Moving the production
Trailers and Gear on a Tour Trucking Booking
A coach moves people and a trailer moves the production, and the two decisions are usually made together. This page covers what tour trucking is for, why quoting it alongside the coach is normally cheaper than booking it separately, and what to send so the load can be sized correctly.
What trucking is for
Bays under a coach take luggage and whatever gear does not need a trailer. Past that, backline, production, lighting and staging move in a trailer, and that is a separate booking with its own driver and its own schedule.
The two schedules are related but not identical. Gear often has to be at a venue well before a crew does, and it frequently leaves later, which is why the trucking plan is built against the load-in and load-out times rather than against the show times.
Why book it with the coach
Quoting the coach and the trucking together is usually cheaper than sourcing them from two suppliers, because the routing is the same routing and one dispatcher is planning both against it.
It also removes a category of problem that is expensive at the venue: two operators with two schedules and no shared view of the load-in. One booking means one number to call when either half moves.
What to send
Send the routing, the load-in and load-out times, and a description of what is moving. Descriptions in plain terms are fine, and an inventory from the last tour is better than an estimate made from memory.
Say if anything is oversized, fragile, temperature sensitive or has to be first off the trailer. Those are the details that decide how a load is planned, and they are much easier to accommodate at quote stage than at a loading dock.
What the trucking plan is built from
What is actually moving
Backline, production, lighting, staging. An inventory from the last tour beats an estimate made from memory.
Load-in and load-out times
Gear runs to the dock schedule rather than the show schedule, so those are the times the plan is built against.
The same routing as the coach
One dispatcher planning both against one routing is where the saving against two separate suppliers comes from.
One number when it moves
Two operators with two schedules and no shared view of a load-in is a problem that gets expensive at the venue.
Frequently asked questions
The separate booking that moves a production: backline, lighting, staging and anything else that will not fit in the bays under a coach. It has its own driver and its own schedule, built against load-in and load-out times rather than show times.
Some of it. Undercarriage bays take luggage and whatever does not need a trailer, which is enough for a small touring party. A full production moves in a trailer, and the line between the two is worth settling at quote stage.
Usually, because it is the same routing and one dispatcher plans both against it. It also removes a category of problem that gets expensive at a venue: two operators with two schedules and no shared view of the load-in.
The routing, the load-in and load-out times, and a description of what is moving. An inventory from the last tour is far more useful than an estimate from memory, and plain descriptions are perfectly fine.
Say so at quote stage. Oversized, fragile, temperature sensitive and must-be-first-off are the details that decide how a load is planned, and each is much easier to accommodate before the booking than at a loading dock.
Trucking is a separate arrangement from the coach and worth asking about specifically rather than assuming it follows the same terms. Ask what covers the load before the trailer is packed rather than after.
In short
Gear that will not fit the bays moves in a trailer, planned against load-in and load-out rather than show times, quoted on the same routing as the coach and answered by the same dispatcher. Send the inventory with the routing and both halves come back priced together.
Send your routing and get it priced
A dispatcher comes back with the coaches that fit, each priced against your schedule.