Missing Freight? Don’t Panic
Chances are, you’ve been here before: You fight early morning traffic, search aimlessly to find a parking space at the convention center, walk a short marathon to your exhibit space, only to find out that half of your tradeshow components have yet to be delivered, if any at all. Despite honest attempts at scheduling you, your employees and show labor around an agenda, there are ways to prepare for this headache that will keep your crew productive and prevent you from bleeding time and money.
Look under your Nose
More times than not, missing components are simply overlooked. If you have a small box or package you are searching for, check behind, on top of or underneath other materials. Check neighboring exhibit spaces as well. Before shipping your components, be sure to clearly mark your booth number and make your items easily identifiable to you to avoid losing your supplies in a sea of boxes and crates.
Develop a Recovery Plan
Be sure to bring copies of your bill of lading and packing lists for all of your materials. Verify exactly what components are missing and contact a service administrator immediately. Don’t assume, even if you’re missing a single crate or box, that your materials are making their way around the corner. Long delays and sometimes lost properties are not an impossibility, but knowing will bring you closer to finding.
Have the administration first verify with your carrier if the properties were delivered to the convention center. From there, you’ll know which direction you need to continue your tracking. Keep connecting the dots until you’re able to pinpoint your material’s location.
Be Productive
Verify Electrical
Despite being slightly empty handed, spending the time to verify each electrical location is a good practice, even when your exhibit properties are on time. Go beyond a visual inspection and use a tape measure. Also verify that your original electrical estimates are accurate and make necessary changes while you have the time. Modifying any electrical, simply moving a location as little as six inches, can be a major expense if done after carpet and structure is upright.
Inventory what you DO have
Once you’ve determined what is missing, deal with what you have. Open and verify the contents of each crate and box. Check for damages that may have occurred during shipment. As soon as you verify what you can work with, unpack items that you and your crew can assemble and set aside until you recover the rest of your materials.
Get “Later” done Now
Take an inventory of additional service needs. Can you fill out empty stickers? Do you need to order cleaning service? Are you hosting or attending a meeting that needs your attention beforehand? The goal is to reorganize your installation schedule to avoid additional time and resources being wasted.
(image by Morgan Worth)
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Great insight Eric. I would add that using a carrier that specializes in the trade show industry can help avoid these problems. Most often these carriers will alert you when your freight unloads at the dock (as opposed to checking in at the marshalling yard), which lets you rest easy that your pieces are at the show.
These carriers are more costly than common carriers, and other no frills carriers, but they pay for themselves in saved time, and by never having to replace pieces that mysteriously never arrived at the show.