Introduction

Every brand we’ve worked with on a 3PL switch has done the same thing first.

They lay three quotes side by side. They highlight the pick fee. They ring the lowest one and say this is the one.

Then twelve months later they call us, because the bill is 40% higher than they modelled.

Not because anyone lied. Because the pick fee was never the number that mattered.

Where the cost actually sits

In a typical UK B2C 3PL bill, pick-and-pack is around 30–40% of the monthly total.

The other 60–70% is split across line items most brands never normalise across quotes:

  • Storage — flat-rate, per-pallet, per-bin, or per-SKU depending on the warehouse
  • Inbound — receipt, putaway, QC, pallet handling
  • Returns — receive, inspect, re-stock, dispose
  • Surcharges — peak season, oversize, multi-piece, fragile, fuel
  • Value-add — labelling, inserts, gift-wrap, bundling
  • Tech & integration — WMS access fees, EDI, API support, custom reports

Two 3PLs can quote identical pick fees and the all-in monthly bill can differ by 25%. We’ve seen worse.

Storage isn’t a number, it’s a behaviour

The most expensive storage charge is the one you don’t notice for nine months.

Some 3PLs price by bin. Some by pallet. Some by cubic metre. The bin model rewards small, fast-moving SKUs. The pallet model penalises you the day you split a pallet to ship one box.

Map your SKUs to your storage model before you sign. If your product range is changing — new variants, new sizes, new bundles — the storage line is the one that will quietly compound.

Ask the warehouse for last quarter’s storage invoices for a brand with a similar SKU profile to yours. If they won’t share them, you have your answer.

Surcharges — the silent margin

Every 3PL we’ve audited has at least three surcharge lines the brand didn’t remember agreeing to.

The usual suspects:

  • Fuel surcharge. Usually a percentage of the courier line, sometimes a flat pence-per-order. It moves monthly. Lock in a cap or a floor.
  • Peak surcharge. Often four months a year — September to December — applied as a percentage uplift on pick and storage. Read the dates.
  • Oversize / multi-piece. Anything above a certain weight or dimension gets a different rate. If you sell bundles or homewares, this can be 15% of the bill.
  • Fragile / dangerous-goods handling. Often pre-printed in the rate card and never queried. Sometimes warranted, often not.
  • Address-correction fees. The courier charges the 3PL, the 3PL passes it on. Some 3PLs add a margin on top.

Each line on its own looks small. Together they’re the difference between a workable contract and a slowly worsening one.

Returns are a separate bill

Returns are usually quoted as a single “handling” line — a number per parcel coming back through the door.

That number is almost never the full cost.

  • Receive and identify
  • Inspect and grade — A, B, damaged, dispose
  • Re-stock to the bin, or move to a returns location
  • Re-package for resale
  • Re-label for B2B reroute or charity

Each step is a separate charge in most 3PL contracts. If your return rate is above 12% — which it will be if you sell apparel — this can be 20% of your monthly bill on its own.

Get returns broken out as a separate forecast before you sign anything.

What we add up first when we audit

When a brand asks us to look at a 3PL quote, we run the same sequence every time:

  • Strip the pick fee out completely. Score it last.
  • Model storage against your actual SKU velocity for the last six months
  • Stack every surcharge in a single column with the trigger and the rate
  • Model returns as a separate monthly figure at your actual return rate
  • Add tech, integration, and any per-channel fees
  • Add the pick fee back in last, and look at the all-in number

The shortlist almost never matches the one the brand walked in with.

Sometimes the cheapest pick fee wins. Often it doesn’t.

Final thoughts

The pick fee is the easiest number to compare. That’s why every quote leads with it.

It’s also the one number that will not, on its own, decide whether your fulfilment partnership is the right one in eighteen months.

Read the rate card from the bottom up. Storage, surcharges, returns, tech. Pick fee last. That’s where the real conversation starts.

Next month: how we shortlist three 3PLs from a pool of forty, and why the warehouse you like is rarely the warehouse you need.