3PL stands for third-party logistics. The seller is relieved of leasing warehouse space, employing picking and packing staff, and dealing with carriers directly. Goods are consigned to our facility and all subsequent handling is performed on the seller’s behalf.
Check the arriving SKU, quantity and carton condition, then put the goods in the right location. Get this wrong and everything downstream is wrong.
Inventory
Record how much is on hand, where it sits, and whether it is sellable. Cycle counts and discrepancies live here too.
Fulfillment
Pick, pack, label and ship the order, then write the tracking number back.
Returns
Inspect what came back and decide: restock, quarantine, scrap, or send it to the client.
Value-added
Relabeling, kitting, repacking -- client-specific work, different for every account.
Support
Check orders, stock and delivery status; move data between the WMS, the platforms and the carriers.
Prep & forward
Receive a seller's bulk shipment, inspect it, relabel, repack, palletize, and send it on into an Amazon FBA or Walmart fulfillment center.
Warehouse Charges
The other half of the invoice. Freight is charged by the carrier; the items below are charged by the warehouse, and staff generally encounter them well before they encounter AHS. Each entry states the operation being paid for. Amounts are omitted deliberately: every 3PL prices its own, and a figure shown here would be read as a market rate.
📦
Receiving / Devanning
The charge for unloading arriving freight, counting it and confirming what and how much came in.
🗄️
Putaway
The charge for moving counted goods to a storage location and recording where they went.
⏱️
Storage
Rent for the space the goods occupy while they sit in the warehouse, charged by time.
🫳
Pick fee
The charge for taking an item off the shelf when an order comes in.
📮
Pack fee / Materials
The charge for boxing, padding and sealing an order, plus the carton and tape it used.
🏷️
Labelling
The charge for putting a required label on an item or carton, such as an Amazon FNSKU.
🧱
Palletizing
The charge for stacking loose cartons into a pallet, wrapping it and labeling it.
🔧
Rework / Repack
The charge for redoing goods already in stock: re-boxing, re-labeling, splitting or combining.
🧩
Kitting
The charge for combining several items into one new sellable unit.
↩️
Returns processing
The charge for receiving a return, inspecting it, and deciding whether it goes back on the shelf.
🧾
Order fee
An administrative charge taken once per order, whatever is inside it.
📷
Inspection / photos
The charge for an extra check of the goods on arrival, or for photographing them as a record.
🗑️
Disposal
The charge for getting rid of goods that are not going to be sold.
🚚
Drayage
The road charge for hauling goods from the port or airport to the warehouse.
🕒
Project labour
The charge for odd jobs with no set rate, counted per person per hour.
Prep and Forward: Inbound to FBA and Walmart
Shipping to consumers is not the only route. Cross-border sellers very often send a bulk shipment to our warehouse first, and we receive it, inspect it, relabel, repack and palletize before sending it on into Amazon's or Walmart's own fulfillment network, where the platform ships it to the buyer. This leg is called prep and forward.
What goes wrong here is labels and appointments, not freight. A wrong label, a missing carton label, an overweight carton without a team-lift label, an unbooked slot -- any one of them can get the whole shipment refused, and sending it back costs far more than the freight did.
Into FBA: choosing between SPD and LTL/FTL
There are two ways into an Amazon building: carton by carton as small parcels (SPD), or palletised on a freight carrier (LTL or FTL). They are not two prices for the same thing -- the labels differ, the appointment rules differ, and they fail in different ways.
What SPD is
Small Parcel Delivery. Each carton travels as its own parcel with its own tracking number, handed to UPS or FedEx and delivered into the Amazon building one box at a time. No truck to book, no appointment, no pallets.
What LTL and FTL are
The cartons go on pallets and a freight carrier collects them. LTL shares the trailer with other shippers' freight; FTL is the whole trailer for one load. Both go through a dock, both need an appointment, and both hand over by the pallet.
How each is priced
SPD is priced per piece -- every carton gets its own dimensional weight and zone. LTL is priced on pallet count and NMFC freight class (set by density, fragility, theft risk and handling), plus fuel and accessorials. FTL is priced by the run and barely notices the carton count.
