Vancouver 3PL warehouses
Metro Vancouver is Canada's Pacific gateway and the usual western node for brands serving BC and Alberta, but mountains, water and farmland box in its industrial land. Delta near Deltaport prices and staffs differently than Burnaby. Compare vetted facilities by order volume, certifications, systems and retail programs. Partner names stay private until your team chooses who to meet.
Market data updated October 2026 · Reviewed by the 3PL Bridge network and market research team
Metro Vancouver is the right node for brands selling into British Columbia and Alberta, and the natural landing point for goods arriving from Asia. It is not a one-warehouse answer for Canada, because Toronto and Montreal sit 3 to 5 business days away by ground parcel across the Rockies, and it is a poor base for serving US customers now that cross-border parcels pay duty.
Ground reach
Calgary is 603 miles away, about 1 to 2 days by full truckload and 2 to 3 by LTL (Freightera, 2026). Ground parcel to Toronto usually takes 3 to 5 business days (FlagShip), so Vancouver is a western node, not a national one.
Warehouse rent
C$18.58 per square foot per year net average asking, down 5.6% year over year, with 4.4% vacancy (Cushman & Wakefield, Q3 2026). CBRE measured 5.0% vacancy and C$18.87 for the same quarter.
Labor floor
C$18.25 an hour BC minimum wage, effective June 1, 2026 (up from C$17.85). The Metro Vancouver living wage is C$27.85 an hour (Living Wage BC, November 2025).
Tax registration
5% GST plus 7% BC PST. Non-resident sellers shipping from a Canadian warehouse register for GST once Canadian consumer sales pass C$30,000 in 12 months, and sellers from outside Canada holding goods in BC inventory must register for PST.
Ports and rail
The Port of Vancouver moved a record 3.78 million TEUs in 2025, up about 9%, through Centerm, Vanterm and Deltaport, with CN and CPKC rail east. Prince Rupert added 885,797 TEUs in 2025.
Vetted network
10 facilities across 5 submarkets, each run by an operator with a signed 3PL Bridge agreement. No cost to brands.
Filter by what your operation needs. Pins sit at the facility's town, not its street address. Click any pin or card to open the full facility profile.
A facility in Delta sits minutes from the Deltaport container terminal and Highway 17, while one in Coquitlam sits beside CPKC's Port Coquitlam yard and the Highway 1 run east toward the Interior. That choice sets drayage distance, the labor pool and the base rent your 3PL builds its storage rate on, before anyone sends you a quote.
Rents are average asking rates in Canadian dollars per square foot per year on a net basis, before property taxes, insurance and operating costs, and they are what a 3PL pays its landlord, not what a brand pays per pallet.
Six local factors that move a Vancouver fulfillment quote more than the headline rate does.
The Port of Vancouver moved a record 3.78 million TEUs in 2025, up about 9%, through Centerm and Vanterm on Burrard Inlet and Deltaport at Roberts Bank. Centerm's expansion, finished in 2023, lifted it from 900,000 to 1.5 million TEUs, and Roberts Bank Terminal 2 picked a construction partner in July 2026 but will not open until the mid-2030s. The system has stopped three times in recent years: the November 2021 atmospheric river cut every CN and CP rail link between Kamloops and Vancouver, CN and CPKC locked out workers on August 22, 2024, and a foremen's lockout shut BC ports from November 4, 2024 until Ottawa ordered arbitration about ten days later. Prince Rupert, which stayed open in 2021, handled 885,797 TEUs in 2025 and is the usual backup.
Ask: Which terminal do your clients' containers come off, and what do you charge for drayage, chassis and storage at each? What did you do for clients during the November 2024 port lockout, and can you receive Prince Rupert boxes by rail?
Sources: Truck News, Port of Vancouver 2025 volumes, Mar 2026; The Globe and Mail, BC port lockouts end, Nov 2024; Baird Maritime, Roberts Bank Terminal 2 contractor, Jul 2026.
Ground parcel from Vancouver to Toronto usually takes 3 to 5 business days, and truckload freight to Toronto takes 5 to 6 days, so a single Vancouver warehouse cannot give Ontario and Quebec buyers fast ground service. Canada Post's 700,000-SF Pacific Processing Centre sits at YVR in Richmond, and Amazon runs a fulfillment center in New Westminster plus a sort center and delivery stations in Langley, Delta and Pitt Meadows. Canada Post workers struck nationwide from November 15 to December 17, 2024, struck again from September 25, 2025, and moved to rotating strikes on October 11 before a tentative deal on November 21, 2025. Brands that relied on a single postal carrier had their fall shipping disrupted two years running.
Ask: Which carriers pick up daily, at what times, and do you have live accounts with Purolator, UPS and FedEx as well as Canada Post? How fast did you switch carriers during the 2024 and 2025 postal strikes?
Sources: FlagShip, Vancouver to Toronto shipping; Canada Post labour dispute, 2024-2025; Amazon, British Columbia expansion, May 2021.
BC's general minimum wage rose to C$18.25 an hour on June 1, 2026, up from C$17.85. Living Wage BC put the Metro Vancouver living wage at C$27.85 an hour in November 2025, C$10 above the 2025 minimum, driven by rent costs. Job Bank's latest survey put the Lower Mainland median for material handlers at C$20.00 an hour (updated November 2023), so the legal floor now sits close to typical warehouse pay. Cushman & Wakefield noted in Q3 2026 that BC's population has declined for three straight quarters, which narrows the hiring pool for peak season.
Ask: What is your starting wage today, how much did you raise it on June 1, 2026, and what share of your peak staff comes from staffing agencies? What was your warehouse turnover last year?
Sources: BC Government, minimum wage release, May 2026; Daily Hive, Living Wage BC 2025, Nov 2025; Job Bank, material handler wages, Lower Mainland.
