Fulfill Team·November 1, 2026·Add Fulfill as a preferred source on GoogleBoth models put your inventory in a provider's warehouse, worked by the provider's people. What differs is who the operation is set up for, how it is priced, and how long you commit to it. This guide sets contract warehousing and a shared 3PL side by side, using the definitions and annual reports of companies that run contract operations, then shows what volume the 3PLs on Fulfill.com say they take on, from their own profiles.
The term is used in two ways. Broadly, any warehouse a 3PL runs for you under a service agreement can be called a contract warehouse, which is how Fulfill.com's guide to warehouse types uses it. In the narrower sense this guide uses, contract warehousing is the warehousing side of contract logistics. GEODIS defines contract logistics as the long-term outsourcing of warehousing and distribution, including facility design, labor, IT systems and value-added services, to a specialist provider that commits to service-level and cost targets under a multi-year agreement. A contract warehousing agreement bundles four things:
Contract logistics is the wider term. DHL describes it as long-term cooperation between a company and a logistics provider, based on a division of labor and governed by a service agreement, and its list of what such a provider handles runs from supply chain design and warehousing to transportation, distribution and order processing. A contract logistics provider may run your transport as well as your warehouse; contract warehousing is the part that happens inside the building.
The building itself can be the provider's or yours. GXO, which describes itself as a contract logistics provider, reported that 479 of the 1,043 facilities it operated at the end of 2025, offices included, were owned or leased by its customers, and that its warehouse leases generally align with the length of its customer contracts. If you are weighing a lease of your own against outsourcing, see what renting a warehouse costs next to using a 3PL.
A shared 3PL, also called a multi-client warehouse, runs many brands through the same building. The 3PL supplies the building, the staff, the equipment and the software, and each brand pays for the space and services it uses instead of signing a lease of its own. Some providers sell both models: Ryder's annual report lists dedicated distribution and multi-client distribution as separate offerings.
Space. Under a contract, the building or zone is run for your operation. In a shared building your stock sits beside other brands' stock, and you pay for the space you use, by the pallet or the cubic foot.
Labor. A contract provider staffs your operation with a team it recruits and trains for it. A shared 3PL's staff work across its clients, and its warehouse management system keeps each brand's orders and stock apart.
Systems. A contract operation gets a WMS, processes and automation set up for its products and orders. A shared 3PL runs its clients on the software it supplies.
Pricing and commitment. A contract is priced to cover an operation built for you, over a term of years. A shared 3PL bills each activity at a unit rate and can run on much shorter terms. The next two sections take each in turn.
GEODIS describes the typical mix as fixed facility and management fees plus variable rates per pallet, order line or labor hour. GXO's annual report names the two contract types behind that mix. Under a fixed-price contract, which GXO calls closed book or hybrid, the provider agrees to perform the specified work for a pre-determined price. Under a cost-plus contract, which it calls open book, the client pays the allowable costs incurred plus a specified margin. An open-book contract is one in which the provider discloses its costs and margin to the customer.
Most of GXO's customer contracts carry both a fixed component, typically designed to cover warehouse, technology and equipment costs, and a variable component based on expected volumes and labor costs. Ryder describes the same range for its supply chain contracts: fixed and variable billing rates, cost-plus billing rates, or variable-only or fixed-only rates.
A shared 3PL prices by the unit instead: per order picked and packed, per additional item, per pallet or cubic foot stored each month, per pallet received, and per labor hour for some work. The 3PL pricing guide sets out each unit with current benchmark ranges. Each brand pays for the space and services it uses, which is why shared space suits most small and midsize brands.
Time, mostly. GEODIS puts typical contract logistics terms at three to seven years: shorter terms suit fast-growth ecommerce brands that want flexibility, and longer ones justify automation investments. The term follows the provider's own commitments. GXO says its warehouse leases generally align with contract length, that it often bills customers over the expected length of the relationship for the shelving, racking and other systems it puts in for them, and that it could take a significant loss on the unrecovered part if a customer defaults.
A shared 3PL works the other way round. Ryder makes real estate commitments for its multi-client warehouse network based on the demand it expects, and says that if demand is lower than expected it may have excess capacity. In a shared building the provider carries the risk of empty space; in a contract operation, your term carries it. A 3PL may provide warehousing month to month, as GEODIS notes, and its floor, if it sets one, is a monthly minimum: the amount you pay whether or not your volume covers it.
