Worth repeating...
It's a bad reflection on the industry, seems almost seedy, unseemly, and doesn't exactly exude professionalism. The perceptions of the Ushippers and the unlettered vans are virtually the same - unprofessional. People have their reasons for running bare, and they will staunchly defend their doing it, but none of that changes the perceptions.
Name association can and does bring up bad memories to a forklift driver, and a nice clean unmarked van begs no animosity (to someone at a dock, although it does beg "who's that and what are they up to?", especially with the general public), but the same name recognition for lettered vans is also true for the unlettered association, where all unlettered vans have the same name on the side, be it a child molester or an expediter.
Many people get into a cocoon of sorts and only view things from within their own little world, not seeing things from the perception of others. They view things in terms of as long as they don't personally experience any problems, there are no problems. For example, "neither shipper nor receiver cares what sign is on your vehicle," yet I have heard some shippers and receivers say just the opposite. There are some who will never again use a particular carrier no matter what, just as there are some who will never ship anything in an unlettered vehicle or with carriers who use unlettered vehicles, no matter what. Others could care less either way. An absence of negative comments heard is hardly evidence of negative thoughts or of negative comments not heard.
Of course, all of this is a load of crap to those who will defend running unlettered, because they don't see any problems, or will usually dismiss any problems they do encounter as being aberrations or minor, and largely think everything is fine. Many even think they're smart and clever for doing it, and will simply refuse to accept any notions to the contrary. That's human nature.
I do think it's interesting that those who run for multiple carriers, and who say they have all kinds of pride in that, will rarely mention the carriers they run for. That wouldn't be smart or clever, they cleverly think. Reminds me of the time when I first got into expediting, and I asked an experienced expediter about good, safe places to sit and wait in and around Toronto, and he said he didn't want to give away any of his secrets. Because, you know, I might steal a load from him when I was in Toronto and he was in, like, Memphis. <snort>