How big is the Orange County Convention Center, and how many docks does it have?

The OCCC is the second-largest convention center in the U.S., with 2,053,820 sq ft of exhibit space across two buildings — the West Building (about 1.1 million sq ft contiguous) and the North/South Building (950,282 sq ft). The West Building has 97 covered truck bays and 14 drive-in entrances; the North/South Building has 76 truck bays, 9 drive-in entrances and two enclosed loading docks. Every figure here is from OCCC's official Fact Sheet and Facility Floor Plans.

Should exhibit freight go to the advance warehouse or direct to the OCCC?

It depends on the show's schedule and how much buffer the build needs. Advance shipping puts the freight at the show's receiving warehouse before the deadline, so it is on hand and delivered to the booth on move-in day — useful when the window is tight. Direct-to-show is fewer touches and suits a simpler booth on a relaxed schedule. The advance-warehouse address and deadline come from the specific show's General Service Contractor kit, not the venue. Send the show and the target date and we'll coordinate the freight leg to whichever fits.

What does material handling cost at the OCCC?

There is no single OCCC drayage rate, because material handling is billed by the show's appointed contractor under that show's published rate structure, so it changes by show and year. As one cited example, per the 2026 IAAPA Expo exhibitor kit published by GES, standard freight was billed at about $0.82 per pound and non-standard freight at about $0.96 per pound, with a flat minimum under 25 pounds. Those are GES's published figures for that one show, not a CSL price and not a current rate for any other show, so read your show's own exhibitor kit for its numbers. What CSL quotes is the separate over-the-road freight leg to the warehouse or the dock, per lane, never the drayage.

Is an OCCC show run same-day?

No — same-day is a Tampa Bay service. An OCCC run is planned around the show's target date, the advance-warehouse cutoff or the move-in slot, and scheduled for a named window. From a Florida warehouse it is a short in-state lane on I-4; from out of state it is a planned linehaul. The realistic transit is stated when the run is quoted rather than promised up front.

Trucks staged at a large convention center for an exhibit load-in

Venue freight guide · Orlando

Exhibitor freight to the Orange County Convention Center

The Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) is the second-largest convention center in the United States, running a heavy show calendar across two buildings. This is a freight reference for it: what the docks and truck bays actually are, how exhibit freight reaches the floor, and where the carrier's job ends and the show contractor's begins. Capital Site Logistics coordinates the over-the-road freight leg to an OCCC show — to the advance warehouse or the venue — matched to an FMCSA-authorized carrier and quoted per lane. Every building figure below is from an official OCCC document.

Quote a show run Call Dispatch

Overview

One venue, two buildings, one honest freight model

The OCCC runs shows across the West Building and the North/South Building, joined by a covered pedestrian bridge. A freight run into either is planned backward from the show's target date — the advance-warehouse cutoff or the assigned move-in slot — and the building's own dock and access rules shape how the arrival is timed. What follows is the building's public operational record, drawn from OCCC's Fact Sheet, Facility Floor Plans and Event Planning Guide, and the one firm boundary every show run holds: the freight leg is the carrier's; the drayage inside the show is the contractor's.

Defined term

Orange County Convention Center exhibitor freight: The over-the-road transportation of exhibit and audiovisual equipment to a trade show at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando — to the show's advance-receiving warehouse or direct to the venue dock — arranged with an FMCSA-authorized carrier and quoted case by case against the load, the origin and the show's target date. Capital Site Logistics coordinates that freight leg; it does not operate the venue, and the on-site move from the dock or marshalling yard to the booth (drayage) is controlled by the show's official General Service Contractor, not the carrier. The OCCC is two buildings — the West Concourse and the North/South Concourse — with a combined 2,053,820 sq ft of exhibit space; which building, dock and move-in window a run targets is set by the specific show.

Send the origin, the show and the target date.

Get a transportation quote or call (813) 524-7849

The building, sourced

The two buildings

The OCCC's exhibit space is split across two separate buildings joined by a 1,500-foot covered pedestrian bridge.

2,053,820 sq ft of total exhibit space — West Building 1,103,538 and North/South Building 950,282.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
The West Building offers roughly 1.1 million sq ft of contiguous exhibition space.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
The North/South Building holds 950,282 sq ft, including two 92,466 sq ft general-assembly areas.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
West exhibit-hall ceilings run 30–40 ft; North/South halls run 40 ft.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans

West Building — docks and truck access

97 covered truck bays on one level.
Source: OCCC Fact Sheet
14 exhibit-floor drive-in truck entrances.
Source: OCCC Fact Sheet
Open-air loading docks — described by OCCC as roughly a half mile of loading-dock space.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
On-site staging for 35 trucks.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans

North/South Building — docks and truck access

76 individual truck bays.
Source: OCCC Fact Sheet
9 drive-in truck entrances directly into the exhibition halls, plus 2 roll-up doors and an airplane door.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
2 covered/underground loading docks, enclosed within the building envelope.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans
A 40-truck staging area adjacent to the building.
Source: OCCC Facility Floor Plans

Dock rules that shape a delivery

The OCCC Event Planning Guide publishes access rules that decide how a truck is handled at the dock — worth knowing before a move-in run is planned.

