There are a lot of buildings between Seattle and Tacoma that will store your pallets. Far fewer will actually make your supply chain cheaper, and the difference isn't visible on a rate sheet.
Here's what to ask, in the order it matters.
1. Where are you, in minutes from the terminals?
If you import, this is the first question and most people ask it last. Drayage is priced on the lane, so the distance between the terminal and the dock is a cost you pay on every container for as long as you're a customer.
It also decides your demurrage exposure. Close enough, and prepulling a box before the Last Free Day is a routine call. Far enough away, and it becomes an expensive emergency you avoid making — which is exactly when demurrage shows up.
2. Do you handle drayage, or is that someone else?
Every vendor boundary is a place for freight to sit. A 3PL that also moves the container knows when it's arriving, because they're the ones bringing it. One that doesn't is waiting for an email like everyone else.
3. What's your live unload turn time, in hours?
Ask for a number, not an adjective. A driver waiting at a dock generates detention, and it reaches you eventually. Slow unloads also mean your inventory isn't sellable for another day.
4. Can you transload?
If the answer is no, every ocean container you send has to be fully unloaded on your schedule or sent onward as a container. Transloading is what lets the steamship line's box go back early and stop per-diem — see transload or ship the container inland.
5. What happens when volume doubles for eight weeks?
Peak is the real test. Ask specifically: can space scale up and back down, is there labor available, and what notice do you need. A partner who needs a quarter's warning isn't a peak partner.
6. Can I see my inventory without emailing anyone?
Same-day receipt visibility is table stakes now. If the answer involves a spreadsheet someone sends on Fridays, you'll spend a year chasing counts.
7. What else can you do besides store it?
Most freight eventually needs something done to it — picking and packing, FBA prep, inspection, crating, returns processing, kitting. Every capability you'd otherwise send out to another vendor is a handoff removed.
8. How does your pricing actually work?
Receiving per pallet or per hour. Storage per pallet per month. Pick fee plus per-additional-item. Plus outbound freight. Ask what triggers each and what counts as special handling — that's where quotes diverge from invoices. Our pricing explainer walks through the components.
9. Who's my contact, and what happens at 6 p.m.?
A named person who knows your account beats a shared inbox on the day something goes wrong — which is the only day it matters.
The one thing that isn't on the rate sheet
Ask for a customer whose freight looks like yours, and ask what went wrong with them. Every real operation has a story. A 3PL that can tell you what broke and what they changed afterwards is telling you more than any reference that went perfectly.
Where we fit
We're in the Kent Valley between both ports, running storage, fulfillment, transloading, cross-docking and returns from one building. What we're not is the cheapest per square foot in the region — there is always a cheaper building further from the terminals, and for import freight it usually costs more once you add the lane.
Long Road Warehouse serves Seattle, Tacoma, Auburn, Federal Way and the rest of the corridor. Request a quote.
