How to plan transport for an exhibition team in Dubai: build-up, show days and breakdown

What do you need to know before you book cars for a show?

Every show has three clocks: build-up, show days and breakdown. Your transport plan follows them. The organiser’s exhibitor manual sets the dates, the hall opening time and the closing time, so get that before you ask anyone for a quote.

Two kinds of vehicle serve a stand. Trucks move stand materials and are booked by your contractor or freight agent. People movers carry the team, and that is what Assure supplies. Keeping the two apart saves arguments at the gate.

At Dubai World Trade Centre the truck side is formal. The Arabian Travel Market 2026 manual sends every vehicle to the Al Warsan Holding Area first, books it into a slot, and charges AED 30 per day, per trip, for the digital pass. Your passenger car does not need that pass. It sets the team down at a public entrance on Sheikh Zayed Road, as covered in our DWTC parking and drop-off guide.

How many cars or vans does a stand team need?

Plan by pickup group. A pickup group is the people sleeping at one hotel who start work at the same time.

Vehicle	Seats	Comfortable load with bags	Good for
Business sedan	3	3 people, 2 to 3 large cases	A manager and a client, a late airport run
Mercedes-Benz V-Class	6	5 people, 4 large cases	A small hotel group, VIP and one colleague
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, 13 seats	13	11 people, 6 large cases	One hotel group on the morning loop
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, 19 seats	19	16 people, 3 large cases	Big team with day bags only

Add one standby car for every 10 to 12 people. It covers the person who forgot the lanyards, the client who lands early and the manager who leaves mid-afternoon. Our guide to vehicle counts for group events shows the same arithmetic for larger crowds. Partner vehicles for bigger teams are available through our partner network, subject to availability.

Example: a 12-person stand team at DWTC

Say 8 people stay in Dubai Marina and 4 in Downtown. The Marina to DWTC drive is about 25 km, 22 minutes in free-flowing traffic. Downtown to DWTC is about 5 km, 7 minutes. Figures are OSRM estimates.

Day	Marina group (8)	Downtown group (4)	Standby
Build-up	13-seat Sprinter at 7:00 am, with tool bags	V-Class at 7:30 am	Sedan on call
Show days	13-seat Sprinter at 8:00 am, return at 6:30 pm	V-Class at 8:30 am, return 6:30 pm	Sedan on call for client dinners
Breakdown	Sprinter at show close plus 1 hour	V-Class at show close plus 1 hour	Sedan for the freight lead

The pickup times leave a gap before the hall opens. During major events the RTA has warned of congestion around DWTC from 8 am to 12 pm and 4 pm to 8 pm. So the 8:00 am Marina departure is earlier than the drive alone needs.

Build-up and breakdown days: early starts and late finishes

Build-up days start early and stay flexible. Contractors are slotted by stand size, so your own start time may move a day before. Ask the driver to keep their phone on from the first pickup and confirm the next day’s time by message every evening.

Breakdown runs the other way. The 2026 Arabian Travel Market manual says that from show close to midnight, only vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes enter Al Warsan, and larger trucks go in after midnight. That means your team often finishes before the trucks are loaded. Plan two return runs: one when the display is cleared, and a later car for whoever stays with the freight.

Show days: fixed shuttles or on-call cars?

Use both, for different people.

• Fixed shuttle: the Marina and Downtown groups above. One departure per hotel in the morning and one fixed return after closing.
• On-call cars: for managers with meetings across the city, for client dinners and for airport runs.

For a day of meetings across several venues, a limousine service booking by the hour keeps one car with the person all day. Our events service page covers show-week bookings.

Airport arrivals and departures for the team

Team members rarely land together. Give each arrival its own pickup, or batch two flights within about 45 minutes at the same terminal. Emirates lands at Dubai International Terminal 3, and most other airlines at Terminal 1. DXB to DWTC is about 15 km. Shows at Expo City and flights into Al Maktoum International (DWC) pair well: DWC to the Dubai Exhibition Centre is about 23 km, 30 minutes.

Our conference delegate transport plan covers waves of arrivals for hundreds of people, and the Expo City guide lists the drop-off points there.

Moving VIP guests and clients during show week

Book clients on their own cars. A named driver meets them at the hotel, takes them to your stand and waits at an agreed point away from the entrance. Tell the driver what the guest does after: another stand, a lunch or a flight. If the guest is flying out that night, build in the drive to the airport and the check-in time. A chauffeur car in the business sedan class suits one or two guests, and the V-Class suits a delegation of up to 5 with bags.

If the show is in Abu Dhabi, the drive from Downtown Dubai to ADNEC is about 134 km, roughly 85 minutes without traffic, so an out-of-town team needs a different shape of plan. See our ADNEC guide.

Invoicing and paperwork for company accounts

Companies that book several cars across a show week usually want one invoice per event, with a line for each vehicle and day. Ask for that when you book, and name the cost centre and any purchase order number. Our corporate transport page explains how company accounts work. If your crew includes day labour, read the worker transport rules before choosing a vehicle.

Exhibition transport planning template

Copy this into a message and fill in the gaps.

1. Show name, venue and dates (build-up, show, breakdown).
2. Hall and stand number.
3. People per hotel, with hotel names.
4. Morning pickup time and the time the hall opens.
5. Closing time and the return pickup time.
6. Flights in and out, with terminals.
7. VIPs who need a separate car.
8. One contact who answers the phone before 7 am.

For the same checklist applied to a single day out, see our event day chauffeur checklist, or return to the Dubai and UAE events calendar to pick your show dates.