Van Stickers vs Lorry Stickers: The Coverage, Cost and Design Difference

A van is a curved body full of glass; a lorry is one flat box — and that changes everything

The Basic Difference Between the Two Vehicles

From a distance, van stickers and lorry stickers look like the same job — put graphics on a business vehicle. Once you start measuring, they are two entirely different jobs. 🚚

A lorry gives you one flat box: tall, long, almost uninterrupted apart from vertical ribs and a few seams. A van gives you a curved body full of holes: side windows, rear glass, a sliding door and its rail, a rounded roof, and body lines that crease around the wheels.

The consequence is easy to grasp: on a lorry every square metre works for you, while on a van part of the surface has already been spent on glass and curvature.

Surface Area: How Much You Are Actually Buying

This is the honest way to compare the two — not by price, but by how much readable area the road actually gets.

A standard panel van

A van's side is long, but the part that can genuinely carry large graphics is the panel below the window line. That is usually less than half the vehicle's height. The rear doors are tall and narrow — good for a logo and a phone number, not for a long sentence.

A 1-tonne or 3-tonne lorry

The box body starts around waist height and runs up above head height. Nearly all of it is usable. This is why even a small lorry looks bigger in branding terms than a van of the same overall length.

A 5-tonne lorry

The largest canvas, and the only one genuinely suited to full-size photographic imagery. If your goal is to be seen from across a highway, this size lands hardest.

Vans: Where the Design Usually Gets Stuck

Side windows

Passenger vans have large windows on both sides. You can cover glass with perforated material so the driver still sees out, but that is a different material and it changes how the design looks. A panel van with no side glass is far easier and cheaper to brand.

The sliding door and its rail

The sliding door rail is a deep channel running across the van's side. Graphics crossing it break, and letters landing on it lose part of their shape. We plan text zones to stop before the rail rather than run across it.

The rounded roof and wheel arches

The top of a van curves inward. Text placed too high looks skewed when viewed from eye level on the road. The arches around the wheels eat the bottom corners of your design. Both are why we keep the important information in the middle of the panel.

Lorries: One Big Canvas, Two Different Zones

A lorry is really two separate surfaces, and it deserves to be treated that way.

The cab doors

Small, flat, at eye level. This is where information people need to read while the lorry is stopped belongs — company name and phone number.

The box body

Large, tall, seen from distance and at speed. This is for big elements only. The vertical ribs mean fine text does not work here, so we place text zones between them. If you want to go deeper on this part, read our seven lorry sticker design directions that read at highway speed.

Full Wrap or Partial — Which Is Worth It

The answer differs between these two vehicles, and this is the advice we give most often.

For a van: partial is usually enough

Because glass and curvature already break up a van's surface, a full wrap on a van adds a lot of labour for a modest visual return. A well-designed side panel plus the rear doors delivers most of the effect.

For a lorry: a full wrap is a real step up

On a box body, every bit of added coverage genuinely shows. The gap between a half body and a full body on a 5-tonne lorry is the gap between "it has stickers" and "that lorry is a moving billboard".

You can compare each coverage level visually with the wrap coverage picker on our homepage.

Cost: What Actually Moves the Price

Three things drive the price, and vehicle type is only one of them:

• Coverage area — single side, partial, or full.
• Surface complexity — glass, rails, deep recesses and corrugated panels all add installation time.
• Number of vehicles — a fleet is done in one run, so the design cost is shared.

Pakej Standard — a 1-tonne or 3-tonne lorry, single-side or partial coverage — starts at RM2,200.

Pakej Size XL — a 5-tonne lorry, a full wrap, or a fleet of five or more — starts at RM3,500.

For a van, the price follows the coverage you choose and whether the glass has to be covered. Send photos of your van and we will give you an accurate figure rather than a rough guess. Full details of both packages are in our packages section.

Mixed Fleets of Vans and Lorries

Plenty of businesses run both — vans for city deliveries, lorries for bulk. The challenge is making both look like the same company when their shapes are so different.

Our approach: keep one background colour, one typeface, one logo arrangement across every vehicle, then change only the scale and layout to suit the shape. The van gets a compressed version; the lorry gets an extended one. From the road, people recognise the same company before they have finished reading the name.

What does not work is using identical artwork on both. A lorry design squeezed into a van panel comes out too small to read.

Material and Installation

Vans and lorries use the same material: 3M and Avery cast vinyl, printed in house — weatherproof, UV and rain resistant, with a vinyl life of 5 to 7 years.

Every job includes a 2-year colour and material warranty and a 7-day installation workmanship guarantee. Design is done in house with 2 free revisions.

Installation happens at your location — your office, workshop or company car park. We work Malaysia-wide, including lorry stickers in Petaling Jaya and lorry stickers in Subang Jaya.

Get a Quote

Send photos of your van or lorry and tell us the coverage you have in mind. We will come back with a layout suggestion and a price. Quotes are free. 💬

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Closing

A van is not a smaller lorry. It is a differently shaped vehicle with less usable area and more obstructions on its surface.

If you are choosing between the two for branding, a lorry gives you more space per ringgit. If you already run vans, the key is working with the panels you have rather than trying to fill every surface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are van stickers cheaper than lorry stickers?

Not automatically. A van is smaller, but the glass, door rails and body curvature add installation time. The real price follows coverage and surface complexity — send photos for an accurate quote.

Can stickers go over a van's windows?

Yes, using perforated material that keeps visibility from inside. It is a different material from standard panel vinyl, so mention it early if you want the glass covered, and it will be counted in the quote.

What about a leased van?

That is a question for your leasing company, not for us. Some lease contracts prohibit changes to the vehicle body. Check the contract first; if it is allowed, the work itself is the same as on an owned van.

If I sell the van later, can the stickers be removed?

Cast vinyl is designed to be removable. The longer it has been in the sun, the more work removal takes, and the condition of the paint underneath matters too.

Can I do the van now and the lorry later?

Yes. We keep the original design files, so vehicles added later reuse the same design without starting over. If you are planning a lorry with a particular cab shape, see our guide on how body shape changes the artwork.