Labels
SPD: an FBA carton label on every box plus the carrier's own label, with the FNSKU on the item itself. LTL and FTL: the same carton labels, plus pallet labels on all four sides of every pallet. A pallet short of a label can be refused at the door.
Appointments
SPD needs none -- the parcels simply arrive. LTL and FTL need the carrier registered in Seller Central and an ISA, the delivery appointment number, booked to a slot. A trailer without one is turned away on arrival.
Where the line falls
As a rough shape: six cartons or fewer of no great weight usually still favour SPD; more than a pallet's worth starts to favour LTL; past about six pallets, price FTL as well. Decide it with three real quotes on the same shipment, not with this paragraph.
What goes wrong
1. Pallets built before the ISA was booked, so no truck can be dispatched. 2. Pallet labels on the front face only, and the dock refuses the load. 3. Freight too bulky -- under about 6 lb/ft3 the class steps up and the rate with it. 4. SPD and LTL carton labels mixed inside one shipment, so neither reconciles.
What is written here is the shape of the process, not Amazon’s current rules. Pallet heights, weights, label formats and the way appointments are booked all get revised; the shipping and routing requirements in Seller Central are what govern. Prices come from three live quotes, never from this card.
RMA returns: grading and put-away
Until it has been graded, a return is not stock -- it is a pile of goods nobody knows can be sold. This bay keeps it off the sellable locations: every piece is scanned against its RMA, booked in, opened and matched, then graded to one of four destinations. Grading it wrong does not cost one item; it costs the second return and the platform metric that follow a faulty unit going back on sale.
Return arrives → scan the RMA, photograph, book in → open and match item and quantity → grade (restock / rework / quarantine / scrap) → post back to the platform and the WMS
What an RMA is
Return Merchandise Authorization. A parcel arriving without one is an orphan: no order to match, no decision on refund or replacement. The first act at the returns bench is scanning the RMA, not opening the box.
Book it in
Scan the RMA, photograph the outer carton, record the arrival date. If the carton is damaged or the seal is already broken, photograph it before opening: that image is the only evidence in a later dispute with the buyer or carrier.
Open and match
Check the contents against what the RMA says was sent back -- item, quantity, serial. A mismatch does not go on to be graded; it goes to customer service as a disputed return.
Grade it, four ways
1. Good, straight back to sellable. 2. Needs rework -- relabel, repack, clean. 3. Quarantine, for a suspected fault, a battery, or a suspected counterfeit. 4. Scrap. Grading is a trained job, not something a picker decides in passing.
Put away and post
Only good and reworked stock goes back to sellable, and the platform and the WMS are updated as it does. A late update is an oversell, and an oversell costs more than the item.
What it costs
Returns handling is normally billed per piece, with rework billed as labour or materials on top. Storage still runs on quarantined and scrap stock -- nothing leaves without a decision, and a growing quarantine bay is the most common hidden storage bill there is.
Grading is a trained job, not something a picker decides in passing. Storage runs on quarantined and scrap stock the whole time it sits there, and a growing quarantine bay is the most common hidden storage bill in the building. Return policies and sellable criteria differ by platform; the client contract and the platform's current rules are what govern.
Pallet build to trailer load: one line
Past a certain volume the cartons stop travelling one at a time. At that point the freight goes on pallets and a truck comes for it, and it is priced on a completely different basis from parcels. This card is the build itself: cartons come off the line and go onto a deck course by course, then the stack is wrapped and labelled.
Stacking
Heavy at the bottom, light on top, carton corners flush with the pallet edge and nothing overhanging. Interlocked courses ride better; column stacking is stronger in compression, so where the carton carries an ISTA rating, stack in columns.
Overhang
There is no two-inch allowance: FBA permits none at all, carrier tariffs ask for flush, and the practical target is an inch of underhang. A carton over the deck edge is the first corner anything hits, and the carrier measures to the outermost point, so the overhang enlarges the whole pallet and the rate with it. Change the pattern, or use a pallet sized for the goods.
Wrapping
Wrap from the bottom up and take the film down onto the deck, so the load and the pallet become one object. Three turns round the base at least, and a turn over the top course. Film that never reached the deck lets the whole stack walk.
