BigMoth

"Drayage".

It's a term that sends a shiver down American exhibitors' spines.

Google "Drayage" (worse yet, "Drayage + costs") and your results will feature numerous articles with headlines like "Is Drayage Destroying the Tradeshow?" In a recent post (recommended) about The 10 Main Players in the Trade Show Ecosystem on Skyline's (US display manufacturer) website, Mike Thimmersch describes drayage as "Pain #[no.]1 for trade show exhibitors" (I have also re-posted his blog about building a social media plan below).

On the eastern edge of the Atlantic, we are not very familiar with the term, especially in the exhibition/trade show environment. It is used in the containerised freight world to refer to the local movement of containers to or from rail or port terminals.  Drayage is an archaic term, dating back to the Middle Ages. A dray horse is a large horse - think Clydesdale or Shire. A drayman was typically a brewery delivery driver. Drayage is the movement of goods on a sideless cart (though, the Australians apparently consider a dray wagon to have only two wheels - always tougher in Oz). Those who have watched any American commercial television will immediately think of teams of Clydesdale horses pulling carts full of barrels, promoting one of the country's largest breweries.

Nowadays, in the exhibition/trade show industry, it describes a practice perhaps as archaic as the word: the movement of goods from the loading dock to the trade show booth space and back again. In many US and Canadian states, halls are heavily unionised (a Europe:US comparison of unionised labour - we can't even spell it right over here - is a subject for another place), and "drayage" is a service appointed by an event organiser to a monopolistic, approved supplier. Exhibitors consign their goods to the drayage contractor who then charges to deliver the consignment to the stand, remove empties and the reverse at the end of the show. When goods are sent to the event from overseas, this contractor also becomes the international consignee and often clears the goods, too.

I understand that charges for these services can be astronomical, often exceeding the shipping charges. I have read anecdotes that US marketers budget as much for drayage in one year as it would cost to replace their exhibit. It is no wonder that American marketers seem to hold these "service" providers in such low esteem. I can see how it can happen. I recently managed a consignment for a client attending a Canadian event. The local customs clearance and delivery charges did indeed exceed the airfreight costs. 

(Aside: Interestingly, drayage is also the most expensive element of containerised freight.)

Can these charges be justified? 

Maybe.

There are four handling movements involved: from storage to stand/booth; empties from stand/booth to storage; empties back to stand/booth at the end of the event; returning items back to storage and onward shipment. The labour, organisation and administration involved to do this well for a large number of exhibitors is expensive.

Is there another way?

In Europe, we are not saddled with the term. However, venue appointed contractors (furniture suppliers, freight forwarders, electrical and fittings contractors etc), often manage to negotiate similarly monopolistic contracts with some venues.

I would like to introduce another term: Exhibition Shipping Management as provided by my business, Atlas Promotions.

An Exhibition Shipping Manager is not a freight forwarder. S/he may partner a freight forwarder, but be independent of it, working with an event organiser to support a specific exhibition. An Exhibition Shipping Manager is not appointed by a venue, either. However, an event organiser may have to negotiate terms for an Exhibition Shipping Manager to work in a venue as part of the event contract. 

Her/his role is to manage the consolidation of exhibition materials, prepare the most appropriate customs documentation for international consignments, arrange dedicated transport to the event and to be on site to arrange delivery to the stand, storage of empties which are returned at the end of the show and return consignments to the exhibitors' premises. I believe that this service can be provided reliably, courteously and efficiently without making exhibitors so angry. It should also probably not cost as much as shipping + drayage, but it can never compete on price with straight-forward freight; I will analyse this in another post.

Of course this is not a new idea. Atlas has been providing a service like this for exhibitors at International School association conference exhibitions for twenty years.