Friday, August 29, 2008

Best Practices for Transporting Trade Show Displays

By Amy Nutt


Transporting your tradeshow display doesn't involve rocket science, but it isn't something you want to skimp on either. It does take a bit of planning and coordination. Why do you need to be so careful? That is because you want to make sure all components of your trade show display needs to arrive at the event on time. This literally means that the shipping and delivery of trade show displays has to be choreographed like it is a ballet.

The major exhibitors will hire companies who specialize in trade show display transport. These companies take care of the packing, the shipping, and even the warehousing of the trade show display. Once the trade show display arrives at the trade show, the company then makes sure that everything is delivered to the booth location at the right time. They'll even take care of assembly, dismantling, and the return shipping.

Hiring a company is a great thing to do, but not every exhibitor is in the position to be able to take on such an investment. Yes, it is convenient, but it takes time to reach the capacity to be able to enjoy such a service. That means the alternative solution is to transport it yourself.

Options

You still have the option to hire a freight carried to ship your display from your storage location to the trade show. If you go this route, you want to hire a freighter that is experienced in shipping trade show displays. You can even check with the trade show to see if they are contracted with a particular shipping company that serves as the event's official carrier. If so, you can check into using that carrier and see what types of discounts they may offer for being the official carrier of the event.

If hiring a freighter is still not an option for you, you can look into companies such as U-Haul to transport your display booth. You have the ability to choose what size truck you need to get the job done and they are usually not very expensive to rent. This can be a very cost effective solution for you. As long as you have the manpower to take it out of the truck, set it up, and then take it down at the end of the day, you are in business by taking this route. Then again, you can always purchase a vehicle if you believe you'll be paying a lot of money in rental costs. This could be a solution for you that would prove to be less expensive in the long run.

Best practices

As for the best transport practices, you need to ensure that everything is secure in the back of the truck. You do not want anything being loose or the sharpest of turns will cause everything to thrash around. This is what causes displays to become broken during transport.

So what you need to do is invest in straps. When using something such as a moving truck, there are already straps in the truck that allow you to strap items to the walls. You can place smaller items in boxes and strap those down as well. You want to make sure that everything is secure or you're going to arrive at your trade show with a broken display. It would be terrible to arrive to your destination and find that you can't let your display shine to the fullest. That is why you need to be mindful of what vehicle you are transporting your display in and how secure it is when you do.

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