Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Savings per unit (cross-dock vs storage)
$0.638
Cross-dock cost per unit
$0.029
Storage flow cost per unit
$0.667
Total savings for this shipment
$3,192
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How to use this
- 1Enter units per event/shipment.
- 2Enter cross-dock labor hours (receive+sort+load).
- 3Enter storage flow: putaway + pick labor hours.
- 4Enter burdened labor wage ($).
- 5Enter avg days held (storage flow).
- 6Enter storage cost per unit per day ($).
- 7Read your savings per unit (cross-dock vs storage) on the right — it updates as you type.
- 8Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Cross-docking moves freight from inbound to outbound trailer with minimal or no putaway, cutting storage cost and dwell time but requiring tighter transportation synchronization. Storage flow puts inventory away, holds it, and picks it later, which costs more in handling touches and space but gives you buffer against demand and supply timing mismatches. This calculator compares the fully loaded per-unit cost of both flows for a given SKU or lane — cross-dock cost is mostly labor and dock time, while storage cost adds putaway labor, storage space charges, and pick labor on the back end. Use it to decide which SKUs or replenishment lanes are candidates for cross-docking, which typically makes sense for high-velocity, pre-allocated, or promotional freight with reliable, synchronized inbound and outbound schedules.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Units per event/shipment: 5000
- Cross-dock labor hours (receive+sort+load): 6
- Storage flow: putaway + pick labor hours: 14
- Burdened labor wage: 24 $
- Avg days held (storage flow): 20
- Storage cost per unit per day: 0.03 $
Results
- Savings per unit (cross-dock vs storage): $0.638
- Cross-dock cost per unit: $0.029
- Storage flow cost per unit: $0.667
- Total savings for this shipment: $3,192
What each field means
Inputs
- Units per event/shipment
- The units per event/shipment used in the calculation. Starts at 5000 so you have a working example on load.
- Cross-dock labor hours (receive+sort+load)
- The cross-dock labor hours (receive+sort+load) used in the calculation. Starts at 6 so you have a working example on load.
- Storage flow: putaway + pick labor hours
- The storage flow: putaway + pick labor hours used in the calculation. Starts at 14 so you have a working example on load.
- Burdened labor wage ($)
- The burdened labor wage used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 24 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Avg days held (storage flow)
- The avg days held (storage flow) used in the calculation. Starts at 20 so you have a working example on load.
- Storage cost per unit per day ($)
- The storage cost per unit per day used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 0.03 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- Savings per unit (cross-dock vs storage)
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Cross-dock cost per unit
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Storage flow cost per unit
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Total savings for this shipment
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
Which SKUs are good cross-dock candidates?
High-velocity items with known, near-term demand — retail replenishment already allocated to a store, promotional freight timed to a launch, or full-pallet flow-through orders. If demand isn't known at receipt or the outbound schedule isn't synchronized with inbound, you'll end up storing it anyway and lose the labor savings while adding schedule risk.
What operational risk does cross-docking add?
Cross-docking requires inbound and outbound trailers to be scheduled tightly together, so any inbound delay creates an outbound miss with no buffer inventory to fall back on. It also demands more precise labor scheduling because the sort-and-load work has to happen in a narrow window rather than whenever staff have capacity.
Does this calculator include transportation cost?
No, it isolates warehouse handling and storage cost only. Cross-docking can also reduce transportation cost by avoiding a full inbound-to-storage-to-outbound cycle, but that savings depends on your specific network design and should be modeled separately alongside this labor and storage comparison.
How much of my volume should realistically flow cross-dock?
Retail distribution operations that have invested in cross-dock infrastructure typically run 20-40% of volume through cross-dock, reserving the rest for storage flow where demand timing isn't tightly known. Pushing beyond that usually runs into space and labor scheduling constraints that erode the savings shown here.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Cross-Dock vs. Storage Cost Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/cross-dock-vs-storage
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/cross-dock-vs-storage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cross-Dock vs. Storage Cost Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Cross-Dock vs. Storage Cost Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/cross-dock-vs-storage) (2026).