The positive trend in exhibit transportation continued this year. Last year the numbers were encouraging because they showed there was more exhibit transportation taking place.

But, unfortunately, the 2005 Exhibit Builder Transportation Survey took place just as fuel prices were starting their rise and while crude oil had not yet reached the $60 range. And before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

Even so, builders and exhibit transportation companies aren't sure whether the price of oil or unavailability of exhibit space on the Gulf Coast is necessarily going to dampen the growth of exhibits. But they mean literally, "not sure."

Some of the largest convention centers in the South may be out of commission for months, either from damage or accommodating evacuees, necessitating the rescheduling or cancellation of many shows. Of the two dozen or so exhibit events scheduled for the greater New Orleans area in September and October, most had found different venues. And no matter what the course of recovery from the storm, it's likely, many say, that there is enough exhibit hall capacity throughout the U.S. to provide space for any show needing to relocate.

While the price of oil, and consequently the cost of fuel used to power both the big trucks that carry exhibit freight and the big planes that take people to trade shows, continued its general rise as this was written, not everyone thinks this will necessarily slow the exhibit industry's momentum.

Some point out that the main effect may be to make costs rise. And since fuel costs have been rising incrementally for quite some time, the effect isn't really a shock for businesses as much as it is for people gassing up their cars. Air fares are not likely to rise so much as to dissuade the business traveler from trekking off to a trade show as much as the higher price of gasoline will keep the family from taking the SUV out for a vacation.

But the increase in fuel prices and rise in shipping costs that can be expected may help dampen some of the bargain shopping that carriers have complained about for the past several years. Any general rise in the cost of providing a service reduces at least somewhat the flexibility that discount operators have to undercut the market.

So with those uncertainties in mind, the transportation survey shows steady growth with the largest portion of responding builders, 44.4%, handing between $500,001 and $1 million worth of exhibit transportation freight per year. The remainder of exhibit freight volume was split pretty evenly between those who handle between $50,001 and $75,000 per year and those sending out between $250,001 and $500,000 annually (see Table II).

On the transportation side, the greatest portion of responding companies handled between $75,001 and $100,000 of exhibit-related freight last year. Close behind were the 28% of companies with exhibit-related freight volume ranging between $2.5 million and $5 million. Twenty percent of responding transportation suppliers had volume of more than $10 million last year.

All of these volumes were quite consistent with the 2004 survey.

Exactly as last year's survey showed, all builders reported that the exhibit builder most often orders exhibit transportation services, as opposed to the exhibiting company placing its orders directly with carriers. The number of suppliers who said it was the builder who most often ordered these services dropped slightly to 68% from 71.4% last year. This is the second year in a row, and the only two years of the survey, that all exhibit builders have said they are most often responsible for ordering exhibit transportation. This may be a result of the continuing budget squeeze that corporate exhibit departments have been under. They rely more on their exhibit builders for the range of services necessary to mount an exhibit.

Just over 44% of all respondents said they handled exhibit transportation for between 26 and 50 clients each year and 44% of supplier respondents, the largest portion, said this was the range of clients they served for exhibit-related freight. The largest number of builders, 55.6%, was responsible for ordering transportation services for between 51 and 100 clients.

Exhibit builders gave their transportation suppliers a satisfaction level of 4.11 out of a possible 5. This was up slightly from last year's 4.05. The rise follows two years of slight declines. Ratings above 4 are between "generally satisfied" and "very satisfied" on the scale used for that question in the Exhibit Builder Transportation Survey. The lowest rating was a 3, which is still in the "generally satisfied" range and the highest rating given was a 5.

Wooden crates remain the most popular method of shipping exhibit materials, with 69.2% of all respondents reporting that it was the most widely used packaging. Nearly 70.5% of builders and 68% of exhibit transportation suppliers said this was the number one method of shipment. Wooden crates were followed by custom cases, blanket wrapped, and then boxes. There was a split between builders and suppliers on boxes, however. While 11.1% of exhibit builders said they most often shipped exhibit materials in boxes, none of the suppliers did. This, however, is a result of the transportation respondents' operations. There were only three common carriers who responded to the survey, the percentage of suppliers was larger who reported carrying boxes as the primary packaging for the exhibit-related freight they handled.

There's general agreement on where freight goes: direct to the exhibit hall. All of the transportation suppliers and 70.4% of the exhibit builders responding said direct to the hall was the most prevalent destination. Just over 29.5% of builders said it went to other locations, primarily warehouses.

International destinations accounted for 2.33% of the exhibit freight handled by builders and 25.72% for transportation suppliers.

The typical responding exhibit builder had just over one full-time (FTE) employee position handling freight. The typical supplier had 4.36 FTE working on exhibit-related freight. (An FTE is the equivalent of one employee working full-time on exhibit transportation. So if a builder had two employees, each of whom spent half their time on freight, the builder would have one FTE.)

A related statistic is the number of actual full-time employees who handle exhibit-related transportation. Most respondents do not have anyone whose full-time job is exhibit-related transportation. Just over 11% of builders had at least one individual who spent all of his or her time on exhibit transportation and 38.5% of transportation suppliers had at least one person working full-time on this area.

How The Survey Was Conducted

The 2005 Exhibit Builder Magazine Transportation Survey was mailed to 150 exhibit builders and 100 transportation suppliers, which included exhibit carrier head offices, corporate branch offices, agents, and exhibit transportation consultants. Potential exhibit builder respondents were selected from a variety of sources that comprise a database of approximately 1,500 potential respondents. The exhibit builders were selected randomly from this database. While the selection of individual companies is random, the database itself reflects the national statistical segmentation of the exhibit design and construction field.

The potential transportation contractor respondents were selected from a database reflecting a variety of companies form throughout the nation. Again, selection is random, but the database is reflective of overall national percentage representation of each segment, such as van lines, common carriers, air freight contractors, etc.

The regional distribution of companies was determined by the relative frequency with which they appeared in the database of potential respondents. eb