Labels
Every pallet carries its number from the BOL, the consignee and the piece count. Into FBA it also carries pallet labels on all four sides. A wrong or missing label is grounds for the receiving dock to refuse it.
Measure it here
Height, weight and the widest point, measured while the pallet is still on the build spot. Finding out at the dock that it is over height means stripping it and building it again.
Every figure above is a general one. What governs is the receiving building's current documentation and your own contract: the FBA height and weight limits are revised, freight class and fuel are the carrier's own, and what a 53 ft trailer can actually carry depends on the tare weight of the tractor and trailer under it. This section teaches the shape of the job; it is not a quoting source. For a real shipment, put three quotes side by side.
2. Loading the trailer
The second half of the same line. The pallet is built; what is left is getting it aboard. The work here is routes and paperwork rather than hands: a fork truck runs the pallets out of staging and into the trailer with somebody spotting at the door, the trailer closes when it is full, and the bill of lading and the delivery slot have to be in place before the truck ever arrives.
Staging → fork truck picks up → into the trailer (heavy forward, no gaps) → doors down → check the BOL, photograph the load → away on the booked slot
Three ways to ship
SPD hands cartons to UPS or FedEx one at a time and is priced per piece. LTL puts them on pallets sharing a trailer with other freight, priced by pallet count and freight class. FTL takes the whole trailer, priced by the run. Staying on the wrong one as volume grows costs multiples, not percentages.
When to palletize
The rough line on the floor is LTL up to about six pallets and FTL beyond it, while six cartons or fewer of no great weight usually still go SPD. The real answer is three live quotes side by side, not this rule of thumb.
Loading order
First in goes furthest forward, heavy toward the nose, and no gaps between pallets -- or fill them with airbags or bracing. Freight that can move will move, and moving freight hits something.
Somebody on the ground
The driver cannot see behind the truck going into a trailer, so there is a spotter at the door. Check the wheel chocks and the dock lock first: a trailer rolling away mid-load kills people.
Appointments
LTL and FTL into an FBA or Walmart building need a booked slot. Arrive without one, or late, and the trailer is turned away; a reschedule is usually days.
BOL and proof
Pallet count, piece count and weight on the bill of lading have to match what is actually aboard; check them line by line before the driver signs. Photograph the load before the doors come down -- in a damage claim that photograph is the only thing that shows it left here intact.
The limits (general figures, not contract terms)
Standard pallet
North America runs the GMA pallet, 48 x 40 in, four-way entry. Europe runs the EUR pallet at 120 x 80 cm. They are not interchangeable.
Stack height
Normally 72 in including the pallet itself, which is also the FBA limit for a single-stacked pallet. Over it and the load is rebuilt or rebilled.
Weight per pallet
1,500 lb is the usual ceiling and the FBA limit at most receiving buildings. It is also about what the pallet jacks on the floor are rated for.
Overhang allowance
None. No carton may pass the deck edge and there is no two-inch buffer: FBA allows none, carrier tariffs ask for flush, and the working target is an inch of underhang. Past the edge, the dock may refuse it or the carrier may remeasure to the outermost point.
Trailer capacity
A 53 ft dry van holds 26 GMA pallets on the floor, or 52 double-stacked. But the US federal gross limit is 80,000 lb, and after the tractor and trailer that leaves roughly 42,000-45,000 lb of freight. Whether you run out of weight or out of floor depends on the goods.
Density and class
LTL is priced on NMFC freight class, set by density, fragility, theft risk and handling. Below about 6 lb/ft3 the class steps up and the rate with it, which is why squeezing the air out of a pallet is real money.
Do not stack
A pallet that must not be stacked needs cones or a cap; without them the carrier will stack on it, and the claim fails because an unmarked pallet is a pallet you agreed could be stacked.
Carrier
UPS -- the workhorse for US domestic parcels. Cost follows five things: service, zone, billable weight, address type and surcharges.
Package Info
Zone
Filled in automatically once both ZIPs are complete.
Flat Surcharges
Tick this and the quote adds the demand surcharge. It is peak-season only, roughly October to January; outside that window there is no such charge. The amounts sit on the rates tab.
