How to compare 3PL quotes on your own data, not theirs.

To compare 3PL quotes, send every 3PL the same data pack: three months of orders with units, weights, dimensions and destination zips, a SKU list with cube, and your returns count. Ask each to price that exact set, then rebuild one real month on each quote's own units and read the schedule behind the rate card. Pick the lowest total on your month that meets your cutoff and accuracy, not the lowest headline rate.

Why two rate cards cannot be compared

A rate card is a list of units with a number next to each one. Two cards with the same numbers can produce different invoices, because the units underneath differ: per order or per item, per cubic foot or per pallet, per parcel or per unit returned. The number is the easy part. The unit is the bill. So the comparison happens on your month, not on the card. Run one month of your own orders through each quote's units, add the lines in the schedule, and you have one total per 3PL. What each line means is in 3PL pricing, line by line.

The data pack to send every 3PL

Every 3PL gets the same pack on the same day, with the same request: price this.

• Three months of orders, one row per line item: order date, SKU, quantity, ship-to zip, and package weight and dimensions if you have them.
• A SKU list with barcode, unit weight, unit dimensions, units per case and units on hand.
• Your cube today, from carton dimensions times carton count, and what it was at your last peak.
• Returns for the same three months, counted both ways: parcels received and units inside them.
• Inbound in a normal month, in cartons and pallets, and whether it arrives labeled with a packing list.
• Kits and bundles with their component SKUs, your packaging spec, and your peak months with the order count in each.

Most of the pack is an export. In Shopify, the orders export is a CSV that carries the shipping zip, the line-item SKU and quantity and the order dates, and a larger export arrives by email rather than as a download, per Shopify's orders export page as of October 2026. The product CSV carries the SKU, the barcodes and the weight in grams for each variant, per Shopify's product CSV page as of October 2026. Dimensions are in neither file, so measure a unit and a case of each SKU in inches. Strip names, emails and street addresses before you send anything. The zip is all a 3PL needs to price postage.

Put every quote on the same units

Write each quote's units in a column and convert your month into them. These are the pairs that move the bill.

• Handling: per order, or per item with a first-unit and an additional-unit rate. Convert with your real units per order from the export.
• Storage: per cubic foot, per pallet position, per bin or per shelf. A per-pallet quote needs a pallet count, so ask how a part-full pallet is counted. A per-cubic-foot quote needs your cube, so ask when it is measured.
• Returns: per parcel or per unit returned, with or without a restocking line on top. Convert with both counts.
• Receiving: per pallet, per carton, per unit or per hour, and what an unlabeled carton or a short count costs.
• Packaging: included in handling or billed as used. If included, ask which box.

One month, two unit structures

Say your month is 1,000 orders carrying 2,400 units, 400 cubic feet of stock at month end, and 30 return parcels holding 40 units. Say Quote A reads $3.40 per order, $0.70 per cubic foot per month and $3.50 per returned parcel. Say Quote B reads $2.40 for the first unit and $0.95 for each additional unit in the same order, $45 per pallet position per month and $2.50 per unit returned. Say Quote B counts your stock as 8 pallet positions, some of them part full.

Quote B reads cheaper on the card and wins the returns line. On this month it costs more, because your orders average more than two units and every unit after the first carries its own charge. On this pair the handling lines cross at about two units an order: below that per item wins, above it per order wins. Storage went the same way, because a per-pallet quote charges for the position, not the stock in it. If your orders are mostly one unit, run the same table and expect a different answer.

Postage: compare it on your shipments

Postage is the line a rate card cannot answer. A parcel's price depends on the carrier and service, the billable weight, and the zone between the building that ships it and the zip that receives it. FedEx bills the greater of actual weight and dimensional weight, and for US shipments the dimensional weight is length times width times height in inches divided by 139, per FedEx as of October 2026. A light order in a big box bills on the box, which is why dimensions are in the pack. For USPS zoned services the zone comes from the ZIP code pair, the origin and the first three digits of the destination, per the USPS zone chart as of October 2026, which is why the zips are in the pack.

So do not compare postage tables. Ask each 3PL for the postage total on your three months, rated from the building that would ship them, with the carrier, service and transit days on each line. Compare the totals and the transit, because a cheaper total with slower delivery is a different product. Ours is billed semi-monthly per shipment, at extremely competitive carrier rates.

Read the schedule, not the rate card

The schedule, the appendix, the fee table, whatever the quote calls it, is where the month changes. Add a row to your table for every line it holds.

• Receiving: the unit, and the price of an unlabeled carton, a short count or an unannounced pallet.
• Packaging: included or billed as used, and which box is included if it is.
• Account, software, integration or dashboard fees, monthly or per order.
• Peak: any surcharge on handling or storage, the dates it applies, and what the SLA becomes.
• Long-term storage and project labor: whether older stock is billed at a different rate, and where a project ends and normal handling begins.
• Returns disposition and carrier accessorials: what an unrestocked unit costs, and who pays address correction, residential delivery and oversize.
• Billing cadence: which lines are monthly, which are more often, when rates can change, and what changes if your orders double.

Every line that can sit outside the headline rates is in the hidden 3PL fees checklist, and the questions that get the schedule onto the table are in questions to ask a 3PL.

How a quote is built on our floor

Our rate card has seven lines, and its units are the ones in the Quote A column above. Handling is an estimated $3.00 per order, and one handling fee per order is the baseline whatever the unit count. Storage is an estimated $0.65 per cubic foot per month, on the space you actually use. Returns are an estimated $3.00 per parcel. Special-project labor is $35 per hour, only when you ask for it. Receiving is billed hourly, packaging and supplies are billed as used, and postage is billed semi-monthly per shipment, at extremely competitive carrier rates. There is no setup fee and no seasonal or peak surcharge on handling or storage, and the Shopify, Amazon and TikTok Shop connections, the ShipStation WMS and the live dashboard are included. The rates are estimates, confirmed in your quote once we see your volume and profile. Run your month at these rates in the cost calculator and add a column next to Quote A and Quote B.

The per-order unit matters most on big baskets. Veiled, the brand this floor was built for, ships orders that average six units at a 99.995% order success rate. On a per-item structure that order carries six charges. On a per-order structure it carries one. Across the floor, pick and pack error runs under 0.3% on 1.2M+ orders a year.

The 3PL intake takes about ten minutes and asks for the same pack: monthly orders, where you sell, your SKU count, what you sell, and your last three months of shipments. An operator replies within one business day. The proposal follows within five, with the rates and the cutoff in writing: orders in by 12pm ET ship the same business day, and the SLA is one business day, two to three in peak. Shipments leave from Elmwood Park, NJ, about 15 miles from Manhattan, where ground reaches the Northeast in 1 to 2 business days and the rest of the country in about 5.

The comparison, step by step

1. 01Build the data pack from your exports. Strip names and addresses, keep the zips.
2. 02Send the same pack to every 3PL on the same day and ask for a quote on that set, with the postage total from their building and the full schedule.
3. 03Write each quote's units in a column, then rebuild one real month, line by line, in each column.
4. 04Add a row for every line in the schedule. Mark anything a 3PL will not put in writing as unknown.
5. 05Put the postage totals and transit days under the table. Ask what changes in peak and rebuild your peak month if anything moves.
6. 06Read the totals next to the cutoff, the SLA and the accuracy each 3PL commits to. A cheaper month that ships late is not cheaper.
7. 07Get the rates and the units in writing in the proposal before any inventory moves. From then on, the table is the invoice you expect to see.

Divide the total by the orders and you have a cost per order to track after you sign.

Questions that come up when the quotes land