Grow Your Shop’s Profit Potential with a Heavy-Duty Truck Paint Booth

When outfitting your automotive body shop or collision repair center with a new paint booth, going bigger — or a lot bigger — could be the best investment for your business.

Incorporating a heavy-duty paint booth for oversized trucks and vehicles opens the door to a plethora of new ways to profit, thanks to additional service opportunities, a larger market share and much greater margins.

Oversized vehicles and equipment around the world get their final finish every day in Large Equipment Paint Booths from Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) — big enough to accommodate semis, buses, RVs and much more. The purchase of a heavy-duty truck paint booth is a game-changer for most shops, increasing their physical booth footprint and providing a boost to their bottom line.

Gaining Market Share

Heavy-duty truck paint booths are not that common, especially in rural areas. When an oversized vehicle is involved in an accident, the nearest shop with a paint booth large enough to accommodate it is sometimes hundreds of miles away.

By adding a heavy-duty truck paint booth to your facility, you immediately gain a leg up on the competition. On any given day, semis and buses may break down anywhere in the country and need somewhere to go to be repaired. The demand for large paint booths is greater than the supply, which translates into higher potential for repeat customers, especially through partnerships with local towing companies.

Increasing Profit Margins

For passenger cars, the average U.S. work order is $3,000, which equals $1,200 of gross profit per vehicle when factored at an industry standard of 40 percent. That is peanuts compared to the money that can be made working on oversized vehicles.

Repair costs for badly damaged heavy-duty trucks can total more than $50,000, with profit margins north of 50 percent — the equivalent of repairing about 17 passenger cars. On semis, the hoods alone can cost more than $10,000 to repair.

Most owners of heavy-duty truck paint booths charge more than $60 per hour in labor, which is an additional $20 per hour. Mechanical work and frame repairs on oversized vehicles can run as much as $100 per hour.

The costs are justified, considering the amount of labor that goes into repairing an oversized vehicle. In fact, due to advancements in crash-avoidance technology, parts alone can sometimes account for more than half of the repair bill. The increasingly rapid conversion from steel to aluminum bodies also makes repairs more complicated,  and therefore more lucrative.

Creating New Service Opportunities

Owning a heavy-duty truck paint booth gives your business an opportunity to refinish more than just oversized vehicles. With high-quality construction, strategically placed lighting and excellent airflow and filtration, heavy-duty paint booths from GFS are built to accommodate practically anything that is oversized. Standard interior booth sizes range from 14 to 18 feet in height and 40 to 64 feet in length, with three airflow configurations.

Forklifts, tractors, trucks and other vehicles in the construction and agricultural industries can fit into heavy-duty paint booths. So can boats and aquatic equipment. Heavy-duty paint booths can also be designed to accommodate trains, rail cars and amusement park rides.

This variety creates the potential for an additional revenue stream, without requiring extra labor. And once your business has established that it can accommodate large equipment, new customers will likely come knocking as frequently as existing ones.

If your business has been contemplating the addition of a heavy-duty truck paint booth, there is no doubt it is worth the investment. With so many revenue opportunities and increased profit margins, the decision is easy.