PM Truck Of The Month ― Mike Douglass Plumbing, Englewood, FL - Feature Article

Kick It Up A Notch

“I wanted to step up my game.” That’s how Mike Douglass of Mike Douglass Plumbing in southwest Florida describes his decision to completely redo his full-service plumbing company’s trucks with an inspiring and patriotic theme.

His two trucks (Fords with one Spartan box and one Hackney) feature a majestic eagle and an undulating American flag, which definitely qualifies for a salute from PM as our end-of-the-year Truck Of The Month.

This is Douglass’ first business, in operation since 2003. He’s been plumbing in the same area, though, for more than 17 years. Mike Douglass Plumbing employs about nine, and, along with the eagle-wrapped box trucks, runs two more vehicles (a van and a pickup).

The eagle was wrapped in September 2008 by SignZoo. Douglass threw ideas at the Sarasota wrapping company, and it had a design proof back to him pretty quickly. The whole process was “painless,” he tells me.

“We’ve always been red, white and blue,” Douglass says, “But the eagle wrap turned out great.”

Another way he’s streamlined operations through the new wrapping is clearing up the contact info. “The old signage used to list all the different cities we served, along with the corresponding local phone numbers for those cities to contact the company, but it was busy and confusing. Now we’ve gone to a single phone number that routes all the work to the call center.”

The idea to go big with the graphics was all Douglass’ brainchild. He even had to convince wife Leisa to get on-board. After seeing the results, however, she was a convert. “Now she’s glad I did it,” Douglass says.