1. Definition of warehouse
The concept of warehouse or warehouse in logistics is used to refer to a place to store and preserve products, semi-finished products and finished products for the purpose of providing customers quickly with the lowest cost when required. bridge. In addition, the duties of the warehouse also include providing information about the location, condition and storage conditions of goods.

For businesses from small to large, having basic knowledge about warehousing will help with orientation when choosing warehousing services or preparing procedures and warehouse rental costs. For warehouse managers, these are the knowledge that must be acquired before starting work.

2. Types of warehouses, how to distinguish between warehouses and distribution centers
In the logistics industry, there are the following basic types of warehouses:

Bonded warehouse: A bonded warehouse is a warehouse or yard area that is separated from the surrounding area to temporarily store, preserve or provide services for goods brought from abroad or from within the country. into the warehouse according to the bonded warehouse lease contract signed between the bonded warehouse owner and the goods owner. Bonded warehouses can be owned by the state or by private companies (Article 22 of Decree 154/2005/ND-CP,)
At bonded warehouses, owners of goods stored in warehouses can directly authorize warehouse owners or customs clearance agents to perform services such as reinforcing, dividing, packing; packing goods; classification of goods, goods maintenance. In addition, it is also possible to transfer ownership of goods, transfer goods two-way between the bonded warehouse and the border gate, between bonded warehouses together, and carry out import and export procedures.

CFS warehouse (container freight station): A CFS warehouse (also known as a retail collection location), is a type of specialized warehouse for collecting or separating retail goods for general container transportation. CFS warehouses are often used when shippers do not have enough stock to fill a container (FCL). Services at CFS warehouses include packing, repacking, arranging and rearranging goods awaiting export. Here, the goods will be brought to the collection site to wait for import-export procedures if necessary, then split or pack together containers for export abroad.
The retail warehouse area (CFS) of Kuehne + Nagel Vietnam covers an area of ​​11,000m2 and is a part of the Kuehne + Nagel logistics center in Dong Nai. Under the management of a team of experts and thanks to a convenient geographical position for import and export, the transit time and quality of stored goods will always be ensured at the most efficient level.

Tax suspension warehouse: A tax-suspension warehouse is a warehouse used to store imported raw materials and supplies that have been granted customs clearance but have not yet paid tax for the production of export goods of the owner of the tax-suspension warehouse (Article 4 of the Customs Law). No. 54/2014/QH13,). Accordingly, tax-suspension warehouses are usually owned by enterprises and these enterprises will be responsible for themselves and coordinate with customs authorities to facilitate the inspection and supervision of tax-suspension warehouses.
Because of many similarities, the concepts of warehouse and distribution center are often confused with each other. To determine whether a facility is a warehouse or a distribution center, the following factors must be considered:

Functions: Warehousing only functions to store goods, while distribution centers also have tasks such as transportation, cross docking, packaging, handling and distribution of goods to users… Among them, Cross docking most clearly demonstrates the function of the distribution center because it is the operation of removing the storage function to transport goods directly to the output trucks (outbound trucks), helping to reduce storage costs such as transport fee.
Goods storage time: The time to store goods in warehouses will be longer and the speed of goods turnover in warehouses is also lower than in distribution centers.
Target audience: Warehouses or warehouses have almost no customer service, while distribution centers focus on serving both internal and external customers.
Technology requirements: Compared with warehouses, distribution centers have higher requirements on technology to meet the requirements of order processing, warehouse management, transportation management, etc.
In addition to the above-mentioned types of warehouses, another concept that needs to be paid attention to when choosing a warehousing service is a logistics center.

Logistics hub is an overarching area, containing facilities such as warehouses, offices, etc., for the purpose of supporting and performing transportation, logistics and distribution activities. domestically and internationally. The person performing the above activities can be the owner of the logistics center itself or the tenants using the center’s facilities. In addition, the logistics centers must be connected to many other modes of transport. each other: by sea, by road, by air…