Drayage is the charge for moving your crates from the loading dock to your booth space, and back out again after the show. It is frequently the largest line on a show invoice, and it is the one almost nobody budgets correctly the first time.
Exhibitors have named material handling the most inflated and least productive cost in exhibiting for years. The frustration is understandable. You already paid to ship the crates across the country. Now you are paying again, more, to move them a few hundred feet inside a building.
Understanding why makes it manageable. It does not make it go away.
What you are actually paying for
The charge typically covers unloading your freight at the dock, delivering it to your booth space, removing and storing the empty crates during the show, returning them at teardown, and loading your freight back out.
That is real work, done by a real crew, on a schedule where a thousand exhibitors want the same thing in the same eight hours. The service is not fictional. The pricing is what surprises people.
Why it is priced by weight
Drayage is billed per hundredweight, written as CWT, meaning per hundred pounds, almost always with a minimum. Rates commonly quoted in the industry run in the low hundreds of dollars per CWT, and they have risen substantially since 2019. Check the current rate in your exhibitor services manual rather than trusting a number from a previous show.
Because it is weight-based, a heavy custom build costs more to move than a lighter one at every single show, forever. Published figures put a mid-size custom exhibit somewhere in the thousands of pounds, which is enough for material handling alone to rival or exceed what you paid for the floor space.
That is the part worth sitting with. Your drayage bill for the next five years was set by decisions made on a drawing.
Why you cannot shop around
In most venues, only the show’s official general service contractor may move freight on the show floor. You did not hire them, you cannot fire them, and you cannot get a competing quote. Your exhibit house does not control this line and cannot discount it.
This is why a quote that says nothing about drayage is not cheaper. It is just less honest about what is coming.
Advance warehouse or direct to show
You usually get two options. Ship to the advance warehouse in the weeks before the show, or ship direct to the show site during your move-in window.
Advance typically costs more per hundredweight, but your crates are in your space when you arrive, and you are not exposed to a truck stuck in the marshalling queue. Direct is cheaper per hundredweight and puts you at the mercy of the day. For a build with a tight install window, advance is usually the cheaper decision once you count labor standing idle.
The four levers you actually control
- ✓WeightThe only lever that pays back at every future show. See our guide to designing for drayage.
- ✓Crate count and cubeFewer, better-packed crates move faster and reduce handling. Crate design is design work, not packing.
- ✓Shipping methodAdvance versus direct, weighed against your install window and your labor booking.
- ✓Knowing the number earlyAsk for estimated crate weight during design. A number in March changes decisions. A number in September is just news.
The question to ask before you sign
Ask your exhibit house one thing: what will I be billed for by someone other than you? A partner who has been on that call before will answer it in detail and would rather have the conversation in spring than in autumn.
A vendor who waves it off is handing you the surprise on purpose.
We quote the weight before you approve the design.