Loading dock

Shows are built and torn down through a handful of doors, and everything about move-in speed traces back to them. Organizers assess dock capacity during venue selection — how many bays, what door heights, whether trucks can reach floor level or need ramps and forklifts — because a hall with generous floor space but two dock doors will produce brutal load-in queues no schedule can fully fix. In practice, the general service contractor runs the dock during move-in: sequencing trucks from the marshalling yard, assigning bays, and keeping freight flowing to booths. For exhibitors, dock reality shows up as waiting time; a driver who arrives outside their slot can sit for hours. Commercially, dock throughput sets how much build time you can offer exhibitors and how much venue rental you burn on move-in days — slow docks mean paying for extra days or forcing overnight labour at overtime rates. The common mistake is scheduling move-in by hall availability rather than dock throughput, promising every exhibitor access on day one when the doors physically can't pass that volume. One honest nuance: the dock also serves the venue's other business — catering deliveries and neighbouring events share it, and your show rarely gets it exclusively.