There’s no doubt that companies can benefit immensely from exhibiting at trade shows. After all, trade shows offer companies the chance to showcase their new products and services and they get to do it to prospective customers up close and personal.
Trade shows are indeed beneficial, but there’s also little doubt they can be an expensive undertaking. This is even more true when a company breaks down the cost of materials, time spent planning, and booth space.
Shipping is another concern to consider. While companies want their trade show freight to get where it needs to go on time, it’s one of, if not the largest, expenses a company deals with where trade shows are concerned. Without the use of a reputable truckload logistics company, businesses can find their trade show expenses shooting up before they know it.
So what’s a company to do? The best answer is to find ways to bring down shipping costs, especially when it comes to materials. Companies can bring down costs in many ways:
Believe it or not, packing items like nylon and foam board can help bring down overall shipping weight. What’s better is they’re inexpensive and allow companies lots of room for creativity when packing.
If your company is constantly finding itself going through different truckload logistics companies for every show, one investment to consider is shipping containers. These may be expensive to start with, but over time a company may find that they pay for themselves. Why? They’re durable, they can hold expensive equipment and they can prevent costly damage from poor shipping practices.
Another option for keeping down costs is using truckload logistics companies to ship materials from one trade show to the next. On the surface, companies may be skeptical, but this can actually save money. Rather than shipping materials to a convention center—of which there are more than 250 across the United States. and then shipping them back to the office, companies can ship materials from city to city. One of the most effective ways to pull this off is to use less-than-truckload shipping, also known as LTL shipping, which is used for small freight. Trucks are just some of the 12 million vessels that ship goods over the U.S. transportation network.
However, your company ships materials for trade shows, so it’s best to consider all options. Find a reputable truckload logistics company that can offer reasonable costs, consider what your company can do to keep costs down, and above all, find a way to get your trade show shipments from Point A to Point B.
Whether you're a company looking to improve one facet of your supply chain, your entire supply chain, or simply looking for a transportation and logistics consultation, we can help.