Vehicle Graphics Cost in Dubai: Decal, Half Wrap or Full Van

Door decal, quarter wrap, half wrap or full van branding? A plain cost guide to vehicle graphics in the UAE with AED ranges, fitting times and permit steps.

Ask three suppliers for a vehicle graphics quote and you will get three numbers that are impossible to compare, because each one assumed a different amount of the vehicle gets covered. This guide fixes that. We split vehicle graphics into four coverage levels, give the AED range and fitting time for each from our Ajman workshop, and explain which level pays off for which kind of business. Every job below is printed in house and fitted in all seven emirates.

The four coverage levels of vehicle graphics

Coverage is the single biggest driver of price, ahead of vinyl brand or design complexity. The industry loosely uses four tiers, and most of the confusion in quotes comes from two suppliers using the same word for different areas.

Level	What gets covered	Typical area	Price range (AED)	Fitting time
Door decal	Logo and phone on both front doors, optional rear	1 to 2 sq m	350 to 900	1 to 2 hours
Quarter wrap	Rear third of both sides plus rear doors	5 to 8 sq m	1,800 to 3,200	Half a day
Half wrap	Lower half of both sides, rear, bonnet logo	10 to 14 sq m	3,500 to 6,000	1 day
Full van branding	Every painted panel, often roof excluded	22 to 30 sq m	7,500 to 14,000	2 to 3 days

Prices assume a standard panel van such as a Hiace or a Transit, printed on cast vinyl with a UV laminate from our decals and vinyl range. A small hatchback sits at the bottom of each range and a 4.5 tonne box truck sits above the top. Design work is extra if you do not have print ready files.

Level one: car door graphics

Car door graphics are the entry level of vehicle graphics and where most small firms in Dubai start, and for a plumber, a tutor or a pest control company they may be all that is ever needed. Two cut vinyl or printed decals, 50 to 70cm wide, carry the logo, the service and a phone number. Reading distance at a traffic light is about 8 metres, so the phone number should be at least 8cm tall.

We produce these as pre spaced vinyl decals, which arrive on application tape with the letters already aligned. A technician fits both doors in under two hours in your car park, and a licensed driver can usually keep working the same afternoon. Add a rear window decal in perforated vinyl so the driver still sees out. A windshield strip with the website along the top edge finishes the set.

Level two and three: quarter and half wrap

A quarter wrap steps up from car door graphics and concentrates the design on the rear of the vehicle, which is what the car behind you looks at for the whole of Sheikh Zayed Road. It is the best value tier of vehicle graphics for delivery fleets, because the rear doors are seen more than the sides in slow traffic.

A half wrap takes the design along the lower half of both sides and across the rear, with the roof and upper panels left in the body colour. Designers like this tier because a white or silver van becomes part of the artwork, and the print area roughly halves compared with full coverage. Half wrap vehicle graphics also age well: the lower panels take stone chips and the laminate protects the paint underneath, while the untouched upper half never shows a fading seam.

Both tiers use printed vehicle stickers cut to panel shapes rather than one continuous sheet, so a damaged rear door can be re skinned alone for a few hundred dirhams instead of redoing a side.

Level four: full van branding

Full van branding covers every painted panel and turns the vehicle into a single moving billboard. It suits brands whose vehicle is the shop, such as mobile coffee, mobile detailing, laundry pickup and medical sample collection, where the van parked outside a tower is the only sign the customer sees.

The vinyl wrap for a full job uses cast film because it stretches into recesses and around mirror housings without lifting. Expect two to three days in the bay for a panel van, and plan for the deposit to be paid before printing because the material is cut to your vehicle alone. Our car wrapping service page shows finish options from gloss to matte and the fitting process step by step. For a fleet of five or more, we stagger the vehicles so no more than one is off the road at a time.

Permits and rules for vehicle graphics in the UAE

Commercial vehicle graphics on company vehicles in Dubai need an advertising permit from the RTA, and the vehicle registration card must be updated to record the colour change if the wrap covers most of the body. Abu Dhabi has a parallel approval through its own transport authority. The process takes a few days and the fee is modest, but a van stopped without it can be fined and told to remove the branding.

• Keep the design off all windows except the rear, and use perforated vinyl there.
• Do not reproduce road signs, emergency service colours or government logos.
• Carry the permit copy in the vehicle along with the registration.
• Private cars carrying business branding need the same permit as a company van.

We prepare the artwork approval pack and the permit drawings as part of a full job, and the vehicle branding in Dubai page walks through the paperwork order for first time applicants.

Rolling vehicle graphics out across a fleet

A fleet does not need the same vehicle graphics coverage on every vehicle. A common pattern is full van branding on the two or three vehicles that park in public, half wrap on delivery vans and door decals on supervisor cars. The brand stays consistent because the logo, colours and typeface are identical, only the area changes.

Build a template per vehicle model so new vehicles can be branded in a day from stock files held with the car wrapping team. Keep a roll of the exact vinyl batch for repairs, because a replacement door printed a year later from a new batch may be a shade off. For companies managing several branches, the vehicle branding companies guide explains what to ask a supplier before signing a fleet contract.

Looking after the vinyl wrap

A vinyl wrap needs little care. Hand wash with a pH neutral shampoo, avoid high pressure jets at the edges and skip the automatic brush wash for the first week while the adhesive cures. Park in shade where possible, since UAE sun is the main reason a wrap looks tired after three years rather than five. Matte films show water spots more than gloss, so wipe them dry after washing.

When the graphics come off, a professional removal with heat leaves the factory paint intact and usually in better condition than the exposed panels around it. Our car wrapping cost guide covers removal pricing. The vehicle wrapping page lists film brands and warranty periods.

Send a photo of each vehicle, the registration type and the coverage level you have in mind by WhatsApp. We return an itemised quote for the vehicle graphics within a day, and the decal tier can usually be fitted within the same week.

Related resources: See our decals & vinyl, stickers & labels and more stickers pages for specifications, quantity pricing and design options across the UAE.