Trade Show Logistics / Shipping Challenges – Rush “Ground” shipments, Team Drivers, Trucking Teams, Moving Shipments rapidly from one show to another *** What are your options for moving a crated trade show exhibit or stand across the United States in a very short time frame?
There are three key parameters that affect the schedule for packing up your trade show display at the end of the show, these are:
1) Dismantle Hours – hours that convention center is open for taking apart and packing your exhibit.
2) Mandatory Driver Check-in time – time by which your truck driver must check in at the Marshaling Yard prior to picking-up your exhibit.
There are two critical aspects of your exhibit installation schedule that are easy to confuse: Target Move-in – the time and date that your exhibit must arrive and be checked in at the show or marshalling yard, and Set-up Time – the time that you may begin working on your exhibit installation at a trade show.
Whether you are scheduling Installation and Dismantle labor (I& D labor), shipments, rigging labor, plumbers, electricians, or stagehands, scheduling is very important. An exhibit or products for merchandising your display, if unloaded on overtime, will increase your freight handling costs by 60%. Exhibit I & D labor, if work is done on overtime, will cost you 60% more. If it is a holiday or Sunday in some cities, labor will cost 100% more, double what it costs on straight time. Electrical labor, Rigging labor and Stagehand labor will also be 60% more on overtime.
In many trade show cities around the country, there are union rules that all but "prevent" exhibitors from moving their own product into the trade show hall. These rules ban exhibitors, and anyone except union staff from using any sort of equipment including dollies and hand trucks to move goods into the convention center. Only union employees are allowed to use this equipment. In addtion, in many cities, only those union employees that work for the general contractor are allowed to use this equipment.