Drayage — Trade Show, Convention, and Exhibit
Drayage moves your booth and freight from the back-of-house to the show floor. It runs the marshalling yard, hits your target dock time, parks the crates at your booth number, and clears the empties for return. Brick Dynamics covers it end to end across 65+ US metros — Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Boston, New York, every market on the calendar.
What Drayage Is
Drayage is the short-haul handling of freight at a venue. It is the missing link between long-haul shipping and the show floor. A tractor-trailer drops your booth at the convention center marshalling yard. From there, drayage takes over: weight check, paperwork, queue position, target-time delivery to the booth, set-aside for the empty crates, return-to-staging at the close of the show. The carrier doesn't drive your crates from the marshalling yard to booth 1632 — drayage does.
Two categories most companies need:
Show-site drayage — the venue-side handling for trade shows and conventions. Charged per hundredweight (CWT) or per crate by the show's general contractor. This is the line item on every show kit that says "Material Handling."
Freight drayage — port-side, intermodal, or industrial handling. Moves containers from rail or port to a nearby distribution center, or short-hops freight between warehouses. Different rate structure, same core concept: short-haul, equipment-and-labor heavy.
Brick Dynamics covers both. Trade-show drayage is the bulk of what we do — 1,000+ jobs a day move across the 65+ metro network. Industrial freight drayage runs in the same operations footprint where it makes sense for a customer's program.
Trade Show & Convention Drayage
A typical show drayage job looks like this:
You ship your booth crates and equipment to the show's advance warehouse three weeks before move-in. The general contractor receives them, holds them, and queues them for the target move-in date. On move-in day, the GC pulls your freight out of the warehouse, trucks it to the venue, and parks it at your booth space. After the show closes, they reverse the process — pickup from booth, return to warehouse, load to outbound carrier.
That whole sequence is what gets billed as drayage. The cost varies by venue and by show contractor but typically runs $80–$180 per CWT (per 100 lbs). On a 2,000 lb booth, that's $1,600–$3,600 just for the venue-side handling. Drayage is one of the larger budget lines in a trade show program — and it is also one of the most opaque.
Brick Dynamics works inside this system. Where we win is:
- Coordinating your booth's drayage so it stays on schedule. Missed target times trigger overtime drayage and split-piece charges that double the bill. We watch the GC's freight schedule and adjust delivery windows.
- Consolidating drayage across multi-show programs. If a company runs 12 shows a year across 8 cities, the drayage bill from 12 different general contractors is a procurement headache. One BD account holds the contract, the SLAs, and the invoice reconciliation.
- Tracking everything in the BD platform. Crate count, scan history, target-time confirmation, empty-return status, photo evidence on any damage at the marshalling yard. Visible to the booth team in real time.
The Drayage Workflow Step by Step
1. Advance receive. Your booth ships from origin to the advance warehouse (BD-operated or GC-operated, depending on the show). Crates are scanned, photographed, and shelved.
2. Target time confirmation. Move-in time gets locked with the show's freight desk three to five days out. The truck route from advance warehouse to venue is timed against the marshalling yard's queue.
3. Marshalling yard. Trucks line up. The yard supervisor calls your number based on target time. Equipment gets weighed, paperwork verified, and the truck goes inside the venue.
4. Dock check-in. Empty bay, dock plate, forklift waiting. Your crates come off the truck, get tagged by booth number, and the GC's forklift moves them to the booth aisle.
5. Booth placement. Crates land at booth 1632 (or wherever). Your I&D crew opens them, builds the booth, and the empties go to a holding bay.
6. Empty storage. GC moves the empty crates out of the floor to the empties yard, tagged for return.
7. Show closes. I&D breaks down. Empties get re-pulled, crates packed, and the floor staging starts.
8. Outbound drayage. Reverse of move-in. Crates come off the floor, get queued for outbound trucks, and either return to the advance warehouse for ship-back or go straight to a carrier.
Brick Dynamics manages the booth coordinator's side of every step. The GC owns the marshalling yard. We own the routing, the timing, the I&D, and the inventory visibility — so the booth team isn't on the phone with the GC for every status check.
