What transport logistic is, in two lines
transport logistic is the world’s leading trade fair for logistics, mobility, IT and supply chain management. It takes place every two years in Munich (in odd years) and brings together the entire freight transport chain by road, rail, sea and air, occupying 12 Messe München halls plus a large outdoor area. The 2025 edition closed with record figures: 2.719 exhibitors from 73 countries and regions, more than 77,000 visitors from over 130 countries and 150.000 m² of exhibition space. On top of this sits the co-located air cargo Europe event, a global reference point for air cargo, hosted in a dedicated hall.
The point to keep in mind is that at transport logistic almost no contract gets signed at the stand. The talk is about transport tenders, framework shipping agreements, logistics outsourcing specifications and multi-year IT projects: the four days serve to generate contacts and supplier shortlists, but the real purchasing decisions mature over the following weeks. That is why the number of business cards collected matters less, and the quality with which you handle every lead after the event matters far more. A contact qualified well today is a request for a quote in two months; a business card forgotten in your pocket is just paper.
What to exhibit, where to exhibit
transport logistic spreads its offering across 12 halls (Hallen A1–A6 and B1–B6) plus the Messe München outdoor exhibition area, with air cargo Europe concentrated in a dedicated hall of around 15.000 m². The breakdown follows transport modes and services: freight forwarders and freight forwarding, road transport and fleets, rail and intermodal logistics, port and maritime solutions, intralogistics and materials handling, and finally IT, telematics and software for the supply chain. Anyone working in air cargo finds their natural audience in the air cargo Europe hall.
Where you place your stand depends on your segment, but the real problem here is dispersion: 12 halls and an outdoor area mean a visitor does not see everything, and the flow is fragmented by transport mode. Practical advice: before thinking about stand graphics, decide which two or three visitor profiles you really want to reach in your hall (a fleet manager? a supply chain lead from an industrial company? a freight forwarder?) and build your message for them. Whoever staffs the logistics IT area needs to qualify a high, technical flow quickly; whoever is in the road or rail transport halls handles longer, more operational conversations. In both cases you need a contact-capture system that works the same way at the stand, in the outdoor area and during the air cargo Europe sessions.
Visitor profile
The transport logistic audience is openly B2B, strongly international (in 2025 more than 130 countries represented and a 66% share of international exhibitors), with a strong weighting toward Europe and the German-speaking area. In terms of profiles, the crowd breaks down roughly as follows:
- Logistics & supply chain managers (~25-30%): those who design and run supply chains for industry, grocery and retail; often among the final decision-makers in tenders.
- Freight forwarders and freight forwarding operators (~20%): the chain that buys capacity and technology and at the same time offers services.
- Transport managers and fleet managers (~15%): those who run fleets and transport contracts, looking for vehicles, telematics and services.
- Air, sea and rail cargo operators (~15%): the heart of air cargo Europe and of the intermodal and port halls.
- IT/telematics and intralogistics specialists (cross-cutting and growing share): those evaluating supply chain software, tracking and warehouse automation.
- Procurement managers in industry and retail/grocery (~10%): the buyers looking for logistics and transport partners for their own flows.
Seniority is on average high, with many senior and middle-management profiles arriving already with a supplier shortlist in mind. The operational consequence is just one: you need to qualify on the spot, because a “supply chain manager from a Northern European retailer looking for an intermodal partner” and a “logistics student on an educational visit” must be handled in completely different ways, and you only notice the difference if you capture the right data at the moment of contact.
How to prepare in the 4 weeks before the event
Week -4: message audit
Four weeks out, stop and audit your message. At transport logistic nobody has time for a generic pitch: the visitor wants to understand in ten seconds which problem you solve and for which transport mode or area of the supply chain. Rewrite your headline and materials around the two or three profiles you want to reach, prepare an English version and, given the audience, a German one. Also define what you are NOT: stating clearly that you don’t cover a certain mode or market saves you pointless conversations at the fair.
Week -3: stand operating playbook
Three weeks out, the work is on operations. Who is at the stand? Who covers any outdoor space or the air cargo Europe appointments? Set the shifts, because over four days and large halls fatigue is the first enemy of lead quality. Define a short conversation-opening script, a rule on who qualifies and who goes deeper, and decide on a single contact-capture tool that everyone uses. No personal notebooks, no photos of business cards on each person’s phone: data scattered across five different devices is lost from the start.
Week -2: the 3-question qualification form
Two weeks out, prepare your qualification form. Three questions, no more, because time at the stand is short:
- What is your role and for what type of company? (freight forwarder, industry/retail buyer, transport operator, software vendor)
- Which mode or need are you looking into? (e.g. road, rail, sea, air cargo, intralogistics, supply chain IT)
- What is your time horizon? (open tender/renewal, evaluation underway, exploration)
With these three answers you immediately tell a buyer in a tender phase from a browser, and you give your follow-up the information to start strong. The Linkly idea is exactly this: qualify on the spot instead of putting everything off until later, when memories fade.
Week -1: CRM integration
In the final week you close the loop with the CRM. Every contact collected must land directly in your CRM with an event tag “transport logistic 2027”, the qualification answers and, where useful, a voice note from whoever spoke with that person. This is where the Linkly model makes the difference: contact capture, automatic enrichment of company data, structured qualification and follow-up start as a single flow, run by a sequence of six AI agents, without you having to re-key business cards by hand the week after. Check the fields, run an end-to-end test and arrive in Munich with the system already broken in.
