well as for outside firms' vehicles.

Today the company is expanding their service by bringing digital printing capability in-house. This enables them to provide faster branding graphics and full-color advertising wraps on the buses and other large vehicles that come to them for service and support.

Bernie Obry is the general manager at Perfect Body. We talked with Bernie about why his company decided to establish their Perfect Body Print Lab, how they keep up with the production demands in a 30-bus capacity bodyshop, and what lies ahead for this regional powerhouse.

How did you come to manage Perfect Body?

Bernie Obry: I started my career working in a family shop and went on to build an insurance appraisal firm in two states. I then gained expertise in commercial vehicles and used these skills to build new or modify the operations of existing repair shops for independent owners.

I joined Coach USA to redirect their Perfect Body shop operation in January 2020. A silver lining of the slowdown in business due to the pandemic was that it allowed time to strategize about the future. We were also able to hire a few additional good people.

Please tell me a bit about Perfect Body?

Perfect Body was founded 80 years ago. We've had three locations over that time and have been here in North Bergen for over 30 years. We currently have 35 employees.

Our facility is 45,000 square feet. We have room for 30 buses – essentially, we're the size of a small Walmart, just full of buses. We have all the equipment needed to repair Class 8 vehicles, plus two 60-foot spray booths, a state-of-the-art mixing room, and now the incredible Perfect Body Print Lab.

Please tell us why you decided to establish the Perfect Body Print Lab?

We knew that outsourcing our vinyl graphics production was causing delays in our workflow. We work on $500,000 buses that need to make money every day – especially those owned by small to medium sized operators.

We realized that since we have a clean, dry indoor facility, we have the optimal environment fo rinstalled vinyl graphics to have maximum lifespan and provide maximum return. Controlling production and installation also provides us with greater control over our output quality and workflow.

With the Perfect Body Print Lab, we can quickly and accurately produce our customers' ID packages without relying on outside vendors – which means less time before these buses are back in service. The same logic applies to any advertising wraps or temporary graphics installations, such as when a truck or bus is being rented for a specific event.

How is the Perfect Body Print Lab equipped?

We had guidance from a trusted partner out west—Pacific Service Center—a business that's deeply experienced in large-format fleet graphics. They recommended the Roland DG TrueVIS XP-640 eco-solvent printer based on their own success with it. We eventually found a local dealer, LetraSign Supplies, who sold us our equipment and provides us with support.

Pacific Service Center's advice helped us avoid the trial-and-error path and go straight to a proven setup. This was our first high-production digital printer, and the color accuracy, speed, and reliability made it an easy decision. We now have two Roland DG TrueVIS XP-640 64-inch eco-solvent printers, one with the DU3-64 high volume heater, a Roland DG Camm-1 GR2-640 64-inch cutter, and a Roland DG VersaStudio GS2-24 desktop cutter paired up with a lighted application table and hot laminator.

What kinds of graphics are you currently producing?

We work on everything from articulated transit and double-decker buses to regular coaches, school buses and cutaways. In addition to our wraps, striping, and ID packages, we also produce all the "legals," which are the DOT numbers and operator/owner information.

Since we are a fleet-based shop, we need all kinds of standard decals – pedestrian, bicycle safety, handicap accessibility stickers, seatbelt decals, coolant decals, emergency exit labeling – we produce thousands of these decals in-house now, which is a savings for the whole fleet.

We've had the printers for just a few months but already we have started working with a national advertisement company on production and installation of full wraps as well asking sized ads on our own fleet. Our staff includes a very talentedgraphic designer and experienced installers. We are located three miles from the Met Life Stadium and provide buses for event transit that we previously had wrapped by outside vendors. Bringing wraps and other graphics work in-house has reduced our costs and turnaround time.

How has having the Perfect Body Print Lab affected your business?

We are already seeing an uptick in paint work since adding the vinyl graphics to our product line. The two exterior treatments are complementary. This is contrary to what many would think but the reality is paint sells graphics and graphics sells paint and repairs. Having different capabilities means we can up-sell or cross-sell our services.

Currently, at least 70 percent of the buses we service require some form of graphics. With the ease, quality, and affordability of the work our TrueVis XP-640 printers enable us to do, we are already seeing a movement from simple stripes to fantastic, printed graphics.

Having the Lab decreases the cycle time on delivery of vehicles because we no longer rely on outside vendors. Now we can replicate and prioritize production of our customers' digital print needs. This allows us to return both trucks and buses back to revenue service days or even weeks quicker.

Are you wrapping fleets for companies?

We are a subsidiary of Coach USA and sister company work accounts for 60% of what we do, but we are already producing all of the vinyl work that we used to sublet. This saves us time on the turnaround and keeps the sublet dollars in my shop.

In fact, we color matched a fleet stripe layout that has been a problem for years, and the customer couldn't be happier. Before we were at the mercy of the sublet who could only get close to the color they needed. Now, we can print the exact color for less money and faster than before.

What do you see for the future of your digitally printed production?

We see growing demand and increasing customer expectations for fast turnarounds and consistency across fleets.

Our goal is to continue scaling this operation – especially with the bus and transit market in New York being so active. We're in early conversations with Pacific Service Center on the West Coast about extending our graphics workflow with them at times when extra capacity is required and their team doing the same for us. Their operational model is solid and pairing that with our East Coast market and the remote systems compatibility could be a great opportunity to flex on capacity without additional build out or expense.

We are also in talks with a large ad firm known for their billboards and vehicle-based advertising. They have an existing relationship with our parent company Coach USA, and now we are talking about a partnership.

The Perfect Body team offers full collision repair services for not just buses but all commercial vehicles and with the addition of our Print Lab we look forward to continuing our 80-year history for many more years.