A lot of exhibitors open their final show bill and find a charge for moving the very floor they already paid to have delivered. It is not a mistake. It is drayage, and with a little planning up front most of it can be avoided.
Drayage, also called material handling, is the charge the show’s general service contractor makes for moving exhibitor freight from the loading dock or the advance warehouse to your booth, storing the empty crates during the show, and bringing everything back to the dock at the end. It is set by the show, not by your flooring provider, and it is listed in the exhibitor manual.
Drayage is almost always billed by weight, usually per hundred pounds, often with a minimum charge per shipment. Many shows add surcharges for late freight, overtime hours or shipments that arrive without proper labels. The details change from show to show, so read the material handling section of your manual before anything ships.
Flooring is one of the heaviest things in a booth. Event carpet comes in 12-foot-wide rolls, and a single roll can weigh several hundred pounds before you add pad, tape and step wraps. Vinyl plank and turf are heavier still. Because drayage follows weight, the floor can easily become the biggest line on the material handling bill. We explain how carpet weight works in event carpet weight explained.
The “twice” usually happens like this:
None of these charges is wrong on its own. The problem is that nobody planned how the floor would get from the truck to the booth.
The most reliable way to pay once is to have your flooring installed by a contractor who brings it to the floor during the flooring window and installs it straight away, rather than shipping it in as exhibitor freight.
Outbound freight and disposal are the half of the bill people forget. A floor that is left behind can be removed by the venue and charged back, and a floor that goes in a dumpster still has to be hauled there.
When we install a floor, our crew takes it up at strike as well. The seam lines where the staples sit are cut out, staples are pulled from the large field area, and the clean carpet is baled and recycled in the USA. About ten percent is lost to seam lines and step wraps, and about ninety percent comes back. That is one less load for you to arrange and one less line on the show bill. Read what happens to event carpet after the show for the full process, or see Recycled Event Carpet.
Still choosing the floor? Start with our booth flooring comparison, or read how a show floor gets installed overnight.
Send them over with your floor plan. We will plan delivery straight to the floor, help with the contractor paperwork, install before doors open and take it all up at strike — serving Nashville, Baton Rouge, Orlando and shows nationwide.
Drayage, or material handling, is the general service contractor's charge for moving exhibitor freight from the dock or advance warehouse to your booth, storing empty crates and returning everything to the dock after the show. It is set by the show and listed in the exhibitor manual.
Almost always by weight, usually per hundred pounds, often with a minimum per shipment and extra charges for late or overtime deliveries. Check the material handling section of your exhibitor manual for the rates and rules on your show.
Flooring is one of the heaviest items in a booth. Event carpet comes in 12-foot-wide rolls, and vinyl plank and turf are heavier still. Because drayage follows weight, flooring shipped as exhibitor freight can be the largest line on the material handling bill.
Use a flooring contractor who delivers to the floor during the flooring window and installs right away, and file the exhibitor-appointed contractor paperwork by the show's deadline. That keeps the carpet from going through the advance warehouse as exhibitor freight.
Our crews take the carpet up at strike. The seam lines are cut out, staples are pulled from the field area and the clean carpet is baled and recycled in the USA, so there is nothing left behind for the venue to remove and bill back.
