Jacksonville is spread out. The city and Duval County merged decades ago, so one account can have addresses twenty miles apart. Downtown and the Southbank hold the banks, insurers and law firms that run scheduled console service. Out along Baymeadows, Southside Boulevard and Deerwood Park, the office parks are full of accounting practices, medical billing offices and title companies that fill a locked bin every couple of weeks. Hospitals and specialty clinics add volume. The Navy at Mayport and Naval Air Station Jacksonville keeps its sensitive material in house, but the contractors and vendors around those bases have ordinary paper like anyone else.
Past the county line the work changes. Clay, St. Johns and Nassau counties are mostly suburbs and small towns, where one truck visit for forty or fifty banker boxes makes more sense than a standing contract. Those offices usually call when a lease ends, a practice sells or a records room floods, and they want everything gone in a day. Hurricane season matters. After a storm, water-damaged files have to be shredded fast, and trucks book up. Tax season fills calendars from February through April, and accounting offices purge in the weeks after the filing deadline.
Know the basics before you ask for quotes. A purge is usually priced by the box, scheduled service by the bin or console, and a truck call by the visit, with a minimum on the last. On-site shredding, where the truck grinds paper in your parking lot, costs more than hauling boxes to a plant. For medical and legal files you want to watch go, it is worth it. Get a certificate of destruction every time. Hard drives and backup tapes are a separate job, so name them up front. In the form, give us your town, a rough count of boxes or bins, one visit or recurring, and whether you want the truck on site.
