New Beginnings for Fall
…Except for the Trade Show Industry?

Fall is often time for new beginnings – kids go back to school, trade shows start firing again, and cooler weather brings a slew of new fashion trends. Except in 2020.

We have seen the collapse of the event and trade show industry, basically overnight as new CDC guidelines were put in place and state & local health officials shut down any gatherings larger than 50 people. So while we haven’t been able to gather at large scale events (or even small scale events), we’ve had some time to think about and learn how to put on a successful event in this new normal.

The Javits Center recently published their Guide to Reopening and outlined key protocols they have put in place. They note:

“The key to a safe return of the events industry [to New York] is strong communication and a shared collaborative approach among government, the travel and hospitality industry, trade associations representing various industries and the private sector.”

Here are some of the highlights:

• COVID-19 response plan: a tailored plan for each individual event held
• New layout and design of exhibits, including booths, social areas (food, drink, and coffee stations), education sessions, meeting rooms, and registration areas: to be approved by the convention center ahead of time
• Attendance controls: requiring events to pre-register guests
• Social distancing, mask requirements, and temperature checks for everyone
• Sanitizing stations, both indoor and outdoor
• Increased cleaning and sanitization of high-traffic touch points
• Increased air quality, air filtration and HVAC maintenance

[SOURCE: Javits Center]

While none of this may come as breaking news it is important this information be published. Some of these items have always taken place during an event, but it has been behind closed doors or tucked away in the fine print of a contract. We are now in a place where these measures MUST be taken in front of guests.

A recent GES study of event attendees found that most are willing to attend a live event in the future. According to the study, 88 percent of respondents are open to attending a live event in person, and 65 percent require some form of risk mitigation (masks, social distancing, etc.). This study found there are five key segments of attendees:

• Won’t attend: those that are highly concerned about the health risks and don’t believe the risk mitigation goes far enough
• Might attend: those that are concerned about the health risk but would be open to attending if it presented a high enough value
• Moderately concerned: those that are moderately concerned but expressed a willingness to follow personal restrictions, but are against limited meeting times
• Mildly concerned: those that are only mildly concerned about the health risks, and support structural changes to promote safety
• Not worried at all: very little concern about the health risks and ready to get back to the way things were

[SOURCE: GES] and [SOURCE: TSNN]

Some of this data certainly comes as a surprise, but for the most part is extremely helpful. As we see more shows cancelling or going virtual for the Fall and into Winter 2020, it’s great to know that a future with live events will come to fruition as convention centers and event halls enact new policies and procedures to ensure the safety of all guests and staff!

Superhero September!

2020 has been a rough year, to say the least, so we’ve dubbed this month Superhero September to prove it’s not all bad! Today, we’re featuring our “Batman”, Mark Kovacic! Mark is our Sales Operations Manager but his work goes much deeper than that. Mark runs our warehouse (managing customer assets, handling exhibit inspections and repairs as necessary), manages our TSA Compliance and Certificates of Insurance for all customers, maintains the company website, AND handles all of his client’s needs! Is there anything he can’t do?!  Cheers to our Batman!!

Check out our blog!

Our latest post, Common Carrier vs. Freight Forwarder, is live on our site! We explore the differences between a common carrier and a freight forwarder and when you should use each. Read all about it here:

https://www.usexpressfreight.com/common-carrier-vs-freight-forwarder/

Trucking & Hurricanes:
A Love/Hate Relationship

Natural disasters always have a negative impact on the supply chain, but how exactly does a hurricane impact the trucking industry?

The first effect we see is a shift in demand for trucks. Demand shifts in two phases: before the storm, and after.

Before the storm, we see an uptick in outbound trucking. Essential equipment, products and materials are sent out of the storm’s path. Trucks that are currently in transit in or near the storm’s path are re-routed out of harm’s way. And, everything else is locked down in place to ride it out.

After the storm, we experience a trucking shortage as we see a rise in inbound trucking and damages are assessed. Essential relief goods and personnel are brought in to aid in recovery. And, once it is deemed safe to do so, the equipment, products and materials that were sent out can be brought back in. Unfortunately, hurricanes can cause significant damage to property and infrastructure, and the trucking industry is not immune to that.

Secondly, we can expect service interruptions.

Once the hurricane is over and communities are left to deal with its aftermath, we can expect a severe disruption of service. As homes and businesses are ravaged by wind and rain, their focus is going to be the clean-up effort. Typically, these communities become difficult to access and work can be hard to come by as business comes to a halt.

Finally, we can expect an uptick in transportation costs.

Through a combination of trucking shortages and service disruptions, we’ll see an uptick in cost. Trucks are harder to come by and communities are inaccessible, but business operations are back up and running. This will lead to an increase in demand and push prices upward.

US Express virtually attended Together Again Expo!

The Together Again Expo was a hybrid event that took place on Friday, July 24th in Orlando, FL. The event featured a combination of in-person booths, panel discussions and presentations and a live video feed from the show floor. It was hosted by Alliance Nationwide Exposition in conjunction with the Orange County Convention Center.

