The Shipping Monster is a logistics company that specialises in shipping and storage for the entertainment industry. Established in 2009 and with over 200 offices across the globe, the firm offers custom shipping solutions to clients in the live events and attractions sectors, such as museums and science centres, theme parks, zoos, and more.
It offers all the transport services, such as air freight, ocean freight, rail and road, both domestic and international. The Shipping Monster also has worldwide customs brokers and can assist clients with import/export documentation preparation. Meanwhile, sister company The Production Monster helps to run installations and load-outs, and The Storage Monster offers dry and climate storage solutions around the world.
Coming out of a particularly testing few years for the global shipping industry, blooloop talks to Robert Aspinall, founder and CEO of The Shipping Monster, about some of the trends and challenges in the sector, including sustainability and the importance of cost-effectiveness. We also speak about The Shipping Monster’s worldwide logistics networks and some of the new markets that the firm is entering.
Cost-effectiveness is key
When it comes to transporting entertainment around the world, whether it’s a rollercoaster or a pop-up exhibition, cost-effectiveness is one of the most important considerations. According to Aspinall, this means that it is useful to have the conversation about budget vs. vision at the very beginning:
“When we talk to brand new customers, that’s one of the first things that we ask; what’s your vision and what’s your budget? The fight between budget and vision is very real. Of course, your vision is to have this amazing product that’s going to tour the world. But if the budget doesn’t fit then you’re going to have to compromise certain areas.”
What are his top tips for the most cost-effective transportation? Firstly, he says the packaging decisions have a huge impact:
“Thinking about the packaging that you use is important. Then also you need to think about how easy it is going to be to fit it into a container, an aeroplane, or a truck. Plus, planning the transportation element as early as possible will also be helpful. When you’re designing an exhibition or an experience, think about the shipping at an early stage.”
The other vital consideration is the route:
“Where is it going to go? If you’re going to start in Los Angeles, and the next one is going to be New York, and then you’re going to go back to San Francisco, of course, that is going to cost you more. And your carbon footprint is going to be greater.
“So, The Shipping Monster always likes to get involved as early as possible so we can help with all these considerations.”
Sustainability in travelling attractions
When it comes to the carbon footprint of the transportation process, Aspinall says that monitoring and reporting this is a huge trend for the industry right now. Again, getting the logistics team involved from the get-go can help to meet these goals:
“Everyone wants to be sustainable as possible. Our advice is to make it as simple as possible. For example, build everything in eight-foot boxes, or build everything 2.4 metres by 2.4 metres. That way you know that it will fit in an aeroplane, it’ll fit in a shipping container, it’ll fit in a truck.”
“Making things as modular as possible is also a great approach. If you know that it is going to travel at some point, it’s going to come out of the venue and go into a truck, think about how’s it going to fit and try to maximise that. We have exhibitions that take 10 trucks to transport and when our operations guys get to them, they say, ‘That’s such a shame – if they built it a bit smarter, it could have fitted six trucks.’ And that saves you money and saves carbon emissions.”
“Sustainability is huge for The Shipping Monster. We try and work with customers as much as possible, but the main problem right now is people’s budgets don’t always cover it. It comes back to that vision versus budget question. We can do it; if you want everything to be green and you want us to transport everything with electric vehicles, we can do all of that. But there is a cost.”
Planning for a more sustainable approach
Cost-effectiveness and sustainability are not always at odds with each other, however:
“We had an exhibition that went from Winnipeg to Halifax. One of the main components of that project was time. We had a nice chunk of time, so we transported it by rail; we have rail cars that look just like 53-foot trucks, you can strap your cargo in the same as a truck, but it’s on the railway.
“We saved a tonne of emissions, and it was cheaper for them. But again, it was in the plan; they had planned for it, and it was important to them. They knew that they would have this gap between those two locations, and rather than move it fast by truck and then put it into storage they thought, let’s put it on the rail, it will take five to six days longer and we’ll plan for that.”
While sustainability is a growing trend in the industry, Aspinall says that people are still not doing enough. Yet, despite the vision vs. budget issue, there are some quick wins:
“It comes down to the fact that the further out you plan, the better it’s going to be.
“Also, the packaging aspect is huge. We are trying to push people to use reusable packaging, rather than getting crates and then throwing them away once it’s done.
“There is a commitment and a desire from people to be more sustainable, and we’re seeing that. We deal with the travelling exhibition staff, the museum managers, and the curators, and they want to be more sustainable. Unfortunately, it seems like higher up, fiscally, it is not always a priority.”
The Shipping Monster on trends in the attractions industry
Another big trend that Aspinall identifies is that attractions and exhibitions are getting bigger:
“We’ve worked on some huge projects recently, especially in the attractions sector. We have several roller coasters that we’re quoting on to move and also observation wheels. It certainly feels like everything is bigger and better.”
This comes with its own set of challenges as well. How does The Shipping Monster balance this increase in scale with its commitment to keeping costs down for its clients?
“When it comes to the bigger exhibitions and bigger attractions, they are working with bigger numbers and so of course they need more people paying to go and see them. So, the budgets are tighter, the deadlines are tighter. People want to have an attraction set up for 48 hours in one place and then go to another place as quickly as possible. And we can do that, but again there’s that budget vs. vision question.
“But people are out in droves going and seeing things. The industry is back in a big way.”
The rise and rise of IP
This all speaks to a booming travelling attractions sector, with new exhibitions and immersive experiences being created all the time. Within this, there is also a rise in IP-based attractions, he adds:
“IP is huge, and that is a big trend in the last couple of years. There are Harry Potter exhibitions, Marvel exhibitions, you name it. We’re definitely seeing more of that in the exhibition world, and in the theme park world too, with IP-themed roller coasters and water slides etc.”
