Freight planning: how many trucks, what order

1–10 days

the build window freight has to meet

Stand types

Freight and customs included

the scope we carry on work abroad

Exhibition stand services

How many trucks

Vehicle count comes from volume, not weight. Stand material is light but bulky: panels side by side, profiles in bundles, furniture boxed. A stand pre-assembled in the workshop loads with fewer surprises, because its volume was measured first.

Weight is tracked alongside volume as a second measure. Timber is heavy, and over long distances weight rather than volume can drive the cost. Building the same stand on aluminium structure with lightweight panels pulls the freight line down without touching the design, and that decision is taken during production.

The volume comes off the crate list. Each crate gets a size and a weight, and the total is divided by vehicle capacity. That same list underpins the customs paperwork and the insurance schedule: written once, used in three places, which is why it has to be right.

Whether two small vehicles beat one large one depends on the venue. Some halls have separate gates and hours for large trucks; at others a small van can skip the marshalling yard. In our exhibition stand services the freight decision follows the venue rules.

Load in build order

The rule is simple: the part that comes off first goes on last. Floor and structure sit by the tail. Graphics, furniture, showcases and hospitality stock go deep, because they belong to day three.

The same logic governs the return load, in reverse. Whatever goes into store first on the night is loaded last. Miss that detail and the store crew unloads the vehicle twice. One line in the tear-down plan removes half a day of warehouse work at the other end.

Break the rule and the crew unloads half the truck into the hall to find one item, then reloads it. That is not two hours lost, it is half a day. The unloading bay is blocked all the while, the neighbouring crews wait, and the hall manager remembers you.

Crate numbers should run in loading order, so the first crate on the floor is number one. That numbering keeps the plan working even when the crew changes: nobody has to read the loading sheet, they just read the number.

Arrival window and hall access

At large venues, vehicles do not simply drive in. The organiser issues time slots, and at some sites trucks are marshalled into a holding yard and called forward by number. Miss the window and the replacement can fall at the end of the day.

Where the unloading happens matters as well. At some venues the vehicle drives up to the stand; at others material comes off at the door and is forklifted in, with that handling charged separately. The two cases need different crew numbers and different durations, so one line in the manual reshapes the build plan.

On fairs abroad, customs time is added to the plan. Declarations, the ATA carnet and entry formalities are completed before the vehicle reaches the hall. How long that takes depends on the country, the border crossing and whether the paperwork is complete, so leave a buffer rather than quoting a single day.

The driver knowing the site rules is part of the plan too. Some venues cap unloading time and charge beyond it. Having the crew standing ready in the hall is therefore part of the freight operation: when the vehicle arrives, the people who will empty it need to be there.

Who should organise the freight?

The company that built the stand. Because loading order follows the build, splitting freight to a separate supplier pushes the coordination back onto the exhibitor.

Should products travel with the stand?

Usually not. Products carry a different customs status and insurance, and a separate consignment keeps the paperwork separate too.