Inventory for your quote request: what do you provide?
You want to request a quote for archive destruction, but are unsure what the supplier needs to know. A good supplier can give a price indication on little information. But ‘little’ is not the same as ‘nothing’. Here is what you should provide, and what you explicitly do not need to work out.
The minimum set
With these four data points we can usually give a price indication within 24 hours:
- Location and postcode. For drive distance from our base in Amsterdam.
- Volume order-of-magnitude. Number of cabinets, boxes or linear metres. Read how much paper is in a ring-binder cabinet for a quick conversion.
- Type of media. Paper only? Or also hardware, optical disks, plastic cards?
- One-off or recurring. Read about one-off versus recurring if you are unsure.
The useful extra set
Not required, but it sharpens the quote:
- Desired DIN level. Default P-5; P-6 for special categories of personal data.
- Required documentation. Standard certificate, or also photo reporting, IMEI list, serial-number list?
- Accessibility of the location. Lift, parking, quay, or stairs.
- Presence on site. Who is the contact person, on which days are they available?
- Specific deadlines. For year-end closing, a move, an audit.
What you do not need to work out
- Exact weight. We bill afterwards on actual weight. Your estimate is for quote purposes.
- Manually separating different streams. Mixing is fine. We separate on site if needed.
- Staples, paperclips, ring binders removed. Our industrial shredder handles them.
- Sorting documents into chronological order. Not relevant for destruction.
- Removing plastic sleeves. In mobile destruction they go through too.
The biggest waste of time at organisations requesting for the first time is exact counting. An estimate in boxes is more than enough.
Sample request (short)
Hello, we are a law firm in Amsterdam-Noord, postcode 1034. We want to clear our archive of more than 7 years old, about 8 archive cabinets plus 4 removal boxes. Paper only, no hardware. One-off, no contract. P-5 because of professional secrecy. Available in week 23 or 24. Price indication and earliest available date please.
Our reply: price indication within 24 hours, earliest available date, any follow-up questions.
Sample request (detailed)
Hello, IT department of an SME in Hilversum, 1217. We want destruction of: paper archive (about 12 cabinets), 80 old HDDs, 30 SSDs, 200 USB sticks, 50 access badges, and a collection of CD/DVDs from pre-2010 backups. P-5 for paper, H-5 for hardware, E-4 for badges. Requirements: certificate with serial-number list per HDD/SSD, IMEI list for smartphones (not present in this job), photo reporting for the SSD batch (customer contract requires it). Deadline: 30 June because of ISO audit on 1 July. Quote with DIN classification per media type listed separately please.
Our reply: detailed quote within 24 hours, with price per media type.
Who is your point of contact on site?
State in the request who is the point of contact on the day of execution. It does not have to be the requester. The operator comes round, asks for that person, and runs the process through with them. The point of contact:
- Directs the operator to the collection point or archive cabinets.
- Confirms the scope (what is in, what is out).
- Signs the certificate.
- Has access to lift, keys, quay.
Retention period test beforehand
Before you request a quote: know for sure what may go. Run your inventory past the GDPR retention period cheatsheet for the standard rules. For sector-specific periods (care, legal, financial) use the specific articles. Documents whose period has not yet expired do not belong in this round.
What is in our quote?
- Unit price or weight price.
- Base call-out fee (fixed).
- Any surcharge for specific requirements (photo reporting, weekend deployment, high-security classification).
- Expected total based on your estimate.
- Availability: first two proposed dates.
- Validity (usually 30 days).
A short email is enough. We do the rest.
Write in a few sentences: location, volume, type of media, deadline. We come back within a working day with a price indication and a date.
Read more about the pickup serviceReady for a quote? Email us via desnipperaar.nl. We reply within working hours with a price indication and earliest available date.