The clauses that set your commitment in either model, from the initial term and renewal to notice, termination and liability, deserve a line-by-line read before you sign. The 3PL contract guide walks through each one.
Yes. The line between the models runs through buildings, not only between them. GEODIS notes that a contract provider's warehouse can be dedicated or shared, and Fulfill.com's guide to what a 3PL is notes that larger clients of a shared 3PL can get dedicated space or a dedicated team. Some providers sell both side by side: Ryder offers dedicated and multi-client distribution, and Kuehne+Nagel's U.S. warehousing page lists dedicated and shared fulfillment operations.
Two more options sit at the flexible end. On-demand warehousing lets a business rent warehouse space as and when it needs it, rather than committing to long-term leases, which suits seasonal peaks. And a brand that needs stock in several regions can spread it across warehouses in different locations, an approach called multi-warehousing, and choose the model site by site.
Most set no minimum, or one in the low hundreds of orders a month. A 3PL on Fulfill.com can state the lowest and highest monthly order volume it takes on, and its profile shows the range. On November 1, 2026, 469 profiles showed a monthly order range. Of those, 212 (45%) set no minimum: 159 take any volume and 53 state only a maximum. The other 257 set a minimum, and the median minimum was 250 orders a month. In all, 355 of the 469 (76%) set no minimum or one below 400 orders a month, and 59 (13%) start at 1,000 orders a month or more. A brand shipping 400 orders a month meets the stated minimum of four in five of them.
Storage reads the same way: of 571 profiles that showed a range of pallet positions, 334 (58%) set no minimum, and the median minimum among the other 237 was 10 pallets.
These are the 3PLs' own statements, not audited figures, and a volume minimum is not a price: a 3PL that takes any volume may still charge a monthly minimum fee. Nor do they say whether a 3PL runs shared or dedicated operations.
One dedicated service shows up in the profile data: a dedicated fleet. Ryder's dedicated transportation business supplies dedicated vehicles, professional drivers, management and administrative support, the transport side of the same idea. Among 3PLs whose Fulfill.com directory cards carry the Enterprise size label, 43 of 243 (18%) list a dedicated fleet on their profiles, against 78 of 1,013 labeled Mid-Market (8%) and 64 of 1,284 labeled Boutique (5%). The label describes the provider's size, not its contract model, so read these as who lists the service, not as a count of contract warehouses. You can compare enterprise 3PLs and 3PLs that run domestic FTL and LTL freight in the directory.
Contract warehousing tends to fit when:
A shared 3PL tends to fit when:
Questions that settle it:
A 3PL may provide warehousing transaction by transaction, even month to month. Contract logistics is a multi-year arrangement with a facility, IT, labor and KPIs set up for one client. Some providers offer both.
GEODIS puts typical contract logistics terms at three to seven years. Longer terms let a provider recover investments such as automation, shelving and racking over the life of the contract.
Neither model is cheaper by default. A dedicated operation's fixed fees are owed whatever you ship, so its cost per order falls as volume rises. Shared unit rates move with your activity, which is why shared space suits most small and midsize brands.
A cost-plus contract in which the provider discloses its costs and margin. GXO describes its cost-plus contracts as paying the allowable costs incurred plus a specified margin, and its fixed-price contracts as closed book or hybrid.
Yes. GEODIS notes that a contract provider's warehouse can be dedicated or shared, and Fulfill.com's guide to 3PLs notes that larger clients of a shared 3PL can get dedicated space or a dedicated team.
Many do not. Of 469 Fulfill.com profiles that showed a monthly order range on November 1, 2026, 212 set no minimum. Among the 257 that set one, the median was 250 orders a month.
Once you know your volume and handling needs, you can tell Fulfill.com what you ship and get matched with 3PLs that take it on.
Sources. GXO Logistics, annual report for 2025; Ryder System, annual report for 2025; GEODIS, glossary entry for contract logistics; DHL Freight Connections, logistics dictionary entry for contract logistics; Kuehne+Nagel's U.S. warehousing page. Network figures: Fulfill.com 3PL profiles, with the shares and medians computed by Fulfill.com. All read November 1, 2026.
Disclosure: Kuehne + Nagel, Inc is a Fulfill.com vendor partner. Fulfill.com is paid when readers click through to its website.
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