How Drayage Pricing Works
Three things drive drayage cost:
1. Weight. Most shows price per CWT — per 100 lbs. The rate depends on the show's contracted general contractor and the venue. Major venues run $80–$180/CWT for round-trip drayage. Small regional shows can run $60–$120/CWT.
2. Crate count and crate type. Cardboard cartons get split-piece pricing — typically $0.40–$0.80 per pound minimum, often punitive. Pallets and crates are standard. Loose pieces and unbanded items trigger surcharges.
3. Target time. Move-in during the published target window is base rate. Off-target (early or late) is overtime — 1.5× to 2× the base. Show-floor moves once you're inside (relocating a crate during the show) are billed at premium.
Brick Dynamics doesn't set the drayage rate — the GC does that. What we do is plan your move-in to hit base rate, consolidate crates to avoid split-piece pricing, and bundle multi-show programs so the per-job cost drops through repeat-customer SLAs with the venue contractors.
A drayage quote from BD includes both the GC's drayage line and our coordination labor. The combined cost is usually equal to or less than what an exhibitor pays handling drayage piecemeal — because we catch the timing penalties and split-piece traps before they hit.
Drayage Markets We Cover
Brick Dynamics runs drayage across all 65+ US metros — every market on the convention calendar. Major venues:
- Atlanta — Georgia World Congress Center, AmericasMart, Cobb Galleria. Atlanta & Georgia drayage →
- Chicago — McCormick Place. Chicago drayage →
- Las Vegas — LVCC, Mandalay Bay, Venetian Expo. Las Vegas drayage →
- Orlando — OCCC, Gaylord Palms. Orlando drayage →
- New York — Javits Center. New York drayage →
- Boston — BCEC, Hynes. Boston drayage →
- Phoenix — Phoenix Convention Center. Phoenix drayage →
- Denver — Colorado Convention Center. Denver drayage →
- Dallas + Houston — Kay Bailey Hutchison, George R. Brown. Texas drayage →
- Detroit — Huntington Place. Detroit drayage →
The full city + state list is on our Locations page.
When You Need Drayage
Three patterns where exhibitors typically engage BD for drayage:
You run multi-show, multi-city programs. The drayage paperwork from 12 different general contractors a year is a procurement and reconciliation problem. One BD contract covers all of it.
Your booth is heavy, complex, or fragile. Custom builds with electronics, hanging signs, vehicles, equipment demos — these need careful drayage handling and target-time discipline.
You want freight + I&D + drayage on one contract. Drayage is one part of the booth program. BD bundles freight + drayage coordination + show-site I&D under one account.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is drayage? Drayage is the short-haul handling of freight at a venue or terminal. For trade shows, drayage moves your booth crates from the marshalling yard to your booth space and back.
Why is drayage so expensive at trade shows? Show drayage rates are set by the venue's general contractor and reflect union labor rates, equipment costs, target-time scheduling, and marshalling yard ops. $80–$180 per CWT is typical at major venues.
Does Brick Dynamics replace the show's general contractor for drayage? No. The show's GC owns the marshalling yard. BD coordinates with the GC — booking the marshalling slot, hitting the target time, watching for split-piece traps, and reconciling the invoice.
Can you handle drayage at any venue? Yes, in any of the 65+ BD metros. The GC contracted to the show varies (GES, Freeman, Shepard, Hargrove, and dozens of regional contractors). BD operates under whatever the show's contracted rules require.
Can you give me a drayage quote without telling you the show? Not accurately. Drayage rates are show-specific — they come from the GC's published show kit, not from a generic rate sheet. Send us the show name, your booth size, and crate count.
Do you handle drayage for international booths shipping into the US? Yes. International freight clears US customs before it hits the venue. BD coordinates with the customs broker on landed timing.
What's the lead time for drayage at a major show? For a major venue, send your manifest at least four weeks before move-in.
Do you handle drayage for spare parts, fragile equipment, or vehicles? Yes. Fragile freight, technology demos, and vehicle displays need specific drayage handling.
Get a Drayage Quote
Tell us the show — McCormick, OCCC, LVCC, Javits, GWCC, anywhere on the convention calendar — and we'll come back with the venue's drayage line, our coordination quote, and a target-time plan inside a business day.