The Together Again Expo was actually the second event held at the OCCC since the phased re-opening process began. The first was a volleyball tournament that hosted nearly 12,000 players, coaches and chaperones. According to the Mayor of Orlando, no cases of the coronavirus were reported as a result of the tournament.

The OCCC is one of the largest venues in the country to receive the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) Star accreditation on outbreak prevention, response and recovery. GBAC STAR™ is an industry accreditation that provides third-party validation to ensure the implementation of rigorous protocols in response to biorisk situations. Focused on ensuring a clean, safe and healthy environment, the program establishes requirements to assist venues by providing best practices, protocols and procedures to control risks associated with the COVID-19 virus (Source).

The event featured interviews, panel discussions and presentations from some of the leaders of the event industry including The Expo Group, Sunbelt Rentals and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE). The show floor featured one-way aisles and booths that were spaced farther apart. Attendees and exhibitors were encouraged to wear masks and socially distance as much as possible.

As a virtual attendee, it was interesting to see an in-person event take place. Seeing the industry pivot and adapt to this “new normal” was intriguing and watching exhibitors and attendees latch onto new policies and procedures was a bright spot. As mentioned previously in our June e-newsletter, the return of in-person events is exciting and daunting but the Together Again Expo proved that in-person events can return and can be done safely!

Check out our blog!

Our latest post, Actual Weight vs. Dimensional Weight: Why Does it Matter?, is live on our website! It explains the different between actual weight and dimensional weight and why you should know about it.

Show updates for Fall 2020 & beyond

Fall is a busy time for tradeshows and events. But with the global pandemic bringing the event and tradeshow industry to a screeching halt, event planners are cautiously optimistic they’ll be able to hold their in-person events later this year.

As states’ economies are beginning to open back up, we’ve seen a number of events be rescheduled to later this year. However, with some states closing their economies back down and corporate ‘no travel’ policies put in place, we’ve seen several events get cancelled or go completely digital. Here are some of the more interesting updates we’ve found:

• RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) Annual Meeting scheduled for November 29 – December 3 in Chicago, IL is now virtual
• MJBizCon scheduled for December 2-4 in Las Vegas, NV is still on as planned
• DoDIIS Worldwide scheduled for August 2020 has been rescheduled to March 2021
• ACS (American Chemical Society) Fall Conference scheduled for August 16-20 in San Francisco, CA is now virtual
• Healthcare Design Expo scheduled for November 7-10 in Nashville, TN is still on as planned
• LabelExpo Americas, co-located with Brand Print Americas, scheduled for September 15-17 in Rosemont, IL has been cancelled

While it is still too early to know for sure if in-person events will go on as planned later this Fall and Winter, the prospect of attending live events is certainly exciting!

Downsizing?

As companies were forced to close their offices due to COVID, many are now realizing their staff can work remote and want to work remote more often.

What is your company offering? Answer here!

If you’re a company that is pursuing a full-time work from home plan, even after restrictions are lifted, the next decision is: what do you do with all that office stuff?

US Express has you covered 😉 Our climate-controlled warehouse has plenty of storage space and we provide 24-hour surveillance, limited access and our trucks are available whenever you need something moved!

Important updates from US Express

COVID. We’ve updated our COVID-19 response. Read our full statement and check out our new policy here: https://www.usexpressfreight.com/covid-19-response/

Follow US Express on social media! If you haven’t noticed, we’ve given our pages a fresh makeover and are actively sharing fresh content daily!! Be sure to follow us for more than just shipping updates!

To mark its 35-year anniversary, US Express has number of exciting initiatives underway including a new logo, completely revamped website, mobile optimized login capability for its customer portal, a new VP of Sales and an expanded sales/customer service team.

The new logo is designed to usher a more modern look yet still retain the familiar and well liked patriotic red, white and blue colors and globe-centric old logo. We hope you like it.

Consistent with the more modern look of the new logo, US Express’ new website adopts a much richer visual approach to presenting the viewer with the US Express story, our capabilities, and all the useful functionality users loved about our old website.

Much has been written about how technology is changing the shipping and freight forwarding industry. US Express is keeping up with the trend and now provides a mobile-optimized interface to its customer portal allowing our customers on their smart phones the ability to enter orders, track shipments, research invoices, and update their accounts. Of course our customers will always be able to simply call their personalized logistics consultant assigned as usual. Nothing beats personal service available 24x7x365. It is our hallmark.

To help drive US Express’ growth in its traditional strong market segments like trade show logistics and specialized equipment shipping as well as to drive exploration into new market segments like the Federal Government ecosystem, we have added a VP of Sales to our management team and new team members in both sales and customer service. We are growing and can’t thank our customers enough for their business and their loyalty.

As always, we welcome any and all feedback and vow to make your shipping the easiest part of your business.