Trade Show Shipping On the Floor, On Time

An ATA Carnet is an international customs document that lets you temporarily import exhibit goods, demo equipment, and commercial samples into another country without paying duty or posting a bond, then bring them back. It works like a passport for merchandise and is valid for one year across the countries in the Carnet system. If you are shipping a booth or equipment across the border for a show and returning it, a Carnet is usually the cleanest way to avoid duties and a formal entry. We advise on whether your goods qualify and handle the clearance against it both directions.

Advance warehouse is the safer default. Your freight is received days before the show, held, and delivered to your booth on the target move-in date, which protects you against transit delays. Direct to show site works when your setup is simple or your freight is time-sensitive, but it has to arrive inside a tight, specific window or it gets turned away. We read your exhibitor kit and match the routing to your booth, your timeline, and the drayage cost either way.

A hold means CBP or a partner agency wants to inspect the shipment or has a question about the paperwork, and every hour it sits can push you past the show’s receiving deadline. The way you prevent it is correct documentation up front: the right Carnet or temporary entry, an accurate description of the goods, and clean values. Because we clear at San Diego and Otay Mesa daily, we structure the entry to move without a flag and we pick up the phone if something does get pulled.

Yes. That is the point of being border-native. A US exhibitor heading to a show in Mexico needs the goods exported, temporarily imported into Mexico, and brought back. A Mexican exhibitor coming to a San Diego or Las Vegas show needs the reverse. We coordinate the clearance in whichever direction the freight is moving and manage the return leg so the temporary import closes out properly.

Sooner is better, and the show’s advance warehouse cutoff is your real deadline, not the show dates. Those cutoffs often fall one to two weeks before move-in. If a Carnet is involved, we need lead time to prepare and issue it before the goods ship. Give us the exhibitor kit and your origin as early as you have them and we will work backward from the cutoff so nothing gets rushed at the border.