What does pallet storage cost?
Pallet storage at Alvy Logistics starts at $25 per pallet per month. Handling starts at $12 per pallet when it comes in and $12 per pallet when it goes out, charged once each way, not every month. These are starting rates. Send pallet dimensions, heights and weights with your request so your written quote confirms the rate for your pallets.
Here is what that looks like for common requests, starting at the rate card:
| Request | Storage | Handling in and out | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 pallets for 1 month | $250 | $240 | $490 |
| 10 pallets for 6 months | $1,500 | $240 | $1,740 |
| 50 pallets for 3 months | $3,750 | $1,200 | $4,950 |
The longer pallets stay, the less the one-time handling matters. For stock that sits for months, storage is almost all of the cost. For stock that turns every few weeks, handling becomes a bigger share, and that is worth knowing before you compare pallet storage rates between warehouses.
What is pallet storage for business inventory?
Pallet storage is warehouse space sold by the pallet position instead of by the square foot. You pay for each pallet in the building each month, and the warehouse handles receiving, put-away and release. It suits business inventory storage where the product already travels on pallets: retail and ecommerce stock, general merchandise, packaging and print, apparel, beauty and personal care products, and packaged medical supplies such as disposables and empty specimen kits, all in ambient, dry conditions. Drugs, investigational product and controlled substances are not stored.
How do you calculate warehouse storage cost per pallet?
Use this formula for any warehouse, including ours:
- Storage: pallets x monthly rate x months.
- Handling: pallets x (inbound fee + outbound fee).
- Extras: anything your pallets need along the way, such as relabeling or a container unload.
With our starting rates, 20 pallets for four months is 20 x $25 x 4 = $2,000 in storage, plus 20 x $24 = $480 in handling, for $2,480. Special project labor such as relabeling starts at $38 an hour, and if the stock arrives in a container, unloading is quoted per container.
Is it cheaper to pay per pallet or per square foot?
A standard 48 x 40 inch pallet covers about 13.3 sq ft of floor. At $2.50 per sq ft per month, that footprint alone costs about $33, already more than a pallet position from $25. And dedicated space also needs aisles and staging room, so the area you hold is always larger than the pallets on it.
That is why pallet storage is usually the cheaper way to store a pallet count, and especially one that goes up and down. Dedicated space makes sense when you want a fixed area held for you, when product floor-stacks two or more high so each square foot carries more than one pallet, or when your team needs room to work around its own stock. For space that only needs to last a season, see short-term warehouse storage.
What are the hidden storage fees?
Most surprises on a storage invoice come from charges nobody mentioned at the start. Ask any warehouse for these in writing before you send a pallet:
- Receiving and outbound handling, per pallet or per carton
- Account setup or onboarding fees
- Minimum monthly charges
- Long-term storage surcharges for slow stock
- Inventory counts, labeling and rework
- Container unloading if your stock arrives floor-loaded
On our quote, each charge that applies to your pallets is its own line, so you can compare it line by line with any other warehouse. The 3PL and pallet storage pricing guide explains how these fees add up across providers.
Pallet storage near Los Angeles
The warehouse is in Valencia, on the I-5 in north Los Angeles County, about 40 miles by road from downtown and 60 to 65 from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. For businesses in Santa Clarita and the San Fernando Valley, it is close enough to drop by. When pallets need to leave, your own carrier can collect them at our dock, a local box truck run with Alvy as the carrier can take them anywhere in the county, and pallet shipping covers LTL beyond Southern California, arranged through Accurate Freight Systems LLC, the licensed property broker in our group.
For everything the building does beyond storage, see warehousing services and our Los Angeles 3PL page. If you are weighing pallet storage against leasing a building of your own, read 3PL vs renting warehouse space first. To get a price, send the pallet count, pallet dimensions and weight, what the product is, and how long it will stay. Call (661) 344-8766, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm Pacific, or request a quote and get a written quote with every charge on its own line.
