Pick and pack services are the part of a 3PL's rate card that is charged per order rather than per pallet: when a client's order arrives, somebody walks the pick path, pulls the lines, checks them, packs them to the client's spec and applies the carrier label. Storage is what the client pays to have stock in the building; pick and pack is what it pays to have that stock leave as orders. Most of what is published on the subject is written to help a seller choose a provider. This page is written for the operator quoting the service, because what makes a pick and pack service profitable is not the price per order but whether the procedure behind each order is written down, trained and measured.
What the service includes, line by line
A pick and pack service is usually quoted as a fee per order plus a fee per additional line or unit, with packaging either passed through at cost or built into the order fee. Behind that price sit four steps the team performs for every order: the pick from the location the system names, the check that the picked item is the item ordered, the pack in the client's specified carton with the client's inserts, and the label from the carrier account the client has chosen. A client with fragile goods, gift wrap, a branded box or a lot-controlled product adds a variant to each step, and each variant is a line in the SOP the worksheet on this site counts.
Where the per-order price is made or lost
The order fee covers labor first. If the team picks 11 lines an hour on a client's account and the average order has three lines, an order takes about 16 minutes of pick time before packing, and the loaded cost of that time is the floor under the price. A pick path that doubles back, a packing bench without the right cartons or a label printer shared by two stations adds minutes that never appear on the rate card. Operators who know their lines per hour per client price the service from the operation; operators who do not price it from a competitor's website and find out at month end.
Pick and pack warehouse services for several clients on one floor
Running pick and pack for three clients means three packing specs, three carrier accounts and three definitions of a complete order, worked by one team. The operators who do it well keep one base picking SOP and one base packing SOP, then a short client variant for each, so a new starter learns the base once and the variants by client. The free warehouse SOP template worksheet sizes that pack, receiving to returns, from the number of clients and processes you enter, and Pickpathly Pro keeps every SOP against the client with its version and review date.
Questions people ask about pick and pack services
What is the difference between pick and pack and fulfillment?
Pick and pack is the handling step: picking the lines and packing the order. Fulfillment is the whole service around it, storage, receiving, pick and pack, shipping and returns. A 3PL sells fulfillment; pick and pack is the per-order part of the rate card.
How is a pick and pack service usually priced?
A fee per order, often with a fee per extra line or unit, and packaging either at cost or included. The operator's floor is the labor time an order takes at a loaded rate, which is why lines per hour per client is the figure to know before quoting.
What does a pick and pack SOP need to cover?
Where the pick list comes from, the pick sequence, the check against the order, the client's packing spec and inserts, the label source and the exception path when a line is short. One base SOP plus a variant per client keeps it teachable.