Guide · US and Canada · checked November 8, 2026
How to check a trade show material-handling invoice
Material handling (also called drayage) is the exclusive service, at most shows, of moving your freight from the dock or warehouse to your booth and back. The general contractor bills it by weight, usually on a final invoice that arrives weeks after the show. Here is how to check it, whatever the show.
1. Start from the show's own terms
Every show publishes its rates and rules in an exhibitor kit or service manual, and each order form can add conditions. Rates, advance-order deadlines, free allowances and minimums differ by show and by year. Don't use last year's kit or another show's rules. Keep the page and date you rely on.
2. Work out how the show bills weight
- Per hundredweight (cwt): a rate per 100 lb, normally with the weight rounded up. Industry guides such as Exhibitor Magazine's drayage explainer describe this as the common model. A 1,030 lb shipment at a per-cwt rate is 11 cwt only if the kit says to round up.
- Per pound: weight × rate, with no rounding.
- Minimums: some shows set a minimum billable weight or charge. Check how it applies to each shipment.
- Different rates: advance-order, on-site, warehouse and after-hours rates can differ. The arrival time and the order date decide which applies.
3. The checklist
- Gather the file: final invoice, the full account statement, weight tickets or bills of lading, booth confirmation, and the exhibitor kit or order form.
- Match weights: does each billed weight equal the weight ticket for that shipment? Reweighs should be documented.
- Check the rate and the arithmetic: confirm the rate against the kit, then redo the extension, including rounding.
- Check any allowance: if the kit gives free weight to smaller booths or particular delivery methods, it should appear once, not once per shipment, and only if you qualify.
- Look for credits elsewhere: a credit memo may sit on another page of the statement. Count it once.
- Read duplicates carefully: the same shipment on two invoices is a duplicate only if no reversal or void connects them. A replacement invoice normally comes with a reversal.
- Separate other charges: labor, electrical, cleaning and rentals are different services and aren't checked against the handling rate.
- Taxes and currency (Canada): check whether sales tax, GST or HST is charged correctly and whether the invoice is in CAD or USD. Convert kilograms to pounds with a stated method, if the kit uses metric.
- Ask, don't accuse: send the contractor a specific question with the documents attached, and keep paying by the stated deadline.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and no refund or credit is guaranteed. For a worked example with a published rule, see the SEMA 2026 invoice guide.
Want a second pair of eyes?
BoothBill reviews one handling invoice from a US or Canadian show for $149 and returns an evidence report you can send. If your exhibit house already reviews these invoices, you don't need us.