Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
Shredding pickup cost by distance: Nashua vs Portsmouth
Shredding pickup cost by distance comes down to one flat fee per trip, set by the zone your address falls in. Here are worked examples for a Nashua office in Zone 2 and a Portsmouth office in Zone 3, and the point where driving your own boxes to Tewksbury saves real money.
Pickup adds $129.95, $159.95 or $199.95 by zone. The shredding rate stays 99¢ a pound.
- 3 pickup zones
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+
Quick answer
New Hampshire Document Shredding prices pickups with one flat transportation fee per trip by zone: $129.95 for Zone 1 (the border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow), $159.95 for Zone 2 (greater Nashua and Manchester), and $199.95 for Zone 3 (the Seacoast, including Portsmouth). The shredding rate is the same 99 cents a pound, or $20 per banker’s box at 10 boxes or more, plus $34.90 per job. Twenty boxes cost $594.85 picked up in Nashua and $634.85 in Portsmouth, against $434.90 if you drive them to Tewksbury.
How shredding pickup cost by distance works
We shred in one place, our office at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, Massachusetts. When we pick up from a New Hampshire address, the boxes ride back to that office and get shredded after they arrive. So the only part of the bill that depends on where you are is the trip. Everything else is the same rate a walk-in customer pays at the counter.
We price that trip by zone, not by the mile. Each zone has one flat transportation fee per pickup. It does not change with the number of boxes, and it does not creep up mile by mile inside the zone. You know the number before the driver leaves. Our main page on off-site shredding covers the whole pickup process. This post is only about how the distance changes the price.
| Zone | Transportation fee per pickup | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | $129.95 | The Tewksbury area and the New Hampshire border towns, such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow |
| Zone 2 | $159.95 | Greater Nashua and Manchester |
| Zone 3 | $199.95 | The Seacoast, including Portsmouth, and points farther north |
| Any other town | Zone confirmed when you book | Give us the address and we tell you the zone before you commit |
Three more charges appear on every pickup, and none of them depend on distance. The shredding itself is 99 cents a pound under 10 boxes, or $15 per small box and $20 per large banker’s box once you reach 10. Every job carries a $14.95 HIPAA filing fee for the Certificate of Destruction and a $19.95 environmental fee for recycling the shred. That is $34.90 per job, whether we drive five miles or fifty.
The zone prices assume ground-level or elevator access. Stairs or restricted access add a handling fee that we quote up front. More on that further down.
Why a flat zone fee matters more on small jobs
Because the transportation fee is flat, its weight on the bill depends almost entirely on how many boxes share it. Spread over one box, it is the whole story. Spread over forty, it is a rounding error. The table shows the fee per banker’s box for each zone at different job sizes.
| Boxes on the pickup | Zone 1 fee per box | Zone 2 fee per box (Nashua) | Zone 3 fee per box (Portsmouth) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $129.95 | $159.95 | $199.95 |
| 5 | $25.99 | $31.99 | $39.99 |
| 10 | $13.00 | $16.00 | $20.00 |
| 20 | $6.50 | $8.00 | $10.00 |
| 40 | $3.25 | $4.00 | $5.00 |
Two things jump out. First, the gap between zones shrinks fast. On a single box, Portsmouth pays $40 more than Nashua for the trip. On forty boxes, the difference is a dollar a box. Second, at ten boxes a Portsmouth pickup adds about as much per box as the box itself costs to shred. At forty boxes, the trip is a quarter of that.
That is why our standard advice does not change much by town. For a few boxes, almost anyone should drive. For a big job, almost anyone should book the pickup. The distance mostly moves the line between the two.
Nashua (Zone 2) vs Portsmouth (Zone 3): worked examples
Here are the same four jobs priced three ways: driven to our counter, picked up from a Nashua address, and picked up from a Portsmouth address. Each banker’s box is about 30 pounds. Jobs under 10 boxes are priced by the pound, and 10 or more at $20 a box. Every total includes the $34.90 per-job fees. The full rate card is on our shredding rates page.
| Job | Drop-off in Tewksbury | Nashua pickup, Zone 2 | Portsmouth pickup, Zone 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 box (about 30 lb) | $64.60 | $224.55 | $264.55 |
| 5 boxes (about 150 lb) | $183.40 | $343.35 | $383.35 |
| 10 boxes | $234.90 | $394.85 | $434.85 |
| 20 boxes | $434.90 | $594.85 | $634.85 |
| 40 boxes | $834.90 | $994.85 | $1,034.85 |
Take a Nashua law office with 20 boxes of closed files. Driving them down costs $434.90. A Zone 2 pickup costs $594.85. The pickup premium is $159.95 for the whole job, or $8 a box.
