Choosing a 3PL: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Every 3PL demo looks the same: a clean warehouse, a confident tour, a rate card with reasonable-looking numbers. The differences that will actually determine whether the relationship works — hidden fees, inventory accuracy, contract lock-in, what happens when something goes wrong — only surface if you ask for them directly. Here are the twelve questions worth asking before you sign anything, and what good and bad answers sound like.
Pricing and contract
1. What is the complete list of things you charge for? Not the headline rates — the full ancillary schedule: receiving, unannounced deliveries, photos, disposal, relabelling, admin fees, shipping margins. A good 3PL hands you a complete published rate card. A worrying one says "we'll quote those as they come up", which in practice means you find out on the invoice.
2. What are the minimums, and what happens if I miss them? Minimum monthly spend or minimum order volumes are common (typically £250–£500/month at mid-size UK 3PLs). If you're seasonal, growing, or testing, minimums mean paying for capacity you don't use. No minimums is a legitimate structural advantage for small and volatile sellers.
3. What's the notice period, and what does leaving cost? Twelve-month terms with 90-day notice are still common in the market. Ask specifically about exit: what does it cost to have your stock picked, palletised and shipped out if you leave? A 3PL confident in its service runs month-to-month; one that needs a long contract to keep you is telling you something.
4. Do you add a margin to carrier shipping rates? Some 3PLs pass postage through at cost, some add 10–20%, some make most of their profit here. None of these is inherently wrong — but you need the number to compare quotes honestly. Also ask whether you can use your own carrier accounts.
Operations
5. What's your receiving process when a delivery doesn't match the paperwork? The answer should involve counting against an ASN, photographing discrepancies, and notifying you before anything irreversible happens. If they can't describe the mismatch process, their inventory numbers are built on hope.
6. What are your cut-off times and actual turnaround SLAs? Get specifics: order cut-off for same-day dispatch (2pm–4pm is typical for UK 3PLs), and turnaround targets for prep and receiving in hours or days, not "usually pretty quick". Then ask what happens when they miss — is there any remedy, or is the SLA decorative?
7. How do you handle peak? November tells you everything. Ask what last Q4 looked like: did cut-offs hold, did receiving back up, do they cap client volumes? A 3PL that admits "receiving slipped to 72 hours in peak week but dispatch held" is being honest; one that claims nothing changes in Q4 probably hasn't had one yet — a fair question to put to any new provider, including us.
8. What exactly is included in your per-unit prep fee? For FBA sellers specifically: does the rate include inspection, poly bag and FNSKU label, or are those £0.10–£0.30 each on top? A £0.40 label-only rate is more expensive than a £0.50 all-inclusive one. Rebuild every quote into an all-in per-unit number before comparing.
Visibility and accuracy
9. Can I see my live inventory, and how do I know it's right? You want a client portal with live stock levels, not a weekly spreadsheet. Ask how often they cycle-count, what their claimed accuracy rate is, and — most tellingly — what the process is when their count and your records disagree. Who investigates, who pays for shrinkage they caused?
10. How will I see and verify my invoices? The gold standard is a running billing ledger you can inspect any day of the month, with every charge tied to an event (an order, an ASN, a storage week). The alternative — a single month-end PDF with summary lines — makes disputing anything nearly impossible.
Fit and risk
11. Who else do you serve, and am I too small or too big for you? A 3PL built around three large retail clients will deprioritise your 20 orders a day the moment peak hits. One full of sellers like you has processes shaped to your problems. Also ask about compliance appropriate to your situation — for example, if you're an overseas seller importing stock, whether they handle FHDDS obligations (HMRC's Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme).
12. What happens when you make a mistake? Mis-picks, damaged stock, a missed shipment. You're listening for a process — investigation, remedy policy, who covers the cost — not reassurance that mistakes don't happen. They happen everywhere; the difference is whether the 3PL owns them.
Scorecard
| Area | Green flag | Red flag | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricing | Full rate card published | "Depends — we'll quote it" | | Contract | Month-to-month, clear exit costs | 12-month lock-in, vague exit terms | | Prep fee | Inspection, bag, label included | Every item a separate line | | Visibility | Live portal + running ledger | Weekly email, month-end PDF | | Discrepancies | Photos + notification process | "That rarely happens" | | SLA | Stated cut-off and turnaround targets | "We're usually fast" |
No provider is perfect on all twelve, and a candid weak answer beats a polished evasion. But a provider that fails on questions 1, 3 and 9 — hidden pricing, lock-in, no visibility — will fail you on everything else eventually.
How Oakmont handles it
We built Oakmont to survive this questionnaire. The rate card is published in full: £0 setup, £29/month (first month free), no minimums, month-to-month terms; prep from £0.50 down to £0.26 per unit with inspection, poly bag and FNSKU label included; fulfilment at £0.95 per order plus £0.25 per extra unit; storage from £0.90/bin/week. Operationally: a 2pm same-day dispatch cut-off, a 24-hour prep turnaround target, and a client portal with ASN announcements, live inventory, discrepancy photos and a running billing ledger — so every question above has a checkable answer rather than a promise.