One example that The Shipping Monster worked on recently is The Rolling Stones | UNZIPPED exhibition [pictured, top], in partnership with THEMUSEUM. This includes over 300 unique items from the Rolling Stones’ private collections, with classic costumes, posters, record covers, rare audio and video clips, personal journals, instruments, and stage designs.
“That was a great project. The artefacts in there are incredible. It’s like the four of them just opened up their wardrobes and garages. There are some really unique and personal objects on display.”
The Shipping Monster and the impact of COVID-19
It would be difficult to talk about trends in global shipping without mentioning the global pandemic. It was, says Aspinall, like nothing we’ve seen before, and the impact was far-reaching.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. We’ve been through things like SARS and the 2008 crash, but I’ve never seen anything like it. It really highlighted how important the supply chain is. It highlighted how the supply chain has an impact on every single person in some way, whether you’re going out to buy a fridge, you’re moving an exhibition, or you’re trying to install a brand-new attraction.
“It’s been difficult to explain to customers why the prices have rocketed. It’s getting slowly but surely better, and I think next year we see a return to relatively normal.”
But there have been some positives come out of it, too, he adds:
“We’ve had one ocean freight company that decided to start their own air freight business. The ships weren’t moving, and they had customers wanting to move things quickly. So, they decided they would buy a bunch of triple sevens. We recently used them to move something from Sweden to Los Angeles.
“We’ve seen some monopolies come about because of the pandemic, with people going broke and companies buying other companies. But then there’s also been something of a start-up feel as well. People have taken something and started doing it better than it used to be done, purely through that need, driven by the market. So, that’s been positive.”
In addition, the new ways of working during the pandemic helped us to humanise each other, in terms of business relations.
“We all did a lot of webinars and Zoom calls during COVID. I think that has helped to normalise more healthy working behaviours. Now, I see customers send an email saying, ‘Hey, I can’t make that meeting, I have to drop my kid off at school. Previously there might have been some pushback on that, particularly in a typical US workplace. Now, we’re more accepting of that work-life balance, because we’ve seen into people’s homes, we’ve seen behind that curtain.”
The future of the industry
Coming out of that challenging period, where does Aspinall see the industry heading in the next few years?
“Looking ahead, the opportunities are huge, mainly in tech. Returning to the topic of packaging, we can now use a computer programme that allows you to input the weight and the dimensions of every piece of kit you have in your exhibition or every single piece that makes up your roller coaster. We run that information through that programme, and it comes out with 3D drawings of exactly how it would fit into a container, a truck, or an aircraft. That’s been incredibly useful.”
“The other side of the business is storage. The Shipping Monster moves things, and when things need to be set down for a while, they head to The Storage Monster warehouses. We have more than 500 warehouses all over the world. Storage technology is through the roof now. The barcoding and tracking systems have become more and more sophisticated.
“The idea of one man on a forklift loading things and putting things away, that doesn’t happen anymore, with the level of automation that is available. Everything is tracked, everything’s weighed and everything’s measured, and we have conditional loads. So that side of the industry is moving quickly.”
Providing expertise for a more seamless experience
Touching on another aspect of the services that The Shipping Monster and its sister companies offer, Aspinall says:
“Most of our customers don’t have a dedicated logistics department. So, we’re often liaising with curators, project managers or travelling exhibitions managers. These people are experts when it comes to designing and installing things. But logistics, things like how to load a truck, that is out of their comfort zone.”
“As a result, we’re moving more into consultancy, in terms of helping clients understand the best ways to approach logistics, helping them to plan that aspect of their project. I have customers say to us, ‘I don’t even know what the truck looks like, I’ve never seen one and I’ve never loaded one.’
“We can absolutely help with that.”
The Shipping Monster’s global network
The Shipping Monster has a network of 200 offices and agents around the world. Speaking about how this global presence helps it to offer a better service to its clients, Aspinall says:
“We want to be as consistent as possible and as reliable as possible. And having that network gives the customer a level of comfort in that consistency. If you use us in the USA, or if you use us in Australia or Europe, there’ll be that consistency. That’s important because of the uncertainty and the volatility of the supply chain at the moment.
“It’s important to have consistency of product and service.”
The firm is also expanding into new markets:
“We have been moving into the GCC heavily this year because it’s very big on customers’ radars. We went to IAAPA’s first Middle East Trade Summit in March, where I spoke on a panel about supply chain sustainability. In addition, we’ll be exhibiting at SEA in May, and hosting a purely logistics panel, which I’m looking forward to.
“What’s interesting about Saudi Arabia is that they’re trying to make it into an area where you stop for a layover. At the moment, if you’re going from say, Australia to Europe, you can stop in Dubai for a couple of days and see a couple of attractions. And Saudi is trying to become the new version of that, so they’re developing all of these huge attractions. It’s a big deal for us. The area’s exploding in terms of its population and in terms of welcoming people in.
“I think India is going to be next. India’s population will be overtaking China this year, and so that’s a tonne of people that will want to see those IP-driven experiences and big attractions that we were talking about. The other area that I’m very interested in is West Africa as well. I think that that market is going to grow in the next few years.
“All of these places have a huge young population with an appetite for entertainment.”
Attendees at the upcoming Museums + Heritage Show 2023 in London can catch Aspinall leading a free panel entitled Not Just a Fairytale: Achieving Carbon Neutrality in Travelling Exhibitions.
