You may find many 3PLs and prep centers don't work with OA, or they charge extra. This article explains why, with the goal of helping you get better deals and more efficient service.

Prep centers operate on tight deadlines. A prep center prefers to process new shipments FIFO (first-in, first-out) because doing that maximizes use of storage and reduces management overhead.

OA often means your products will arrive packaged inconsistently, and over a period of a few days or a week. That means the prep center has to devote extra resources (compared to wholesale shipments).

Many prep centers lack the capability to quickly identify shipments by tracking number during the receiving process. That means they're looking at every package to find the customer name and match it manually to a spreadsheet… very time consuming and error prone.

Few prep centers have technology like Logistics Done Right, which enables them to scan every package coming in the door and instantly route it to the correct service line.