Dedicated space, labour, and management assigned to your operation under a service level agreement, sourced from 150+ pre-vetted facilities in 25+ Canadian markets. Warehouse Bridge operates no warehouse of its own, so the operator that fits your specification wins the work.
A contract warehousing agreement buys operating capability under a service level agreement, not square footage under a lease. The operator carries the real estate risk; you pay for throughput and service levels. It splits into two structures.
One operator's space and labour assigned to a single tenant. The building, the dock schedule, and the headcount are yours for the term of the contract, governed by a service level agreement rather than a lease.
Shared floor space and shared labour pooled across several tenants inside one facility, billed per transaction. This is warehousing on demand rather than warehousing under contract, and it sits outside the scope of this page.
A contract warehousing agreement buys operating capability, labour, equipment, systems, management, not square footage. The operator carries the real estate risk. You pay for throughput and service levels.
| Model | What it means | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Open-book cost-plus | Operator passes through actual labour, space, and overhead cost. A management fee, typically 4-8% of operating cost, is added on top. | Complex or volatile operations where costs need to stay visible and auditable. |
| Closed-book fixed rate | Fixed unit rates per pallet, case, or order. The operator margin is embedded in the rate and not disclosed. | Stable, well-defined volume where a simple rate card is easier to budget against. |
For the full pricing and decision framework, see the Contract Logistics Guide.
Contract warehousing agreements typically run 3 to 5 years, long enough for the operator to justify dedicating space, labour, and equipment to one tenant. Dedicated warehousing starts to make financial sense once volume is high enough and steady enough to justify 100,000 square feet or more and keep at least one full shift busy year-round. Below that threshold, the fixed cost of an underutilized dedicated operation typically outweighs the per-unit savings dedicated pricing offers over shared multi-client rates.
Writing the requirement to one normalized specification, rather than letting each operator interpret it independently, is what makes quotes from different operators comparable.
Volume, storage basis, throughput, compliance, and target markets captured in one specification.
Matched from the pre-vetted network against that specification and against operators with the sustained capacity to take dedicated volume.
Operators quote the same scope in the same format, open-book or closed-book stated up front, benchmarked against published market data.
You contract directly with the operator. Warehouse Bridge stays in for transition support and does not charge for the match.
Contract warehousing is an agreement where an operator dedicates space, labour, and management to a single tenant for a set term, governed by a service level agreement rather than a lease. The tenant pays for capability and throughput, not square footage, and the operator carries the real estate risk. It sits between a fixed lease, where the tenant runs the operation, and multi-client 3PL, where space and labour are shared across tenants.
Dedicated warehousing assigns one operator's space and labour to a single tenant, governed by an SLA with open-book or fixed pricing. Multi-client warehousing pools floor space and labour across multiple tenants inside one facility, billed per transaction. Dedicated suits high, steady volume that can keep a shift busy year-round; multi-client suits volume too variable or too small to fill a building on its own.
Two models cover most agreements. Open-book cost-plus passes through the operator's actual labour, space, and overhead cost, with a management fee, typically 4 to 8 percent of operating cost, added on top, so the client sees the underlying cost structure. Closed-book pricing charges fixed unit rates per pallet, case, or order with the operator's margin built in and not disclosed. Open-book suits complex or volatile operations; closed-book suits stable, well-defined volume.
Dedicated contract warehousing starts to make financial sense once volume is high enough and steady enough to justify 100,000 square feet or more and keep at least one full shift busy year-round. Below that threshold, the fixed cost of an underutilized dedicated operation typically outweighs the per-unit savings dedicated pricing offers over shared multi-client rates. Seasonal or still-growing volume usually fits multi-client better until that scale is reached.
Contract warehousing agreements typically run 3 to 5 years. That term is long enough for the operator to justify dedicating space, labour, and equipment to one tenant, and short enough that pricing and service levels can be renegotiated against current market conditions rather than locked in indefinitely. Renewal and exit terms should be set at signing, not left to be negotiated at expiry.
A buyer should specify volume by SKU or category with seasonality called out, storage basis and required clear height, throughput split between first pick and additional pick, the labour model, applicable compliance requirements, and the systems integration method. Writing this to one normalized specification, rather than letting each operator interpret the requirement independently, is what makes quotes from different operators comparable.
Tell us the volume, term, and market. Requirements this size get a call with the Solutions Team, not a price wizard.
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