The spookiest time of the year is right around the corner 👻. And in the states it is not just a night of trick or treating anymore, Halloween has evolved into much more than that, we’re talking a month long event. You can usually feel the spooky shift in the air by late September, from costumes, to parties, scarefests, haunted attractions, hayrides, pumpkin patches, elaborate house decorations, really the whole 9 yards. Over the years in fact, Halloween has turned into a billion dollar industry, with huge consumer spending which creates ripple effects through supply chains, marking this time of year with Halloween shipping a difficult one in the transportation industry.

This Halloween is forecast to be bigger and better than ever, with a US consumer spending prediction at an all time high, with a forecast of $13.1 billion with previous years seeing a lower spend of between $11-$12 billion (still kind of a crazy amount). With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the Halloween season brings a significant increase in transportation demand, especially for consumer goods like candy, costumes and decorations, which equates to a surge in transportation needs and makes October a very busy month across the freight board. This increase in demand effects shippers from as early in the year as August, because believe it or not, retailers start prepping for and stocking up on Halloween essentials way before October and start as early as the beginning of summer.

Halloween Shipping At A Glance

At a glance, here’s how the Halloween season looks for moving spooky freight. It goes a little like this:

📈 Massive surges in consumer goods shipping.

⏰ Tight delivery windows and unpredictable demand.

👎 No margin for error.

Now, let’s take a look deeper at how these surges in consumer goods effect shipping schedules, demand and how it creates a knock on effect to shippers of all kinds of freight.

Candy Chaos 🍬

It has been calculated that a massive 10% of all U.S. candy sales happen during the Halloween season each year, with 94% of the Halloween candy sales taking place in the final two weeks of October. As a lot of chocolates and candy require temperature controlled environments during transportion, refrigerated trucks are frequently used and if not then LTL is a great option for the volume. To meet the demand, confectioners, warehouses and distribution centers ramp up operations in August, September and through October, where last mile delivery becomes popular in order to deliver these edible goods to retailers like, Target, Walmart, Dollar General, etc.

Pumpkin Panic 🎃

Whether you’re making a pumpkin pie, carving pumpkins, setting them on the porch as part of decoration or even painting your pumpkin (which seems to be a real hit over recent years), it’s no secret that pumpkins are a quintessential part of Autumn and Halloween. Now, the ones that aren’t used for pretty Instagramable pumpkin patch pictures are a part of a much larger supply chain, which is often overlooked, from growers, to harvesters, transporters to retailers these fellas go on quite the journey to make it onto your porch.

We’re sure most people have probably never even given it a second thought, but transporting pumpkins actually also requires a specialized service. During warmer weather, which isn’t uncommon at this time of year in particular states, the transportation of pumpkins requires a temperature controlled environment, good ventilation and crating, so they don’t spoil before they make it to the stores. Also, have you ever seen a giant pumpkin? 😱 some are so big and heavy that they require lifting chains, straps and the use of a crane for movement while preventing damage.

Costume Crunch & Decorations Dilemma 👻

Most costumes and decorations are imported to the states and then distributed from ports to warehouses across the nation. Around early summer is when Halloween party stores, fancy dress shops and major retailers begin importing their Halloween goods and then early August is when we start to see them hit our shelves. With careful co-ordination these goods can be moved efficiently through the states via domestic trucking, which as you might have gathered by now, because of the amount that the U.S. import and sell daily on the run up to Halloween, they take up a ton of truck capacity.

Pop-up Pressure 🚚

Certain retailers operate pop-up decoration stores year on year. Major players like Party City and Spirit Halloween open their doors to their Halloween pop-up stores from August through to November. We’re not talking one little store, these retailers employ around 25,000 seasonal workers and operate more than 1400 pop-up stores nationwide.

But what do these pop-up stores mean in terms of logistics?

You may or may not have already heard of the service called “reverse logistics”. Well, this is the method frequently utilized by these pop-up stores. It basically involves the delivery of products, then the return pick up and drop off at a storage facility in many of these cases.

As pop-up stores are designed to be used for short periods of time by different businesses. Once the Halloween rush is over, the shops need to be cleared out ASAP, depending on the short term lease agreement or license to occupy. Meaning, any displays, shelving, event structures, costumes, props, decorations, etc. that have not sold must be removed and transported off the property ready for the next lease of the store, in most cases Halloween products are taken to warehouses for safe storage ready for the next Halloween season.

The timing makes it difficult for carriers, as the end of Halloween shipping, is also the start to the rest of the holiday season, including Thanksgiving and Christmas which also create a huge demand for transportation services. In fact, it probably isn’t uncommon to clear out a pop-up store of Halloween goods and right away that same store is being filled back up with Christmas products, one in, one out.

Scarefest Stress 🏚

During this time of the year, our calendars are full, right? Pumpkin patches, scarefests, haunted houses, hayrides, pop-up fairs and all of these activities rely heavily on large equipment deliveries. We’re talking portable buildings, generators, lighting rigs, amusement rides, props, decorations, inflatables, animatronics etc. and most require transportation on step-decks or flatbeds, depending on the size to pull off the attractions look.