Is the official transport logistic app worth it?
Yes, transport logistic has an official app, the transport logistic App, designed for planning your visit. It works well for what it is: exhibitor and product search, map and hall plan of the 12 halls, conference programme and networking features. To find your way around the exhibition grounds and discover who’s there it is a useful tool, and it’s worth using.
What it does not do, though, and it’s important to be aware of this, is manage YOUR leads. The app does not export contacts into your CRM, does not enrich the data of the companies you meet, does not build your post-event follow-up and does not hand you a tidy report for management. On top of that, it’s the organizer’s tool: it lives in their perimeter, not yours, and it changes with every edition. That is why you still need a capture system that you own, one that stays yours once the fair is over. If you want to understand how to hold capture, enrichment, qualification and follow-up together in a single flow, take a look at how Linkly works.
What to do during the 4 days of the fair
Day 1 (Monday 26 April): opening and calibration
The first day is for opening and calibration. The flow is already substantial but more exploratory: people walk around, collect brochures, set up appointments for the following days. Use the day to test your script, work out which questions really filter, and adjust the shifts. Every contact, even the “lukewarm” ones, should be captured and qualified right away: it’s often the person who comes back on the second or third day with a colleague who makes the decision.
Day 2 (Tuesday 27 April): peak day
The second day is typically the one with the highest footfall and the densest conversations. This is when the supply chain managers and the decision-makers with a shortlist in hand come through. Keep discipline high on qualification: with the flow at its peak it’s easy to pile up contacts without context. Twenty well-qualified leads beat a hundred cards with no notes. If you have key appointments at air cargo Europe, this is the day to cover them with your most senior profiles.
Day 3 (Wednesday 28 April): consolidation
The third day consolidates. People who walked around on the first two days come back wanting to go deeper, often with a colleague or a superior. It’s the good day for the conversations that really move the deal forward, on rates, volumes and timelines. Recover the hot leads from the previous days and set out concrete next steps, while the system keeps landing everything in the CRM in real time.
Day 4 (Thursday 29 April): closing
The last day has lower traffic but often high quality: those who come on Thursday usually know exactly what they’re looking for. Use the calmer pace for long, operational conversations and to close any remaining appointments. At the end of the day, before dismantling, check that every lead collected over the four days is in the CRM with its qualification and note: the follow-up starts there.
What to do in the 7 days after the fair
The golden rule is speed of response. In B2B the first to follow up in a relevant way starts with an advantage, and at transport logistic, where decisions mature over the following weeks, this counts double.
- Within 24 hours: send a first personalized message to hot leads, referencing what you discussed at the stand. The qualification note and the voice note collected at the fair let you write something specific, not a copy-paste.
- Within 7 days: work the medium-priority leads with materials targeted to their transport mode or need, and arrange any calls. It’s the window when you’re still fresh in the visitor’s memory.
- Within 14 days: pick up the colder contacts and those who didn’t reply, with a different angle. By this point the competition has slowed down and you can stand out.
- Within 30 days: take stock with management. How many leads, of what quality, how many open opportunities, which hall or mode performed best. This report is also the basis for deciding whether to attend the next edition.
With the Linkly flow this playbook doesn’t start from scratch: the leads are already in the CRM, enriched and qualified, and the follow-up sequence can kick in straight away instead of waiting for the week lost typing in business cards.
Practical FAQ
How much does it cost to exhibit at transport logistic?
There’s no single price: it depends on the hall, the size of the stand, any outdoor space and the type of fit-out. As an order of magnitude for a fair of this scale in Munich, bare space alone starts at a few hundred euros per square metre, to which you add fit-out, technical services, staff and logistics; an outdoor space or a vehicle on display is a separate cost line altogether. It’s worth asking Messe München for the current price list well in advance, because the best halls fill up early.
Which is the best day to staff the stand?
Tuesday (day 2) is generally the peak and the day with the highest density of decision-makers, while Wednesday consolidates the more advanced conversations. Monday is for calibrating and Thursday brings fewer but more targeted people. In practice: cover all four days with the same discipline, but put your most senior profiles at the stand on Tuesday and Wednesday.
When should you register and arrange appointments?
As early as possible. Open the transport logistic App as soon as it’s available, complete your exhibitor profile and start setting appointments in the weeks beforehand: in Munich the diaries of international buyers fill up fast, especially for those gravitating around air cargo Europe. Arriving with part of the week already planned puts you well ahead of anyone relying on walk-up traffic alone.
How do I manage leads without collecting them on paper?
Collecting on paper or photographing business cards is the surest way to lose information: at the end of the fair you end up with piles of contacts with no context and no priority. The alternative is a single digital system for the whole stand that captures the contact, enriches it with company data, records the three qualification answers and lands it in the CRM with the event tag. That way the follow-up starts from structured data, not from the memory of whoever was at the stand.
Is it worth exhibiting if I work on a single transport mode?
Yes, because transport logistic covers the entire chain, but precisely for that reason visitors arrive looking for specific solutions for their own need: road, rail, sea, air cargo, intralogistics or supply chain IT. The audience is largely made up of managers and buyers looking for specialized partners. The key is to position your message on the right mode and to qualify well whoever comes by, because the value here is not closing at the stand but getting onto the shortlists that decide in the months that follow.
Page updated ahead of the 2027 edition. For official information on dates, halls and participation terms, always refer to the official site transportlogistic.de.
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