Hey there,

Quick question: How many line items are on your 3PL invoice?

If you're like most founders I work with, you have no idea. You see the total at the bottom. You pay it. You move on.

But that total is made up of dozens of individual fees. Pick fees. Pack fees. Storage fees. Receiving fees. Special handling fees. Return processing fees. Account management fees. Each one eating margin. Each one set by your 3PL.

Some of those fees are necessary. Some are negotiable. And some? Some are pure profit padding — fees that exist because nobody ever questioned them.

When was the last time you questioned one?

I've been doing this for 17 years, and I can tell you: the difference between a brand that audits their 3PL fees and one that doesn't is often $50K-$150K per year. Same orders. Same products. Same 3PL. Just different awareness of what they're actually paying for.

I recorded a podcast episode where Lara breaks down one of the most common mistakes DTC founders make: signing a 3PL too early. She unpacks how it quietly eats into margins, limits flexibility, and slows momentum, especially for brands in the $100K to $200K range, and walks through when you actually need a 3PL, the “Goldilocks” setup for $100K to $500K brands, and how to transition without losing control.

Fair warning: some of this might make you uncomfortable. That’s the point.

If you’re driving or doing admin work this week, queue it up. It might save you six figures and a lot of regret.

Let me break down the fees that make up most of your 3PL invoice — and what competitive rates actually look like.

1. Pick Fee: $0.20 - $0.50 per unit

This is the cost to locate your product in the warehouse and pull it from the shelf. Simple, right? Except some 3PLs charge per unit, some per order, some per SKU touched.

If you're paying above $0.40 per unit and you're doing decent volume (5,000+ orders/month), you're likely overpaying. At scale, this should drop to $0.25-$0.30.

Watch for: "Per SKU" pick fees on multi-item orders. A 3-item order shouldn't cost 3x a single-item order to pick if they're in the same zone.

2. Pack Fee: $1.50 - $3.00 per order

This covers boxing, taping, labeling, and getting the order ready to ship. It's usually the largest per-order fee.

The range here is wide because complexity matters. A simple single-SKU order in a poly mailer should be under $2.00. A multi-item order with custom inserts, tissue paper, and branded tape? That's legitimately more work.

Watch for: Flat pack fees that don't account for order simplicity. If 60% of your orders are single-item poly mailers, you shouldn't be paying the same pack fee as your kitted bundles.

3. Storage Fee: $15 - $35 per pallet/month

What you pay to occupy space in their warehouse. Usually charged per pallet, per bin, or per cubic foot.

The rate depends on your market. LA and NYC are at the high end. Midwest and rural locations are lower. But within any market, there's still a 30-40% variance between 3PLs.

Watch for: Long-term storage fees that kick in at 90 or 180 days. These can double or triple your rate on slow-moving inventory. Also watch for "minimum storage" clauses that charge you for space you're not using.

4. Receiving Fee: $25 - $50 per pallet (or per hour)

The cost to accept your inbound shipment, count it, and put it away. Some 3PLs charge per pallet received. Some charge per hour of labor. Some charge both.

The sneaky thing about receiving fees: they're often the most padded. Your shipment might take 30 minutes to receive, but you get charged a 2-hour minimum. Or they charge "per SKU received" on top of the pallet fee.

Watch for: Labor minimums, per-SKU add-ons, and "special receiving" fees for anything that isn't perfectly palletized. Ask exactly what triggers extra charges.

5. Special Handling: Varies wildly

This is the catch-all category. Kitting. Bundling. Labeling. Poly-bagging. Gift wrapping. Insert assembly. Anything that isn't standard pick-pack-ship.

Special handling fees are where 3PLs make their margin. The labor is real, but the markup can be 2-3x what it costs them. And once a fee is in your contract, it rarely goes down.

Watch for: Fees that started as "temporary" for a promo or launch and became permanent. Also watch for services you could shift to your supplier (like pre-labeling) at a fraction of the cost.

6. Return Processing: $2 - $5 per return

What you pay when a customer sends something back. Receiving, inspecting, restocking (if sellable), or disposing (if not).

Return fees are often underestimated because founders focus on the refund, not the processing. But at a 15% return rate, a $4 return processing fee on 10,000 monthly orders is $6,000/month — $72K/year.

Watch for: Fees that apply even when the item is unsellable (you're paying to process something that goes in the trash). Also watch for "inspection" fees that are charged regardless of whether inspection actually happens.

7. Account Management / Platform Fee: $200 - $500/month

The monthly fee for having an account, access to their system, and a point of contact. Some 3PLs roll this into other fees. Some charge it separately.

This fee is often negotiable — especially if you're scaling. At higher volumes, it should be waived entirely or replaced with a lower per-order charge.

Watch for: "Technology fees," "integration fees," or "reporting fees" that are really just account management fees with different names. You shouldn't be paying multiple fixed monthly fees.

I recorded a YouTube video showing exactly how to audit your 3PL invoice — including the spreadsheet I use to categorize fees, compare against benchmarks, and calculate the impact of negotiating each line item.

I walk through a real brand's invoice (anonymized) and show you how we identified $47K in negotiable fees they didn't know they were overpaying.

Let me tell you about a brand I worked with earlier this year.

They were doing about 8,000 orders per month. Been with their 3PL for 3 years. Rates were set when they were doing 800 orders per month — and hadn't been renegotiated since.

