Four vans at the loading bay at seven
The client's production company arrives with a truck of staging. The lighting crew arrives in two vans. A florist, a brand agency with a pop-up display and a photographer turn up at the same time, all saying they were told to arrive at seven. Your security officer has a list with two of their names on it. The loading bay fits one truck and a van. The goods lift is shared with the kitchen's morning delivery.
Your duty manager spends the first hour of a big event day directing traffic and asking crews for paperwork they were supposed to send last week.
Contractors are booked by the client, not by you
Your contract is with the organiser. The organiser hires production, staging, AV and decor suppliers, who each have their own schedules and may never have spoken to your venue. Information about access times, vehicle sizes and your requirements gets passed down a chain and loses detail at each step.
- Your venue's contractor rules and access times sit in a PDF that may not reach the crew.
- Documents you require, such as insurance and method statements, are sent to whoever the crew can find an email for.
- Vehicle sizes and arrival times are not collected, so the bay is overbooked.
- Security does not have a reliable list of who is expected.
- Load-out is left even vaguer than load-in.
The cost of an uncontrolled loading bay
Congestion at the bay delays setup, which delays the event, which lands on your venue's reputation. Crews without the documents you require create a difficult choice on the morning. Kitchen deliveries get blocked. Staff time on the day goes to coordination that could have happened a week earlier.
We do not decide what documents you require or assess them. Your own policies and advisers decide that. We make sure they are collected and visible in time.
How we build contractor booking for load-in
- When an event is confirmed, the organiser gets a link to share with every supplier they have hired. It is the one place for access information.
- Each contractor registers against the event: company, contact, crew names, vehicle type and size, what they are bringing and which rooms they need.
- They book a load-in and load-out slot from a timetable built around your bay, lift and kitchen delivery times.
- They upload the documents your venue requires. Missing documents are chased automatically, and the event coordinator sees a list of gaps.
- Security receives a daily expected list with names, vehicles and slots, and marks arrivals.
- Operations see one timetable per day across all events, so two events' crews do not collide.
| Contractor | Slot | Documents | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production company | 06.30 truck | Complete | Expected |
| Lighting crew | 07.00 van | Awaiting upload | Chased |
| Florist | 07.45 van | Complete | Expected |
| Brand display | 08.00 van | Not registered | Organiser told |
A calmer event morning
Crews arrive in order because they booked a slot. Security knows who they are. The coordinator dealt with missing documents days ago. The kitchen delivery gets the lift at its usual time. Load-out at the end of the night follows a plan rather than a free-for-all.
Organisers appreciate having one link to send to their suppliers rather than forwarding your contractor rules around.
Does this sound familiar?
- Contractors arrive at the same time with no slots booked.
- Required documents arrive on the morning, or never.
- Security does not know who to expect.
- The loading bay and goods lift are double booked with kitchen deliveries.
- Load-out overruns into the next event's setup.