Home Office Scientific Development Branch

HOSDB 2009, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Premier Showfreight was appointed Sole Official Freight Contractor for HOSDB 2009, which is a Home Office event, organised by the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers. Established in the early 1980’s, HOSDB (formerly known as PSDB) is the largest “closed” security exhibition in the UK. It is a showcase for companies to exhibit the very latest in security products and technology. Attendance at the event is strictly by invitation only and is restricted to UK Government employees and Police personnel, involved in the procurement of equipment and technology.

HOSDB 2009 took place at a secure RAF base in Buckinghamshire, with severe restrictions on traffic movement, requiring careful planning and advance liaison, in order to obtain security clearance for vehicles and personnel.

All on-site handling charges were covered by the event Organisers, enabling us to offer the services to exhibitors “free of charge”. This arrangement had a huge impact on reducing the number of vehicles making deliveries to the venue.

Project objectives

• Co-ordination with over 200 exhibiting companies, in the UK and overseas, to arrange transportation from their premises to our consolidation depot, including temporary importation procedures, where applicable.
• Consolidation of equipment on trailers for movement to the exhibition venue.
• Offloading and delivery to individual stands.
• Co-ordination of HIAB vehicle for delivery of a bullet-proof sentry box, weighing approx 5000kgs
• Provision of lifting equipment at the venue, for the duration of the build-up and break-down periods.
• Removal and storage of empty packing cases for duration of exhibition
• Return of empty cases, re-packing and return to our consolidation depot.
• Uplift all equipment from display areas, at the conclusion of the event, and re-deliver to various UK and overseas addresses, within client’s delivery date and time schedule.

HOSDB is an extremely important event in the UK Police and Public Security industry calendar, with companies spending a substantial part of their annual exhibition budget. Indeed, many exhibitors at HOSDB attend only this event each year.

By carefully planning on-site operations in advance, we were able to keep all freight and handling costs within budget. Movement of vehicles within the venue is very restricted and closely controlled. Those exhibitors, who utilised the freight service offered by Premier, were able to save a huge amount of time, by avoiding the need for pre-registration and security clearance to take vehicles on-site.