It’s a wrap at Grey’s of Ely

Grey’s of Ely have just taken delivery of their new Mercedes 29-seat Air-conditioned Midi-coach and decided that they would like a fresh design for their paint scheme.

“As part of our on going vehicle replacement programme we bought the new Mercedes and decided that we wanted a fresh and striking design to update our company image,” managing director Richard Grey explains. “Having decided upon a final design we had the problem of getting this onto the coach. It would not have been possible with normal paint and therefore we went for a vinyl wrap instead”

Grey’s of Ely approached another local company, Raccoon East Anglia, based at Woolpit in Suffolk. This specialist company has been providing vehicle wrapping for the past 15 years for a variety of vehicle types, from cars to boats to lorries . The company has also won Vehicle Livery of the Year for the past 3 years at the UK Sign Industry Awards.

“Vehicle wrapping is still in its infancy, with both suppliers and material manufacturers still trying to improve their product offerings”, explains Steve Cooper, managing director of Raccoon East Anglia.”There are basically three elements that make up a successful vehicle wrap: materials, print method and application”.

With every client having their own specific equirements, the correct materials need to be selected to guarantee a successful wrap. Therefore only the latest bubble free film and high performance self adhesive materials are used, this new film allows it to be put on dry to the vehicle. The printing of the design is only limited by the imagination of the design, and is done using PhotoX, which produces vibrant, eye-catching and photographic quality graphics. Finally the film is applied to the vehicle under controlled conditions. After careful planning, this will result in a finished design which can last up to 10 years.

The new coach is already on the road and is used a for variety of work, from weddings to airport transfers to nights out, “We already have two 33-seat Mercedes coaches, which have been very popular with our customers, however this time we decided to increase the amount of leg room and luggage space by reducing the number of seats,” comments Richard. “At nearly half the hire price of a full size coach, they offer a very attractive solution to customers looking for coach luxury and ride quality, but at a competitive rate.” This latest
addition joins the rest of their 19-strong fleet of coaches, in which the average age is just three years old.

Along with air-conditioning the vehicle is fitted with three-point seat-belted reclining seats, personal address system and continental-tinted glass. The vehicle is also environmentally friendly as it is powered by a Euro 4 engine which dramatically reduces its emissions.

This will be very important, as this summer sees ondon’s low emission zone come into force, in which all commercial vehicles entering London will have to meet at least Euro 3 standards to avoid being fined £200 per day. Fortunately, all Grey’s of Ely’s coaches conform to this requirement.