Between Amazon and food delivery apps, you can get nearly anything you want delivered right to your organization’s door. Your private documents and obsolete hard drives can even be destroyed right in your parking lot with on-site shredding services. But is convenience worth the tradeoffs that come with this shredding strategy? The answer is: It depends! Read on to compare the pros and cons of on-site and off-site shredding services, so you can make an informed choice for your organization.
What Does Off-Site vs. On-Site Shredding Mean?
It might seem that the difference between off-site and on-site shredding comes down to the truck your shredding company brings to your location. With off-site shredding, materials are collected in secure trucks and transported back to a commercial shredding facility for destruction. Some shredding services have mobile shredding trucks so materials can be shredded as soon as they’re collected.
Off-Site Shredding Services Might Be Right If:
- Budget is paramount. On-site shredding tends to be more expensive than off-site shredding. It takes more manpower and more fuel to operate a mobile shredding truck in your parking lot, compared to picking up materials and driving them back to the shredding facility. And you may pay for the convenience of having on-site service. Off-site shredding services can be a better fit for cost-conscious organizations. Either way you go, make sure you’re clear about how your shredding company prices its services so there are no surprise costs.
- You want shredding to be taken care of with minimal effort from your organization. Off-site shredding services can be scheduled regularly, so someone picks up your materials without you having to make arrangements. Depending on how many boxes of documents and other shreddable media you have, your pick-up driver can be in and out in minutes. You don’t have to coordinate with a shredding truck to ensure it sets up in the right place. Or stand out in the parking lot on a rainy or snowy day to watch your materials be destroyed.
On-Site Shredding Services Might Be Right If:
- Your industry is legally required to conduct or it is widely held best practice to shred on-site. Certain government agencies that handle highly classified information must have on-site data destruction. This would include the Department of Defense. Additionally, while not required, some healthcare and financial institutions may prefer on-site shredding services so they can oversee the process as they are bound by stringent laws regarding the handling of data. Note, you can still achieve the same level of security with a properly certified off-site shredding company.
- You have a lot of space around your facility. Mobile shredding trucks are big and loud. Your organization must have adequate space for the truck to stay parked for the entire shredding process. Ideally, you don’t have neighbors nearby that are going to be disrupted by the sound of the shredder, or annoyed by the truck being parked there for as long as it takes to shred everything. Hosting an on-site shredding event is going to create ongoing noise over the course of however many hours the event lasts.
Call Northeast Data Destruction for Massachusetts Shredding Services
Northeast Data Destruction provides a full range of off-site shredding services for Massachusetts organizations of all sizes and industries. Schedule quick and easy pick-up services on a recurring or as-needed basis. I’m happy to answer any questions about our NAID certification or anything else, so contact me today!