No more than three tractor/trailer cabs with motors idling are permitted in any one hall at once for loading/unloading; idling gas or diesel equipment is not permitted inside the halls (and not at all in West Hall E, for ventilation).
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide
The North/South docks are enclosed and safely support only electric refrigerated trucks; the West Building's open-air docks support combustion-engine refrigerated trucks.
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide
OCCC does not provide dock plates or pallet jacks — those are the service contractor's responsibility, not the venue's.
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide
Exhibits must sit at least 20 ft back from entrance-lobby doors and dock recesses, and fire lanes on the dock must stay clear.
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide

Who controls what — the venue vs the show contractor

The line between the venue, the show's General Service Contractor (GSC) and the carrier decides who may touch freight and where a carrier's job ends.

Rigging and event utilities — compressed air, electric, natural gas, plumbing, water and drain — are provided exclusively by the OCCC, not by the show contractor.
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide
The General Service Contractor is chosen per show by the organizer, not the venue; material handling and drayage, dock plates and pallet jacks are the GSC's responsibility, not the OCCC's.
Source: OCCC Event Planning Guide
Both Freeman and GES work OCCC shows, assigned per event — so the appointed contractor, and its rates, are read from the specific show's exhibitor kit, not from the venue.
Source: IAAPA Expo material-handling information (GES)

Advance warehouse, or direct-to-show

There are two ways exhibit freight reaches an OCCC show, and the building's dock capacity is why both exist. Advance shipping sends freight to the show's advance-receiving warehouse ahead of the deadline, where it is held and moved to the booth on the target move-in day. Direct-to-show sends it to the OCCC dock inside the assigned move-in window. Which fits depends on the show's schedule and how much buffer the build needs — the freight leg to either is what Capital Site Logistics coordinates.

The advance warehouse's address and its receiving deadline are set by the show's General Service Contractor and change with every show and year, so they are not venue facts — they are read from that show's current exhibitor kit. A run is planned backward from whichever date applies: from a Florida warehouse it is a short in-state lane; from out of state it is a linehaul planned around drive time to hit the target date.

The freight leg is the carrier's; the drayage is the show's

Capital Site Logistics coordinates the over-the-road transportation to the advance warehouse or the OCCC dock. The on-site move from the dock or marshalling yard to the booth — drayage, or material handling — is controlled by the show's official General Service Contractor, not the carrier. That is a firm line at every convention venue, and naming it up front is how a show run stays honest: the carrier delivers to the dock; the contractor takes it from there.

It also means the drayage rate is never a venue figure. At the OCCC, material handling is billed by the appointed GSC — Freeman or GES depending on the show — under that show's published rate structure. A venue page can show the shape of those rates as a dated example (below), but the current rate for a given show is always read from that show's kit.

IAAPA Expo 2026 (GES)

What material handling costs — one cited, dated example

There is no single current OCCC drayage rate; it is set per show by the appointed contractor. To show the shape of one — attributed to its source and dated, never as a CSL price — here is a published example. A different OCCC show, or a later year, prints different numbers, which is why a live rate belongs on a show page, not here.

Per the 2026 IAAPA Expo exhibitor kit published by GES, standard freight was billed at about $0.82 per pound and non-standard freight at about $0.96 per pound, with a flat minimum for shipments under 25 pounds and a reduced per-pound rate at high weight tiers. Those are GES's figures for that one show, not a CSL price or a current rate for any other.
Source: IAAPA Expo 2026 material-handling information (GES)

What is set per show, not by the venue

A few figures an exhibitor often asks for are not published by the OCCC and are deliberately not stated here rather than guessed: exact dock-door clearance heights (the OCCC publishes exhibit-hall ceiling heights, not dock-door dimensions), whether a specific building accepts 53-foot trailers (that is set per show at the marshalling yard, not by the venue), and the advance-warehouse address, receiving deadline and per-CWT drayage rate for a given show (all read from that show's current GES or Freeman kit). The one cited rate example above is drawn from GES's published IAAPA Expo 2026 kit and is dated to that show; confirm the current figures against your own show's kit. Send the show and we will confirm the current details from its exhibitor kit.