What is drayage and how can I minimize freight costs?
Freight costs for a tradeshow account for about 10% of an average tradeshow budget. There are shipping charges to and from the show as well as drayage costs within the show itself. Drayage is a charge for material handling within the tradeshow convention hall. All pieces if freight must be unloaded from trucks and transported by forklift to your booth space. General Service Contractors charge a fee by weight per 100 lbs. All of your freight that is shipped to the show is weighed and charged accordingly. To minimize shipping charges from a location to your tradeshow or event schedule a round trip pick up, give your carrier plenty of time to deliver the freight on both ends, price shop with several carriers, and look into tradeshow carrier discounts. Another way to decrease shipping costs is to contract a storage facility that will maintain your freight and ship it for you economically to each of your shows under a contract.