Think about that. They'd 10x'd their volume, and their 3PL was still charging startup rates.

Here's what we found:

Pick fee: $0.45/unit → industry benchmark at their volume: $0.28/unit

Gap: $0.17 × 24,000 units/month = $4,080/month = $48,960/year

Pack fee: $2.75/order → benchmark: $1.85/order

Gap: $0.90 × 8,000 orders/month = $7,200/month = $86,400/year

Storage: $32/pallet → benchmark: $24/pallet

Gap: $8 × 45 pallets = $360/month = $4,320/year

Account management: $450/month → should be waived at their volume

Gap: $5,400/year

Total identified: $145,080/year in excess fees.

Now, you don't get 100% of what you identify. Negotiations are negotiations. But here's what happened:

The founder scheduled a call with their 3PL account manager. She came with the data — what she was paying, what benchmarks showed, what the gap was.

The 3PL's first response: "Those benchmarks aren't accurate for our market."

Her response: "Then show me your market data. I'll wait."

They didn't have it. Because the benchmarks were accurate.

After one conversation:

→ Pick fee: $0.45 → $0.32 (not benchmark, but 29% reduction)

→ Pack fee: $2.75 → $2.10 (24% reduction)

→ Storage: $32 → $26 (19% reduction)

→ Account management: Waived

Annual savings: $124,000.

One conversation. Same 3PL. Same service. $124K back to margin.

The only difference? She knew what she should be paying.

Before you can negotiate, you need information. Here are the questions that unlock it:

1. "What exactly does each fee cover?"

Get granular. "Pack fee" could mean just boxing, or it could include void fill, tape, label printing, and carrier manifest. Know what you're paying for so you know what to negotiate.

2. "How do my rates compare to other clients at similar volume?"

They won't give you specifics, but they'll tell you if you're in the "competitive" range or not. If they hesitate, that's your answer.

3. "What triggers additional fees beyond our standard rates?"

Find out what causes those surprise charges. Non-palletized receiving? Oversized items? Weekend shipments? Know the triggers so you can avoid them — or negotiate them away.

4. "What can we do operationally to reduce our fees?"

Sometimes the answer isn't negotiation — it's process change. If you ship products pre-labeled from your supplier, you eliminate the labeling fee. If you reduce SKU count, you simplify picks. Ask what's in your control.

5. "When was our last rate review, and when is the next one?"

If your rates haven't been reviewed in 12+ months, you're overdue. Put a recurring review on the calendar — quarterly for fast-growing brands, annually at minimum.

Here's how to run this on your own business.

Step 1: Pull 3 months of invoices.

You need enough data to see patterns. One month might be an anomaly. Three months shows reality.

Step 2: Categorize every line item.

Group fees into the 7 categories above. Some will be obvious. Some will require asking your 3PL what a charge actually means.

Step 3: Calculate your effective rate for each category.

Total dollars in that category ÷ relevant volume = your rate. For pick fees, divide by units. For pack fees, divide by orders. For storage, divide by pallets.

Step 4: Compare to benchmarks.

Use the ranges I gave you above as a starting point. If you're above the high end of the range, that's a red flag. If you're way above, that's money waiting to be recovered.

Step 5: Calculate the annual impact of each gap.

(Your rate - Benchmark rate) × Annual volume = Annual overpayment. Rank by impact. The biggest gaps are your negotiation priorities.

The brands that do this consistently save 15-25% on fulfillment costs. The brands that don't? They keep paying whatever they're told.

If you're reading this and thinking "I need someone to look at my 3PL contract with me" or "I want help with the negotiation conversation" — that's exactly what the Accelerator is for.

The Supply Chain Accelerator is a 12-week program where we build your supply chain systems together. Not theory. Actual implementation on your business — including 3PL audits and vendor negotiations.

What you get:

→ All 11 modules (including the complete 3PL Audit framework with benchmarks and negotiation scripts)

→ Weekly live calls with me — bring your invoices, your contracts, your stuck points

→ Direct Slack access for async support

→ Hot seat coaching where I review your actual numbers

→ Community of 9 other founders at your stage

That $124K brand from the case study? She was in Cohort 2. We reviewed her 3PL invoice together on a live call. Two weeks later, she'd renegotiated.

Q2 Cohort starts in May. If you're doing $200K-$3M in revenue and want to stop leaving money on the table with your 3PL (and everywhere else in your supply chain), this is your path.

Not ready for the full cohort? Self-paced is $500 — same modules, same templates, same benchmarks. Just without the live calls and direct access.

Pull your last 3PL invoice. Categorize the fees. Calculate your effective rates.

Compare to the benchmarks above. Find your gaps.

Then schedule the conversation.

Reply with what you find. I read every response — and I'll tell you if your rates look off or if there's leverage you're not seeing.

Week 1: The costs that don't show up on your PO (done)

Week 2: The DIM weight problem (done)

Week 3 (this week): The 3PL fee audit

Week 4: The $18K/year packaging redesign — step-by-step case study

Until next time,

Lara

P.S. The best time to negotiate with your 3PL was when you signed the contract. The second best time is now. They're not going to come to you and offer lower rates. You have to ask.

P.P.S. If you've been with your 3PL for more than 18 months and your volume has grown, you are almost certainly overpaying. Not because they're bad — because you haven't asked for better. Ask.