Contract vs public warehousing.
The difference is commitment. One fixes your capacity and rate for a term. The other prices whatever you happen to use, at whatever the market is doing that month.
What is the difference between contract and public warehousing?
Contract warehousing reserves a defined amount of space, labour and equipment for one client under a term agreement, at a rate fixed for that term. Public warehousing is transactional: you pay for the space you occupy at prevailing rates, with no committed capacity and no protection if rates move.
| Contract | Public | |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Reserved for you | Whatever is free |
| Rate | Fixed for the term | Moves with the market |
| Commitment | Term agreement | None |
| Unit cost | Lower per position | Higher per position |
| You pay for | The space committed | The space used |
| Suits | Predictable occupancy | Irregular or short need |
Which one costs less?
Contract warehousing costs less per pallet position, because committed volume lets the provider plan labour and racking around it. Public warehousing costs less in total when your volume is small, irregular, or short enough that a committed block would leave positions empty and still billed.
The decision is not really about the rate card. It is about whether your occupancy is predictable. Committing to capacity you do not fill is the expensive mistake; paying transactional rates on capacity you fill every single month is the quiet one.
When should you switch?
When occupancy stops varying. If you have filled a similar number of positions every month for two or three quarters, you are already buying that capacity at transactional rates. Committing to it lowers the unit cost and removes the risk of a mid-peak repricing.
The signal to watch is the gap between your highest and lowest month. A narrow gap means contract. A wide one means your peak is the thing to solve, and overflow storage handles that without a term commitment.
Tell us what you need to store.
Pallet count and dwell time are the two figures that set the price. Send those and you get real numbers back, not a discovery call.
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