Unlike the rest of mankind, there are three things face-to-face marketers can't avoid: death, taxes, and needing to move their exhibits from point A to point B. Unfortunately, shipping is such a ubiquitous part of the trade show process that many exhibit managers – and/or other members of their teams – sometimes put their brains on autopilot when it comes to matters of freight and don't carefully consider all elements of the equation, which can result in unnecessary spending. But smart marketers know that saving dollars on shipping means they can use that money in other areas of their programs – or come in under budget and look like champions.

Now that the events industry is gathering steam after more than a year in COVID-19-induced limbo, this is the perfect time to remind yourself of what not to do when making your shipping arrangements. So before you dust off your crates and break out the stretch wrap, take heed and steer clear of the following budget-busting shipping blunders.

1. Choosing a shipping company that doesn't have representatives or drivers available on weekends.
On what planet do trade show issues only arise Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.? Any respectable trade show freight carrier should be accessible 24/7, so read the fine print to confirm your potential new partner will answer the phone and show up when you need them the most. Anything less can cost you money and your sanity. For example, trade shows frequently have targeted delivery dates and times. If show management assigns you a delivery window of Sunday between 8 a.m. and noon but your freight doesn't arrive until Monday morning because your driver doesn't "do weekends," you may incur an off-target delivery fee. This fine is typically about $20 to $30 per hundredweight (CWT), which works out to $400 to $600 for a 2,000-pound shipment.

In addition, make sure that you can call or text your account manager at any time and expect a reasonably swift response from either them or a colleague, and that you'll receive text or email notifications when your freight arrives at its destination and has been signed for. If your freight is MIA and you can't reach a shipping rep or your driver, you'll have a whole other set of expenses, e.g., those for sourcing a rental exhibit at the last minute and madly Ubering around the show city in the hope of pulling something together on the fly.

2. Keeping mum on important details about your freight.
It's helpful to be as transparent with your shipping partner as you want them to be with you. For example, tell your rep right away if you won't have a loading dock where your freight is being picked up and request a truck with a liftgate. The carrier may not charge you extra for this equipment, but it almost certainly will ding you if the driver has to come back with a different truck, arrange for a forklift to be brought over, or reschedule the pickup – the latter being a worst-case scenario if you are close to the shipping deadline and now need to pay for expedited service. I'm a firm believer that oversharing with your shipping partner is the key to establishing a great relationship, and this has saved me many a time when something unexpected arose at the last minute.

3. Assuming it doesn't matter whether your shipment is delivered to the advance warehouse or direct to site.
Neglecting to carefully read your shipping options and discuss them with your carrier could end up being a costly mistake. Depending on the city, the venue, and the number of shows taking place in the same convention center, material handling may be less expensive if you have your freight sent to the advance warehouse instead of directly to the venue – or vice versa. Larger cities and popular trade show locales usually have lower CWT rates for freight sent to advance warehouses because they have efficient processes for moving shipments to the show floor, but this is not always the case, and circumstances could change on a show-by-show basis. The good news is that most general service contractors share this info in the exhibitor manual's Quick Facts section. Share these pages with your carrier and work together to identify the most economical course of action.
As long as we're on the subject of shipping destinations, I highly recommend sending your flooring and any rigged elements (along with assembly instructions) to the advance warehouse. Sometimes a GSC will install hanging signs before your targeted move-in day, which is the assigned time that you're able to begin setting up your booth. Having your overhead exhibitry flown before on-the-ground setup begins can help ensure a smooth and speedy install. The same applies to flooring. If you ship flooring direct to site and your carrier gets stuck in the marshaling yard, you might run into the predicament where you have the components to start building your booth but no flooring to put under it. This creates an installation nightmare, as your crew won't be able to get to work until the flooring is in place.

4. Contracting Mom & Pop's Moving Co. because it's the least expensive.
A couple of years ago, a client of a client got wind that he and I were both in Las Vegas and called me with an emergency. He had used a generic carrier to deliver his freight to a show at the Sands Expo Center. One small hiccup: The driver dropped the freight off at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Both shows had the same GSC, so maybe the hapless driver called the service desk en route, gave inaccurate information, and got turned around. Regardless, this gentleman's freight was at the wrong venue. A flurry of phone calls, a hastily hired courier, and around $500 later, the shipment arrived at the Sands.

So what's the lesson here? Going with a local "no job too big or too small" shipping company may be cheaper on paper, but comparing its rates versus those of a firm with decades of experience in the trade show realm isn't weighing apples to apples. Trade show carriers need to be versed in the intricacies of the industry. If Mom & Pop's driver doesn't know how to check in at a marshaling yard or where the loading docks are at the convention center, you're running the risk of racking up a plethora of extra charges. Therefore, I recommend always asking for referrals and giving particular attention to carriers with dedicated trade show divisions.

5. Being a boxaholic.
Each time you ship a small package to the convention center, the GSC will hit you with a handling fee in the neighborhood of $35 to $65 per item. So if you casually send five boxes weighing around 18 pounds each, and the GSC is charging a per-package fee of $40, you're looking at an extra bill for $200 of nonessential material handling. It would be much wiser to combine these packages into one large box, skid, or crate and pay a single fee. Doing so not only saves money but also cuts down on the number of shipments you need to keep track of.

On a similar note, consider shipping small last-minute items to your hotel instead of the convention center. You'll avoid the material-handling fee (although some hotels, especially in top trade show cites, add their own smaller charges) and will likely have less of a wait time from when the parcel is off the truck to when you can actually get your hands on it. Typically, when FedEx or UPS delivers at a large venue, packages are signed for in a big pile and then checked in individually. Depending on the convention center and the size of the show, this process can take considerable time.

6. Shipping the kitchen sink – and then some.
Sending extra display items, backup monitors, and twice as many giveaways as there are registered attendees may seem like a prudent, better-safe-than-sorry move, but it will quickly impact your bottom line. If your carrier is charging you by the dimensions (or "dims") of your freight, the extra space needed for these just-in-case items will result in all-too-real charges. Exhibitors that rent an entire truck get a bit of a free pass when it comes to dims, but everyone's in the same boat when the freight arrives at the venue. While material handling is charged by a variety of rate classifications, you're ultimately paying by the weight of your shipment. The more pounds you bring, regardless of how densely they're packed, the more you'll cough up for material handling.

7. Leaving old shipping labels on your crates.
Some may scoff at me raising this point, but exhibit managers forget to take off old labels from their crates – which greatly increases the risk of their freight being misdirected or mishandled – more often that one might think. Be sure to remove all old shipping materials from your crates and containers between shows, and only place the show's labels on the freight. You can also do what I do, which is slap shipping pockets on each piece of freight. This allows me to quickly and easily toss obsolete labels and insert new ones without needing to worry about sticky residue and broken fingernails. Additionally, the less "noise" on the outside of your crates, the better, as it will reduce the chance of your shipment getting lost due to confusion. There is an opportunity cost associated with having to locate missing freight. For every hour you spend on the hunt, you're losing an hour that could be used far more productively.

There isn't much getting around death, and I don't think many exhibit managers are in a position to dodge Uncle Sam via Swiss bank accounts and shell companies in the Cayman Islands. But thankfully we do have some self-determination when it comes to overpaying for freight services. And remember that a well-formulated shipping plan can have effects on your program that extend far beyond a single budget line item. E