BC charges 5% federal GST and a separate 7% provincial PST, filed on separate returns, and since July 1, 2021, a non-resident selling goods from a Canadian fulfillment warehouse through its own site must register for GST under the normal rules once sales to unregistered Canadian buyers exceed C$30,000 over 12 months, and the warehouse itself must report its non-resident clients to the CRA. For PST, Canadian sellers outside BC register once BC gross revenue passes about C$10,000 a year, and sellers outside Canada must register when they hold goods in BC inventory. A US brand also needs a customs importer of record, often through the CBSA's Non-Resident Importer program, which starts with a Canadian business number. Confirm your situation with a cross-border tax advisor before you ship inventory in.
Ask: Are you registered with the CRA as a fulfillment business, and what records do you share about our inventory? Who acts as importer of record on our inbound containers, and which customs broker do you work with?
Sources: CRA, GST/HST and e-commerce FAQ; Miller Thomson, BC PST registration rules, 2021; US Trade.gov, Canada Non-Resident Importer program.
The US ended duty-free de minimis treatment for shipments from every country, Canada included, on August 29, 2025, and a federal trade court upheld that on August 13, 2026, so a Vancouver warehouse can no longer ship low-value parcels into Washington state duty free. The US put 50% Section 338 duties on a list of Canadian goods on August 22, 2026, even for USMCA-qualifying products, and Canada answered on September 8, 2026 with 15% to 50% surtaxes on about C$27.6 billion of US goods, including cosmetics and furniture. Trucks bound for Seattle use the Pacific Highway crossing in Surrey, since Peace Arch bars commercial vehicles. Physically, Richmond, Delta and Surrey face both Fraser River and coastal flood risk, and a Fraser Basin Council analysis found 71% of 74 assessed dikes vulnerable to failure in a major flood, and the 1700 Cascadia earthquake is a reminder that the region carries real seismic risk.
Ask: Are any of our SKUs on Canada's September 2026 surtax schedules, and can you track duties by SKU? Is your building on the Fraser floodplain, what is its seismic rating, and what does your contract say about force majeure?
Sources: Troutman Pepper, CIT upholds de minimis suspension, Aug 2026; BDO, 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, 2026; EY, Canada counter-tariff orders, Sept 2026.
Metro Vancouver vacancy hit 0.3% in Q2 2022 (Avison Young) and sat at 4.4% in Q3 2026, with net asking rent at C$18.58/SF, down 5.6% year over year and below C$20 for the ninth straight quarter (Cushman & Wakefield). Construction has fallen to 3.45M SF, about 69% below the Q2 2023 peak, and only 19 available blocks exceed 100,000 SF. Industrial land is just 4% of the region's land base, and a Vancouver Board of Trade study expects the remaining supply to be absorbed between 2035 and 2047. Tenants have leverage today, but a 3PL renewing in a tighter market later this decade will pass the rent through.
Ask: When does your building lease expire, and is our storage rate tied to your rent escalator? Will you lock pallet and per-order rates for 24 to 36 months while the market is soft?
Sources: Cushman & Wakefield, Vancouver Industrial MarketBeat Q3 2026; North Shore News, Avison Young vacancy history, Q3 2024; Burnaby Now, Metro Vancouver industrial lands report.
Only if your customers are mostly in British Columbia and Alberta. Calgary is 1 to 3 days by truck, but ground parcel to Toronto usually takes 3 to 5 business days (FlagShip), so brands with national demand should pair Vancouver with a node in Ontario. US brands should keep US orders in a US warehouse, because Canadian parcels into the US have paid duty since August 29, 2025.
Average net asking rent across Greater Vancouver was C$18.58 per square foot per year in Q3 2026, down 5.6% from a year earlier (Cushman & Wakefield). The six core submarkets range from C$17.52/SF in Delta to C$20.97/SF in Port Coquitlam. Property taxes and operating costs come on top, and a 3PL folds all of it into its per-pallet storage charges.
It depends on how your freight arrives and who your customers are. Delta suits container importers near Deltaport and has the lowest core rent, Richmond suits air-dependent SKUs near YVR, and Surrey / Langley suits large programs that need new buildings and access to the Pacific Highway truck crossing. Burnaby and the City of Vancouver suit infill DTC close to the urban core.
They can stop inbound freight for days and back it up for weeks. CN and CPKC locked out workers on August 22, 2024, and a foremen's lockout shut BC ports from November 4, 2024 until federal arbitration about ten days later. Ask any 3PL how it handled those weeks and whether it can receive containers routed through Prince Rupert.
It can, but it is rarely the cheapest option anymore. The US ended de minimis for Canadian shipments on August 29, 2025, and added 50% duties on a list of Canadian goods on August 22, 2026, so each US order needs a customs entry and may owe duty. Trucks use the Pacific Highway crossing in Surrey, since Peace Arch bars commercial traffic.
Usually yes. A non-resident selling from a Canadian fulfillment warehouse through its own site must register for GST once sales to Canadian consumers pass C$30,000 over 12 months, and sellers from outside Canada must register for the 7% BC PST when they hold goods in BC inventory. US brands also need an importer of record, often through the CBSA's Non-Resident Importer program. Confirm your situation with a cross-border tax advisor.
Ask which terminal your containers come off and what drayage costs, and how the 3PL handled the November 2024 port lockout. Ask which parcel carriers it uses besides Canada Post and how fast it switched during the 2024 and 2025 postal strikes. Ask whether it is registered with the CRA as a fulfillment business, whether its building sits on the Fraser floodplain, and when its lease expires.
Every facility belongs to an operator with a signed agreement with 3PL Bridge, and each profile reflects what the facility runs today: order volume, certifications, systems and retail programs. Operator names stay private until the brand chooses who to meet. There is no cost to brands.