2017 Saw Storage Improvements and E.L.D. Compliance
by Kathleen Frantz
Sunset Transportation, events specialists with an experienced team of professionals who handle all the day-to-day coordination of tradeshow booths, have been doing the heavy lifting since 1982. They pride themselves on taking care of all the details and making sure their clients’ booths are delivered and recovered, on time, every time. Their services include guaranteed on-time setup, warehouse services, and all the planning and support needed for a successful show.
Sunset Transportation is uniquely positioned to service any event with facilities from North Las Vegas to Mandalay Bay on South Las Vegas Blvd. From both ends of Las Vegas, they offer professional drivers, experienced operations staff and certified warehouse personnel ready to handle all show exhibit needs, from small to extra-large. Much more than just a standard pick-up and delivery service, Sunset Transportation is a “white glove” carrier that earns their business by doing it right, every time. They provide sorting, segmenting, warehousing on site representation, pad-wrapping and crate repair.
Sunset largely focused on improving its facilities this past year by improving its North Las Vegas site and they now have the space to set up or store tradeshow property for short or long term storage. “We are fortunate to have one of the finer sites in the area with over five acres of parking on a secured site just off of Interstate 15,” says Alan Fisher, CEO of Sunset. “This site makes servicing our customers a snap–from the location to the onsite certified scale and maintenance garage–this site is tops.” They also improved upon their storage facilities throughout this year at both their Gowan Road and Windmill Lane sites.
The staff at Sunset Transportation work around the clock to make sure each show is covered. Starting with on-site service, they work to ensure they get show property to the convention center on time and on target. Amenities for every client include electronic notifications, project management, and online tracking services.
Over the last 30 years they’ve learned a thing or two about making their customer’s experience exceptional. From their customer service teams to the backbone of their business, the drivers, they are all working hard to ensure you are completely satisfied with their service. Sunset Transportation is large enough to handle any task, yet small enough to give personalized service. They work around the clock to make logistics the last thing their clients need to worry about. They want to make their clients’ booths the stars of the show.
As part of the larger Tantara Transportation Group they even offer services beyond Las Vegas. Their fleet of trucks has specialized air ride equipment with lift gate units. Tantara Transportation Group has physical offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Metro-Detroit, and Cleveland. They strive to keep their clients for life and work hard to obtain new business. They are a certified special products hauler to include delicate medical instrument machinery and lasers. They take and handle precious cargo.
Sunset is working hard to increase their social media presence in the marketplace. “We’ve dipped our toe into the social media pond before, and really didn’t realize what it would take to be somewhat relevant or even followed” says Patrick McCowan, “director of chaos” with Sunset/Tantara. “Sunset and Tantara are fun, family-oriented companies, and we are looking to promote that on social media,” says McCowan, adding, “We’re looking forward to letting others learn about who and what we are, along with what we do. We are going to promote interaction with our team and get them engaged with the process, and hopefully have some humor sprinkled in here and there. We’re a pretty light-hearted bunch and we want our clients to learn more of what makes us the company that we are today.”
Sunset Transportation provides web access to all the information needed. They work to create a tailored experience, providing all necessary means to get the job done. They know a cookie cutter approach doesn’t work in the tradeshow industry, and that every show can be a different experience. They are always improving and innovating new ways to be the best tradeshow transportation company in Las Vegas.
Tim Haller joined the team just over a year ago and now oversees all warehousing services at the sites. Haller and his staff have worked to improve upon the tracking and handling of all of the exhibit materials that flow in and out of the locations throughout the year. Haller, along with Shannon Kelly, has put in countless hours working on the trapping services that Sunset provides during the course of the season. In “trapping,” they consolidate shipments to the same tradeshow whether it’s several shipments for one booth or shipments from several different clients going to the same show.
“Trappings are just one of the services that we provide to our clients,” says Haller. “We really focused on refining the process this year, everyone has wares at their booth, and we work to ensure those items are accurate and on time for their show.”
The past year has been a good but challenging year for those working on the logistics side of the tradeshow industry. The current national driver shortage and the impact of the upcoming mandatory implementation of Electronic Logging Devices on over-the-road drivers has been a constantly looming issue.
Of course one thing on Sunset’s mind this upcoming year is the implementation of ELD compliance throughout the industry. Logistics providers have been wondering what will really happen on December 18: will the drivers revolt? CEO Fisher says, “We adopted ELDs for our company fleet over three years ago and offered it to our owner operators as an option at that time. Now with almost every truck in the industry being placed on the ELD clock, we think things are really going to tighten up.”
After a short holiday break the Sunset Transportation team will be back to working on the upcoming CES show. “We only have a limited amount of slow time in Las Vegas—late in the summer and a bit in the fall—and outside of that we are always on the move,” says Fisher.
Sunset Transportation is located at 4120 W. Windmill Lane, #103, Las Vegas, NV 89139 and also at 3741 Civic Center Dr., North Las Vegas, NV 89030. For more info, visit www.sunset-lv.com or www.tantara.com.
This story originally appeared in the January/February 2018 issue of Exhibit City News magazine, p. 28-29. For more pictures and original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/jan-feb_ecn2018.