Now take a Portsmouth property manager with the same 20 boxes of old leases and applications. The pickup comes to $634.85, which is $199.95 more than driving. If any of those files hold tenant credit reports, the FTC Disposal Rule, 16 CFR Part 682, says to burn, pulverize or shred them so they cannot be read or reconstructed, and the Certificate of Destruction is your record that you did.
One box tells the opposite story. A single box picked up in Portsmouth costs $264.55, more than four times the $64.60 it costs at our counter. Unless there is truly no one to drive, a single box should never ride in our van.
The four numbers that set a pickup price
Everything on this page comes from four numbers. Learn them and you can price any pickup in your head.
- The zone fee is per pickup, not per box
- The shredding rate is the same 99 cents a pound as the counter
- Ten or more boxes switch to $15 small or $20 large per box
- Your zone is confirmed for your exact address when you book
- Stairs or restricted access add a handling fee, quoted up front
When driving beats the shredding pickup cost by distance
In cash terms, driving almost always wins. The real question is what the drive costs you in gas, wear and time, and whether that is more or less than the zone fee. A fair way to price the car is the IRS standard mileage rate for business use, which is 76 cents a mile for July 1 through December 31, 2026.
Here is the math for the three towns we get asked about most. The drive cost is the round trip at the IRS rate. The last column is what the pickup really buys you once you subtract the car: your time back.
| Starting point | Round trip, approx. | Car cost at 76¢ a mile | Zone fee | What the pickup buys you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salem (Zone 1) | 30 miles, about 50 minutes | $22.80 | $129.95 | $107.15 for about an hour of your time |
| Nashua (Zone 2) | 44 miles, about 70 minutes | $33.44 | $159.95 | $126.51 for about an hour and a half |
| Portsmouth (Zone 3) | 100 miles, about 2 hours | $76.00 | $199.95 | $123.95 for about two and a half hours |
The time column adds a few minutes at our counter to the round-trip drive. Traffic on I-95, Route 3 or I-495 can stretch any of these. Read it this way. From Nashua, booking the pickup is like paying yourself about $84 an hour to stay at the office. From Portsmouth, it works out closer to $50 an hour, because the trip is long and the fee is only $40 more.
So the farther you are, the better value the pickup becomes for your time, even though the fee is higher. A Portsmouth office manager loses most of a morning on the drive. A Salem resident is back before lunch. Our guide for Salem NH to Tewksbury drop-off shows how short that border-town run really is.
Count your car before you count your time. If the boxes take two trips, double the car cost and the hours. Forty boxes from Portsmouth in a sedan could mean two round trips, about $152 in car cost and five hours on the road. The $199.95 pickup wins easily.
Price your own pickup in five steps
You can work out any pickup before you call. It takes a pencil and about two minutes.
- Count the boxes. Use standard banker’s boxes at about 30 pounds each. Loose bags count by weight.
- Price the shredding. Under 10 boxes, multiply the pounds by 99 cents. At 10 or more, use $15 per small box or $20 per large box.
- Add the per-job fees. Add $34.90 for the HIPAA filing fee and the environmental fee. That covers your Certificate of Destruction.
- Add your zone. $129.95 for Zone 1, $159.95 for Zone 2 such as Nashua, $199.95 for Zone 3 such as Portsmouth. For other towns, the zone is confirmed when you book.
- Compare with the drive. Multiply your round-trip miles by 76 cents, add your time, and set it against the zone fee. If the drive is cheaper and someone can do it, bring the boxes to our counter.
For a business, the comparison has one more line: whose time is it? If the person who would drive is the practice manager or a paralegal, the cost of their afternoon often settles it. Our checklist for shredding pickup preparation helps you get the boxes ready so the driver’s visit is quick.
Stairs, elevators and other things that change the quote
Distance sets the zone fee, but the building can add to it. Our zone prices assume ground-level or elevator access. That covers a loading dock, a garage, a first-floor storage room, or an upper floor with a working elevator.