Billable Weight Rules
This page sets the billable weight of a parcel. Freight is charged on the billable weight rather than on the scale reading; the four groups of rules below are the procedure that converts one into the other.
1. DIM divisor: converts volume into a weight
2. Conditions for dimensional weight: whether it applies to this parcel
3. Minimum billable weight: the floor imposed once certain surcharges apply
4. Size and weight limits: past these the item has to move as freight (see Parcel Size and Weight Limits below)
DIM Divisor
Vehicle capacity is fixed, and a bulky but light parcel occupies its space regardless of what it weighs, so the volume it takes up is converted into a weight for pricing. The calculation is length x width x height divided by this number; the smaller the divisor, the greater the resulting weight and the higher the charge.
These two boxes decide whether dimensional weight applies at all. Both are 0 for UPS, meaning no condition: every parcel gets it.
Example: 20 x 15 x 10 in, 3,000 in3, actual weight 10 lb -> DIM applies -> billed 22 lb.
Use Minimum Billable Weight
A minimum billable weight means that once a parcel triggers certain surcharges it is rated at a floor weight, however light it actually is.
A 12 lb box that triggers AHS by size is rated at 40 lb; one that triggers LPS is rated at 90 lb.
This is a weight rule rather than a charge. It carries no line of its own on the invoice and is visible only as a billable weight that does not match the scale.
Additional Handling Rules
AHS is the charge for an awkward parcel. A hub runs on conveyors: a parcel goes on the belt, gets scanned and sorted, and nobody touches it. Some things cannot ride the belt and have to be moved by hand, and this charge pays for that.
Each box below is a threshold, and any single one being exceeded is enough. All of them are strictly greater than -- landing exactly on the number does not trigger it.
Large Package Rules
LPS is the tier above AHS, roughly five times the amount.
Where LPS applies, AHS does not -- not both. LPS is already the severe grade and it absorbs the milder one.
Again each box is a threshold, and one is enough.
Nonstandard Fee
USPS levies a nonstandard fee on parcels that are excessively long or bulky. It is assessed on length and cube alone; weight is not considered. The three rules below are judged separately, and a parcel is charged for each one it triggers.
Big but light: length + girth over
Where a parcel is large in dimension but light in weight, USPS does not rate it on actual weight. Past the threshold a floor weight applies. It is unrelated to surcharges and is a weight rule.
USPS calls it balloon pricing, which is the term you will see on the invoice and in postal notices.
Maximum Weight (lb)
Every threshold below is measured the same way. Sort the three sides largest first: longest, second, third. Length + girth = longest + 2 x (second + third). The field called Length is not necessarily the longest side, so the sort comes first. Cube is the three sides multiplied; one cubic foot is 1,728 in³.
Flat Surcharges
Set these to your contract. Remote areas come in three tiers -- whichever list the destination ZIP sits on is the one charged, only ever one per shipment, and residential is always dearer than commercial. None of the three has anything to do with the zone.
The residential surcharge and DAS residential are two different charges carrying two different amounts: one asks whether it is a home, the other whether the ZIP is on the remote list.
Remote area surcharge
Demand Surcharge Amounts
Demand applies only during peak season, roughly October to January. Outside that window it does not appear.
It is never a line of its own: it rides on an existing surcharge and is billed as Demand - Residential Delivery Charge. Two residential lines on one shipment differing only by the word Demand are not double billing.
The amounts below are demonstration values. Real ones are published annually, banded by volume, and included in the fuel basis.
Fuel Surcharge
Fuel changes every Monday, on separate tables for ground and air. The button opens that carrier's own fuel page, where the week's percentage is published; read it and type it in above. The tool also tries to fetch it in the background, and lists what it finds below.
Zone-Dependent Surcharges
AHS and LPS price in four zone bands. Edit any cell and the calculation uses yours. Demo figures -- check the contract for real work.
Zone 2
Zone 3-4
Zone 5-6
Zone 7+
AHS - Weight
AHS - Size
AHS - Packaging
LPS - Commercial
LPS - Residential
Maintenance
Runs five checked cases through the engine and compares billable weight and total. Press it after editing a threshold or a rate.
Internal Training Use Only • Developed by Sandy Liu