Why won't you just give me a price per pallet?

Because the same pallet costs very different amounts to serve depending on how often it moves, how long it sits, and how much handling it needs. A published figure would be wrong for most enquiries and would misprice yours in one direction or the other. Send the pallet count and how often it turns and you will have a real, itemised number inside 48 hours.

Is storage or handling the bigger cost?

It depends entirely on turn rate. Slow-moving stock is dominated by storage; fast-moving stock is dominated by handling, and on an active account handling is frequently the larger of the two. That is why the two are quoted as separate lines rather than blended into one rate.

What are accessorial charges and should I worry about them?

They are the charges outside the base rate: receiving outside a booked window, pallet rebuilds, unscheduled counts, disposal. They are legitimate, but they should be visible before you sign rather than discovered in month three. Ask any provider to enumerate them; the answer tells you a lot.

Is it cheaper to use one company for warehousing and freight?

Usually, though the saving is less about rate than about removing a handover. When storage and transport sit with one company there is no gap between the warehouse and the carrier for a problem to hide in, and it comes on one invoice. Rolls Right runs roughly 165 power units and 500 trailers, so the freight moves on its own equipment.

Why does cold storage cost so much more than dry?

Because everything behind it costs more: the building is more expensive to build and insure, the power bill is a real operating cost rather than a rounding error, and equipment wears faster in a freezer. As rough industry shorthand, frozen storage runs around double the equivalent dry rate. Chilled and frozen food runs at Rolls Right Cold Storage in Vancouver, which is HACCP certified and food grade.

Why do warehouses quote monthly minimums?

Because a small account carries the same fixed overhead as a large one: a record in the system, paperwork, dock time, someone answering the phone. The minimum is the point below which the account costs more to run than it pays. If your volume sits under a provider's minimum, ask anyway; the answer is sometimes a different structure rather than a bigger bill.

How much does warehousing cost?

What warehousing costs and why nobody publishes a rate.

6 min read · Updated August 10, 2026

How much does warehousing cost?

Third-party warehousing is normally priced as three separate lines rather than one rate: storage, handling, and consumables. Storage is billed by the pallet position, by the square foot, or by cube, depending on how the product sits. Handling is charged separately and usually twice, once on receipt and once on despatch. Consumables such as pallets, shrink wrap and labels are their own line. Providers do not publish a single rate because the same pallet costs very different amounts depending on how often it moves, how long it dwells, how much handling it needs, and whether freight is attached, so any published figure would be wrong for most enquiries. Rolls Right quotes every line separately and returns a quote within 48 hours.

Nobody in this industry publishes a price list, and the usual assumption is that it's a negotiating tactic. It mostly isn't. The honest reason is that a pallet is not a unit of cost. Two customers can store an identical pallet in an identical building and one of them costs three times the other to serve.

That's frustrating when you're trying to compare providers. This guide shows the structure underneath the quote, and once you can see it, you can line two quotes up against each other.

A real quote has three lines

Almost every warehousing quote breaks into storage, handling and consumables. A blended number still contains all three: the provider has averaged them against an assumed pattern of behaviour, and if yours differs from the assumption, the number moves, usually after you have signed.

Storage: you are renting space over time, whether the product moves or not
Handling: the labour of receiving, putting away, picking and loading out, normally billed twice, once in and once out
Consumables and admin: pallets, shrink wrap, labels, order processing

On an active account, handling is often as large a line as storage. It is also the line most often buried in a blended rate, which is why it surprises people.

Storage gets measured four different ways

Which one a provider uses tells you a lot about whether the quote will fit your product. They are not interchangeable, and the right one depends on how your product physically sits.

Per pallet position, per week or per month: the simplest, and right when your product is uniform and palletised
Per square foot: right when you are holding a defined footprint whether it is full or not, as with dedicated space
By cube: right when product stacks, because it charges for the volume you occupy rather than the floor you cover
Per piece or flat rate: used for oddly shaped or project work that does not fit the others

What moves your number

When a provider asks what you move, these are the questions underneath. Each one changes the cost of serving you far more than the rate card does.

Turn rate: fast-moving stock costs more to handle and less to store. A pallet that never moves is cheap to handle and expensive to hold
Dwell time: how long the average pallet sits before it leaves
Handling intensity: shipping full pallets, picking cartons and picking pieces are three different jobs
How freight arrives: a palletised container is a quick job, and a floor-loaded one holds a crew and a dock door for hours. Same product, very different handling line
Seasonality: a peak you can forecast is manageable, and a peak you cannot forecast gets priced in as risk
Product profile: dense, stackable product makes use of a tall building, while light, bulky product needs floor rather than height
Whether freight is attached: storage and transport from one company removes a handover, and that shows up in the total

How to compare two quotes honestly

Ask both providers to itemise the same three lines against the same assumptions: your real pallet count, your real turn rate, and a realistic peak. A blended rate that looks lower will often lose once handling is separated out.

Then ask the question that predicts the invoice best: what accessorial charges exist, and under what circumstances do they apply. Receiving outside a booking window, pallet rebuilds, unscheduled counts and disposal all have a cost. So can getting started: some providers charge to onboard an account, and some bill a monthly fee for the inventory portal. A provider who will not enumerate these has not removed them from the invoice.

Two more questions worth asking before you sign: whether there is a monthly minimum, and whether the rate adjusts annually. Both are normal. A minimum keeps a small account viable for the provider, and an annual adjustment is how a rate survives inflation without a renegotiation. Both should be visible in the quote.

What we do

Storage, handling in, handling out, container work, freight and consumables are quoted as separate lines on one page, against your numbers, and returned inside 48 hours. If a smaller commitment makes more sense than the one you asked about, we will say so: a customer who ships every week is better business than a bigger one whose product never moves.

If the honest answer is that another building fits you better, you will get that too. We would rather lose a quote early than an account later.