Unlimited Drayage? What's the Catch?

July 1, 2011

• PROCESS EXPO
• trade show tips

This week, we fielded an inquiry about exhibiting in this year's show. The call came from someone who was not only new to PROCESS EXPO, but also new to their company and new to trade shows in general. They had no idea what the word 'drayage' meant and wondered why we would charge $3/square foot for it. As you can imagine, it made for a very interesting conversation and frankly, she will probably have to go through a show or two before she truly understands it.

Everyone agrees that doing trade shows is a costly proposition. Drayage is a particularly frustrating expense as it is difficult to plan for and the charges can escalate very quickly, especially for an equipment show. This is why PROCESS EXPO went to a fixed price drayage model a few years back. No longer would exhibitors be charged for the weight of their equipment, nor would they have to guess what their drayage bill might be at the end of the show. It was already covered based on the size of their booth.

In fact, PROCESS EXPO was recently mentioned in a report on Crain's that highlighted one of our members/exhibitors - Hollymatic, Inc. (thank you Rob Kovacik for the kind words!)  Thanks to this fixed price model, they  reported that their drayage bill at this year's PROCESS EXPO will be between 28 to 46% lower than what they are paying at another show they exhibited at earlier this year. That's with the same equipment, in the same sized booth ... even in the same hall!

Of course, this is not to say that this model is foolproof. The exhibitor stills needs to handle their end of things. This includes the following:

1) Submitting all order forms on time

2) Shipping equipment for on time arrival

3) Having clear instructions for where equipment is to be placed within the booth

4) Most importantly, being present in the booth at the targeted move in

Missing any of these can result in delays and expenses that ultimately can get passed on to the exhibitor so I can't encourage you enough to have your staff pay strict attention to this.

Shows will always have their costs, and for equipment suppliers, drayage will always be right up there as one of the more significant ones. Hopefully, this model limits those expenses while we continue to work with our vendors to find other areas to help our exhibitors save.