Bob Byrnes brings 31 years of 3pl pricing expertise to an honest conversation about what operators consistently get wrong and why it compounds over time
Leanafy founder Vikrant Neb hosted the second episode of Execution at Scale on March 25, 2026. The episode featured Bob Byrnes, a pricing specialist with over 31 years in logistics and warehousing who has built and refined pricing structures across Kenco, Ryder, and Stord, and who teaches the Economics of Warehousing course at the International Warehouse Logistics Association.
The conversation covered one of the most avoided topics in the 3PL industry, the slow and often invisible erosion of margin that happens when operators underprice services, fail to track scope creep, or grow without understanding their true cost per client.
Byrnes opened with a principle that anchored much of the discussion: customers have a tendency to over-consume whatever they believe a 3PL has underpriced. If storage is cheap, they will store more. If handling is cheap, they will add more projects. The problem compounds not because of any single pricing mistake, but because small gaps in recovery multiply as volume grows.
“The only thing worse than losing a good deal is winning a bad one,” Byrnes said during the episode, framing the central challenge of 3PL pricing as not just a math problem but a discipline problem.
The conversation also explored the relationship between pricing and costing, which Byrnes described as cousins rather than the same thing. Price is set by the market and what customers are willing to pay. Cost is what the operator can actually deliver the service for. The gap between the two is margin, and the goal of continuous improvement is to widen that gap not by charging more but by spending less to deliver the same service.
Host Vikrant Neb drew on his own operator experience throughout the conversation, including examples of how scope creep shows up in practice, from kitting that was never priced in, to rush orders that became standard practice without ever appearing on an invoice.
“Most conversations in this industry happen in hallways and over coffee, not on stage. That is exactly why I started this series. Bob brought the kind of honesty and depth in this conversation that you rarely hear publicly,” said Vikrant Neb, host of Execution at Scale and founder of Leanafy.
The episode also touched on expansion decisions, fixed versus variable cost structures, and how operators can use a simple reading of their own profit and loss statement to prepare for a second location before a customer forces the decision.
Byrnes closed with an invitation to the IWLA Economics of Warehousing course, running October 7 through 9 in the Chicago area, where the topics covered in the episode will be explored in depth over two and a half days.
Execution at Scale continues with Episode 3 on April 8 featuring Michael DeFabis, who spent 15 years helping grow IDS Fulfillment from a regional $20M 3PL to a $100M national platform before its acquisition by DHL. The conversation will explore what actually breaks when a 3PL scales and what leaders consistently underestimate as complexity increases.
To watch Episode 2 and register for upcoming episodes, visit: leanafy.com/execution-at-scale