Like any service, multiple factors are involved in calculating the cost of shredding hard drives. In fact, you might be surprised that the shred cost per drive is fairly straightforward math with 5 key variables.
Cost factor 1: Onsite or offsite hard drive shredding?
The first decision is to determine if the hard drives should be shredded on site. Are you comfortable with the risk of shipping the drives to an offsite location for shredding? Onsite shredding, where a mobile data destruction truck comes to your facility, is more costly but significantly more secure by eliminating the risk of assets lost in transit. If you’re part of the “data doesn’t travel” club, you already know that onsite data destruction is far less expensive than a data breach or the challenge of tracking a lost device.
Cost factor 2: HDD or SSD shred quantities
Like anything in purchasing, bulk and contractual agreements drive down costs. The flat cost to dispatch a shred truck with a driver and technician to a site is the same no matter how many drives are waiting for shredding.
Small quantities of hard drives (25 or less) to be shred onsite can be very costly…as high as $40 per drive. Ratchet down the cost per drive by merely adding more drives to be destroyed.
WATCH: How to securely store and accumulate assets waiting for data sanitization >
Cost factor 3: Shred machines and more
Quality and maintenance of the onboard shred equipment is a significant factor. This system is made up of the shredder (sometimes one each for HDDs and SSDs), an onboard generator and the truck itself. Reliability of each mechanical component needed for onsite data shredding is a factor of age, quality (model and brand), capacity (volume and speed), maintenance and upkeep.
One key maintenance aspect for all industrial shredders is the teeth that must be sharpened regularly to cut through the HDD and SSD metal and plastics.
For SSD shredders, although the drives are much smaller, the pulverized particle size is so small that the teeth need infinitely more rotations which increases the frequency and necessity of preventive maintenance programs.
Guardian’s onsite teams follow a prescribed inspection and maintenance process before each shred truck is dispatched and after it returns to its base.
WATCH: Close-up of HDD shredder blades sharpening maintenance >
Cost factor 4: Skilled technicians
Depending on the size of the project, a Guardian Data Destruction mobile shred trucks, has a CDL Class B trained driver and a trained technician. They’ll work together to ensure that the job is done correctly starting with the check-in, the shred process and completing all paperwork throughout the actual data destruction process. It’s imperative that the workers touching your data-laden devices are qualified.
In fact, it’s essential. For our crew, that means workers that are experienced, NAID AAA certified, bonded and have completed a thorough background check. They’re also trained to work with the client’s onsite crew in a professional, courteous manner and follow secure protocols that are set with each shred job.
If there’s a change order or other circumstances, the onsite team will work with the offsite project manager and Point of Contact (POC) to resolve and continue working with minimal delays.
RELATED: Nine short examples of calling an audible for onsite data destruction >
Cost factor 5:Â The organization
Although you may see a truck backing into your loading dock, there’s an entire organization that supports their job function. This includes back office, multiple insurances, PPE and ongoing professional, safety and OSHA training for the crew.
There is also our centralized dispatch and scheduling team that coordinates our mobile hubs across the US and our project team that issues, collects and reviews the critical paperwork that confirms audit, certificate of data destruction, certificate of recycling and asset transfer forms for your chain of custody records. For our offsite shred, erasure, degaussing and more projects, our technicians and warehouse staff that perform the same functions as our onsite crew but also handle the shipping and receiving of goods from end users, our ITAD and VAR partners, downstream R2 recyclers and lease returns.
RELATED: Learn about all Guardian’s data sanitization surfaces >
RELATED: Learn why chain of custody is an essential part of every data destruction project >
Total cost of shred
Let’s get back to the math. Using the five cost factors (and gas!), hard drive shredding can range from less than $5 to $25 each. Guardian can work with you to develop smart strategies that can reduce the cost of hard drive shredding while maintaining the highest possible level of compliance and safety.
Contact us to walk through options that work within your data destruction budget without sacrificing quality or compliance. Or increasing risk.
Read next
- Hard Drive Shredding FAQ >
- Electronic Data Destruction 101: Shredding >
- Guardian HDD and SSD shredding and tape shredding services >
- 8 tips to reduce your hard drive shred costs >
- How logistics safety affects your accounting bottom line >
Sign up for email updates to receive the latest in data security options from Guardian Data Destruction >