How Does This Level Of Demand Affect Other Shippers?  🫣

No matter what freight you’re moving, Halloween goods or not, capacity at this time of the year will be low and rates will be higher. Making it much more difficult to book last minute loads. You can avoid all of this by locking in your shipments with plenty of time in advance, but this requires a lot of pre planning and scheduling. The general gist is that carriers will be under a lot of pressure in October, but there are solutions to ease shipping struggles, being prepared is the best solutions but also utilizing an expert freight broker will make your life 10000% easier during busy periods.

Now, let’s look at the most common challenges shippers face at this time of the year.

Halloween Shipping Challenges That Creep Up 🧟‍♀️

Pre Planning 🗓

One of the greatest challenges with Halloween shipping, is the incredibly short window of time that Halloween actually gets the spot light for. It’s very quickly overshadowed by Thanksgiving and Christmas and really doesn’t get that long of a shelf time. Therefore, it is critical, that any shipments of Halloween goods arrive before mid October, any later and you run the risk of not selling out and these kinds of products lose value as soon as November 1st hits. So, prior planning is essential, scheduling manufacturing, building inventory and shipping the goods in advance of the holiday cannot be overlooked, otherwise, you will miss out on sales and lose money.

Unpredictable Viral Trends 📈

This year for example it seems to be the rise of ghost face. Ghost face has been around since the 90’s, but this year it’s incredibly popular with the youngsters. However, this virality has only came around in the last few weeks, you know what viral trends are like, they change like the wind. It all started with the younger generation AI’ing themselves into scream scenes, creating an unexpected surge in demand for these specific costumes and merchandise. Each year it’s something different, and staying ahead of these trends is difficult for retailers, manufacturers, and buyers leading to last minute large orders to keep up with demand.

Express Freight Demand 🚚💨

We’ve spoken a lot in this blog about last minute demand and shift in consumer spending leading to last minute orders. This causes a ton of strain on logistics companies and leads to the growing demand of express shipping services.

Top Tip: Freight brokers play a vital role and are an excellent resource to secure expedited shipping space for your goods, so if you’re stumped perhaps find an expert freight broker (like us at PEI, we’ve always got a trick which feels like a treat up our sleeve 😉).

Capacity & Congestion 🚦

August through to October overlap with back to school and early holiday peaks. Which is a difficult time in the logistics world as ocean, air, drayage, transload and truck capacity all tighten at the same time. Meaning, more congestion on our urban roads, highways and interstates causing delays and also once again without sounding like a broken record, but with the holiday seasons comes major capacity constraints.

How Can Shippers Prepare For A Smoother Halloween Shipping Season 💭

Whether you’re moving Halloween freight or general cargo that doesn’t stop for Halloween, without prior planning you could be met with hiccups, delays and complications along the way. To sum it up, here’s some tips that you can implement to keep your shipments moving through October that you can apply to future shipments through November and December for Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

• Secure Capacity Early – Shippers will benefit from working with a carrier or broker ahead of time to lock in capacity. This early planning helps you to budget correctly, avoid pricing hikes, and capacity shortages during holiday seasons.
• Diversify Carrier Networks – Relying on one singular carrier can lead to delays. Shippers should tee up and have access to multiple carriers that can also provide different transportation modes. This will help to bypass negative constraints.
• Offer Flexible Delivery Options – As the shipper, whether you’re the manufacturer, or e-commerce business offering same day, next day or express shipping options can help you to not miss out on last minute sales which will reduce your left over stock.
• Leverage Data And Forecasting – Utilize real data to forecast sales and trends, so you can predict seasonal demand. If you do this, you can pre book loads more accurately.

Conclusion 👻

Halloween season marks the beginning of the true holiday shipping seasons in the U.S. With Halloween ranking as the second biggest retail holiday in the states after Christmas, prior planning for your freaky freight is imperative. No matter the kind of freight you need to move around this Halloween season, expect decreased availability, and higher rates if you don’t lock in those rates early. If you’re moving bigger, heavier, oddly shaped pieces, then you’re also juggling permits, escorts and a network that’s busier and costlier, due to the retail peak. Although our expertise is not necessarily in moving candy and costumes, we want to help you to move your hard, irregular shipments, so get in touch, we’d love to discuss your freight needs some more. Use the link below or contact us directly on: Phone: 888-SHIP-911

P.S. Halloween Shipping Statistics 🚚

Sometimes it’s easier to see figures to get the full picture, so here’s some cool stats we’ve pulled together to put things into perspective some more, so you can see how there’s such a strain on logistics during this month.

1. The U.S. imports more than $400 million worth of Halloween costumes a year.
2. Around 500 million lbs of candy are sold every year in the states around Halloween. That’s enough to fill 6000 truckloads.
3. Pumpkins in the U.S. account for 1.5 billion lbs of weight harvested each fall. Illinois makes up a whopping half of this statistic.
4. Major carriers have reported a 12-15% increase in LTL volume during October.

All of these statistics draw one big picture about how the Halloween economy is powered by the freight industry, and really draws your attention to the effect Halloween has on the world of transportation. So, next time you see a HUGE skeleton in someones front yard, or visit a scarefest event just remember the amount of work behind the scenes that goes into making these fun festivities possible 😊

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