Two paths: document destruction companies can find success using either mobile shredding or plant-based destruction methods

Recycling Today, August, 2004 by Dan Sandoval

As concerns about identify theft hit the mainstream press and legislation affecting more industries gets put on the books, more companies are setting out to develop a published standard procedure to handle the shredding of documents.

To service this burgeoning demand, companies in the document destruction and storage business may need to offer a range of services. Increasingly, secure destruction firms are faced with the question of whether to provide a mobile shredding service or to set up a central shredding facility to which documents are taken--or whether to provide both services.

Trying to decide which of the procedures best suits a company can depend on a number of factors that bring both controlling costs and answering service requests into play.

DOLLARS AND SENSE. While most companies are reluctant to spell out the cost difference to the penny, the cost to shred material on site with a mobile shredding fleet is generally considered more expensive than hauling documents to a central off-site facility.

As Glen Howard with All Shredding Corp., a New York City-based shredding operation notes, "Price is king." With prices often higher for an on-sire shredding operation, companies are weighing the comparative advantages of both procedures.

Howard says that customers who have developed a high level of trust with their shredding company are more likely to choose the off-site shredding option.

As a rule of thumb, a company can operate a smaller fleet and make more stops per day if it is collecting documents to take to a central facility rather than shredding documents on site.

Security remains a major concern to most clients, and shredding companies contacted for this article all say that there are cases when a customer asks to view the shredding of the documents, either at the mobile shredding site or at a plant.

While developing a relationship with a customer may allow some companies to migrate their operations from on site to off site, many clients, through company policy, mandate that a witness is needed to view the actual shredding process.

Regarding the procedure of having a customer witness the destruction of documents on site, Mike Tingle with Tri-R Shredding, Denver, says, "When we offer on-site shredding, most people watch carefully the first time. Then they watch over us increasingly less with each visit."

Nonetheless, security continues to be one the biggest factors some customers keep in mind when deciding between the off-site and mobile shredding operations. Joe Lee, with Mega Shred, a Houston-based company, runs three mobile shredding vehicles to guarantee to his customers that the information is being destroyed at a company's site.

Many in-plant operators are using broadcast and recording technology to provide an electronic proof-of-destruction method for customers who request or insist upon it.

As to the difference in time, many shredding company managers agree that the actual time to shred documents, except for extremely large pick-ups, is only a minor factor. Lee notes that his trucks "can shred as fast as you can load it."

Mark McKenna, with Shred-Tech, a Cambridge, Ontario-based manufacturer of shredding equipment, including mobile shredding units, says that the technology for both mobile shredders and off-site shredding operations has sharply improved. For mobile shredders, the ability to process more material has occurred through a series of several steps during the past few years. McKenna says that five years ago, a shredder could handle around 1,000 pounds per hour. Now, the threshold can be as much as 3,000 pounds per hour, with some trucks capable of handling 6,000 pounds per hour or more.

The jump in the processing capabilities has allowed mobile shredding companies to handle larger accounts.

FEELING SECURE. A chief selling point for mobile shredding unit operators remains the ability to offer immediate proof of destruction. Lee cites a host of scenarios whereby the documents to be destroyed could be compromised, including an accident involving the pick-up vehicle that potentially could cause the documents to be exposed.

Even though some of these scenarios are unlikely, they can be among the factors companies weight when choosing between on-site and off-site destruction when hiring a document destruction company.

Operators of plant-based locations have developed several ways to offer proof of destruction, including providing tapes, time stamps and other forms of documentation to guarantee that the information was shredded in a secure environment.

Unless it is a written guideline to have an employee witness either an on-site or off-site procedure, most customers, after establishing a rapport with the document destruction firm, rely instead on certification provided by the shredding company to verify that the information was properly destroyed.

Keith Ayscue, with Trident Paper Recycling, High Point, N.C., feels that mobile shredding is well suited for his smaller customers. At the same time, companies that generate a significant amount of documents to be destroyed are more likely to opt for off-site document shredding.