With the rise of digital and online storage, more and more paper is becoming unneeded, yet it needs to be destroyed properly. You can help companies save space by offering mobile shredding in order to eliminate the need to hold on to unnecessary paper documentation.
By Shane Schmidt
Discarding sensitive information is important to many businesses. Not only can it protect the business, their employees and their clients, but it is also the law in many circumstances. Discarded paper is one of the principal sources of information for identity theft. It also subjects companies to potential risks such as loss of trade secrets, fraud, embarrassing publicity and legal penalties.
Adding mobile shredding to your waste hauling business can provide an important service to your community, as well as a revenue stream for your business. Many companies send their sensitive documentation out to be shredded. Unfortunately, that creates a risk for them because they release custody of the information while it is in transit to the shredding facility. Bringing the shredding right to their front door allows them to witness the destruction of documentation and alleviates this concern. As a waste hauler, you can offer a unique benefit—you can dispose of the shredded paper, taking the burden off of your customer’s hands.
Consider Potential Clients
As you consider adding mobile shredding to your waste hauling business, evaluate the potential clients in your community. Mobile shredding is best suited and most affordable for organizations with medium to large amounts of documents to destroy:
- Companies that have employees—They will have sensitive employee information that could include payroll statements, tax documents, social security numbers and performance appraisals.
- Organizations with banking information—Financial institutions have documentation that may include account numbers, online passwords, credit card statements or investment transactions.
- Healthcare facilities and insurance companies—Discarded medical charts, insurance forms and other patient information must be responsibly destroyed according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Businesses with customers—Customer data such as contact information, contracts, receipts and credit card numbers must be destroyed properly when being discarded.
- Companies with proprietary information—Any business that may have trade secrets that they do not want shared with competitors wants their documentation destroyed.
Decide on Equipment
Once you know you that have a market for mobile shredding, you’ll want to determine the type of equipment to purchase. You essentially have two options: a truck with a built-in shredder or a trailer with a shredder:
- Trucks work well for large shredding business that only focus on that service. For smaller businesses, new trucks can be very expensive and finding a used one can be challenging.
- Trailers are an excellent option for smaller haulers who are adding this service to their waste hauling options. A trailer allows you to use an existing truck to pull it. It pulls easily behind a ¾ ton pickup truck and can be branded with custom wraps and decals to advertise your business.
Design Your Business Plan
Once you have your shredding equipment, you can offer any combination or all of these shredding options. You will determine how much to charge for these services based on your costs and your market:
- Offsite shredding—Establish times when customers can come to you with sensitive documentation and you can shred it at your facility.
- On-demand onsite shredding—Offer the option for periodic onsite shredding. Customers would contact you as they have shredding needs. This need can be project-based or simply for companies that only periodically need their documents shredded.
- Regularly scheduled onsite shredding—Work with organizations that have ongoing shredding needs to establish a regular schedule for you to come to them. It allows you and your customer to plan for document destruction, and it creates ongoing business and income.
Mobile shredding can offer many benefits to the businesses in your community. You can help companies save space by eliminating the need to hold on to unnecessary paper documentation. With the rise of digital and online storage, more and more paper is becoming unneeded, yet needs to be destroyed properly. This service can also save companies money. The space they are using to store paper can be repurposed for business expansion or possibly even leasing to another company. Finally, it is environmentally friendly because the shredded paper can be recycled.
Shane Schmidt is President of Pro-Tainer, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of recycling equipment based in Alexandria, MN that values customer satisfaction and quality products. He founded the company in 1990, so he has almost 30 years of experience in the recycling and waste hauling industry. Pro-Tainer has been and continues to be an industry leader because it’s not what you haul … It’s How You Haul It! Shane can be reached at (320) 763-7550 or visit www.protainer.com.