Before implementing a document destruction plan, it is often important to perform some sort of cost benefit analysis to determine what the best option is for you and your company. As mentioned in my previous article about paper shredding services, there are several different options for you to consider. Today I want to focus on one of those in particular: Mobile Document Shredding Services.
There's a lot of benefit in using a mobile shredding service especially when considering the convenience factor. You are not required to manually transport your sensitive documents to a destruction facility which is a definite plus. This lifts the burden of establishing a proper transport mechanism for your destruction plan. When your sensitive documents are being transported, they are most vulnerable to any type of malicious attempts to gain access to them. It is also the most probable time that accidental exposure could occur in the event of a car accident or other similar incident. This is something you don't have to worry about when enlisting the services of a mobile paper shredding company because your documents are shredded on site. Instead of transporting sensitive documents the driver will be transporting a fine paper powder.
Another benefit of a mobile shredding service is the immediate destruction of documents in your presence. There is no additional risk of handing off documents to a third party and having it transported to a distant location outside of your sphere of influence. Instead have one of your employees witness the entire destruction process. While most paper shredding companies are very professional in the way they handle their responsibilities, depending on the sensitivity of the documents you need destroyed, it doesn't hurt to personally witness the destruction.
An additional benefit of a mobile destruction service is that they will usually provide a certificate of destruction immediately after the documents are destroyed. This would simplify your accounting purposes by allowing you to immediately file and write off all the documents that were destroyed, on the spot... There's no need to track - these were destroyed, but I don't have the legal proof required to certify their destruction... wait, were these documents destroyed? If you don't track it, there could be confusion at your company which could have been prevented simply by having the documents destroyed on site and obtaining that certificate of destruction immediately.
One other consideration when looking for a mobile shredding service is how the documents are handled. Often times you are able to witness the destruction, but many services also provide the option of hands free destruction. That is, you store sensitive documents in a locked storage bin. The document destruction professional never has to handle the documents as the destruction process is handled automatically by machinery. That is the locked bins are placed into a loading device and the papers are extracted from the bin and destroyed without the destruction company ever physically handling the papers.
These are a few of the benefits of choosing a mobile document destruction service vice some of the more traditional services.