Cincinnati is a records-heavy city for its size. Procter and Gamble, Kroger and Fifth Third Bank keep large offices downtown and in the suburbs, and the hospitals are major employers: Cincinnati Children's, UC Health, TriHealth and St. Elizabeth across the river in Northern Kentucky. The University of Cincinnati and Xavier add student and employee files. Law firms and accounting offices fill the older towers along Fourth and Vine, and Over-the-Rhine has been converting brick buildings into small offices that never planned for file storage.
The metro crosses the Ohio River into Kentucky, so a shred route has to cross a bridge, and the bridges matter. A truck coming from Covington to downtown can lose a lot of time on I-71 or I-75 when a crash closes a lane. Ask any company which side of the river its trucks start from. North of the city, I-275 rings the suburbs and the office parks in Blue Ash and Springdale. There, scheduled bins are common, while the older streetcar-era neighborhoods and hillside villages produce mostly one-time household visits. Tax season fills accountants' calendars from late January, and spring cleanouts follow once the weather turns.
On pricing, companies charge by the box, the locked bin or the visit, and nearly all set a minimum. A single drawer of paper costs close to what a few boxes do. On-site shredding, with the truck outside your building, costs more than hauling to a plant and is worth it for medical, financial and personnel records. Get a certificate of destruction with every job. Hard drives and old backup media are priced separately, so list them. In the form, give your ZIP code, a count of boxes or bins, one visit or recurring, and anything about stairs, docks or hill driveways.
