Drayage (material handling)
Drayage (material handling) is drayage, also called material handling, is the service of moving exhibitor freight from the loading dock to the booth, storing empty crates during the show, and returning everything at move-out. It's billed by weight, usually per hundredweight (CWT) with minimums. It is consistently the fee exhibitors complain about most.
Drayage matters to floor sales because it's a hidden cost that shapes how exhibitors feel about your total price. A company that budgets carefully for booth space and then gets a four-figure material handling invoice they didn't see coming blames the show, not the general contractor. In practice, drayage is handled by the general service contractor: freight arrives at the advance warehouse or show site, gets weighed, and is delivered to the booth; empties go to storage and come back at move-out. Rates vary by shipment type, with special handling and late arrivals priced higher. The common mistake organizers make is treating drayage as the contractor's problem. Exhibitors don't separate the two; every drayage horror story lands on your show's reputation. Smart sales teams put estimated material handling costs in the prospectus or a cost calculator, so the total cost of exhibiting is visible before signing. The honest nuance is that drayage pricing is genuinely opaque, even to experienced exhibitors, and CWT minimums punish small shipments hardest, which hits exactly the startups and first-timers you're trying to grow. If you can negotiate flat-rate or capped drayage for small booths, it's a real selling point.
Direct answer
Drayage, also called material handling, is the service of moving exhibitor freight from the loading dock to the booth, storing empty crates during the show, and returning everything at move-out. It's billed by weight, usually per hundredweight (CWT) with minimums. It is consistently the fee exhibitors complain about most.
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