Stairs are different. A third-floor walk-up above a shop on Market Street in Portsmouth, or an office over a storefront on Main Street in Nashua, means our driver carries every box down by hand. Restricted access, like a building that requires a security escort or a set loading window, adds time too. In either case we charge a handling fee and quote it up front, when you book.
The fix is simple. Tell us about the building when you call. If you can stage the boxes on the ground floor before the driver arrives, the handling fee may not apply at all.
Portsmouth homeowners with only a bag or two of paper sometimes ask whether to shred at home instead. That works for small amounts. The City of Portsmouth asks residents to put paper shreds in a paper bag, staple or tape it shut, and add it to the paper recycling, or to seal them inside a cardboard box. For anything bigger than a bag, the drive or the pickup is faster than a home shredder.
Who should drive, and who should book the pickup
We would rather sell you the cheaper option that fits than the expensive one that does not. Here is how we steer callers from the three zones.
Drive it down
Households with one to five boxes from any zone. Border-town customers with up to 10 or 20 boxes and a free afternoon. Anyone who needs a witnessed shredding session, which happens at our office anyway.
Book a Zone 2 pickup
Nashua and Manchester offices with 20 boxes or more, practices that cannot spare front-desk staff, and estates with nobody able to lift. Our page on shredding in Nashua covers every option in the city.
Book a Zone 3 pickup
Portsmouth and Seacoast offices with 10 boxes or more, since the drive eats most of a morning. Single boxes still belong in the car. Our page on shredding in Portsmouth has the city’s full picture.
If you are torn, batch. Holding boxes until you have ten or more drops the shredding rate to $20 a box and spreads one zone fee across the whole pile. Just keep them somewhere locked while they wait. For a side-by-side look at the two main services, read our comparison of drop-off vs off-site shredding.
Before any big purge, check what you are allowed to destroy. The IRS says most income tax records can go after 3 years, employment tax records after 4, records with income left out worth more than 25 percent of what you reported after 6, and records supporting a bad debt deduction or worthless securities loss after 7.
Frequently asked questions
How is shredding pickup cost by distance calculated?
By zone, not by the mile. Each pickup carries one flat transportation fee: $129.95 for Zone 1, $159.95 for Zone 2 and $199.95 for Zone 3. On top of that you pay the normal shredding rate, 99 cents a pound or $20 per banker’s box at 10 or more, plus $34.90 in per-job fees.
Which zone is Nashua in, and which is Portsmouth?
Greater Nashua is in Zone 2, at $159.95 per pickup. Portsmouth is on the Seacoast, which is Zone 3, at $199.95 per pickup. We confirm the zone for your exact address when you book, so you know the transportation fee before the driver comes.
Does the zone fee go up with more boxes?
No. The zone fee is the same for one box or forty. That is why pickup gets cheaper per box as the job grows. In Portsmouth, the $199.95 fee works out to about $40 a box on five boxes and $5 a box on forty.
Is it cheaper to drive from Portsmouth to Tewksbury?
In cash, yes. A round trip of about 100 miles costs about $76 at the IRS business rate of 76 cents a mile, against a $199.95 Zone 3 fee. But it takes about two and a half hours with counter time. For a few boxes, drive. For 10 or more, most offices book the pickup.
What does 20 boxes cost from Nashua compared with Portsmouth?
Twenty banker’s boxes at $20 each are $400, plus $34.90 in per-job fees. Picked up in Nashua, add $159.95 for a total of $594.85. Picked up in Portsmouth, add $199.95 for $634.85. Driven to our Tewksbury counter, the same job costs $434.90.
What if my office is up a flight of stairs?
Zone prices assume ground-level or elevator access. Stairs or restricted access, such as a security escort or a fixed loading window, add a handling fee. We quote it up front when you book. If you can stage the boxes at ground level before the driver arrives, tell us.
Can you pick up the same day I call?
We do not promise same-day service. Pickups are by appointment, so book a little ahead and choose a day that suits you. If you need paper gone today, bring it to our Tewksbury counter any weekday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Drop-off paper is shredded the same business day.
Is the paper shredded at my address?
No. We load your sealed boxes and bring them to our office at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA, where they are shredded after they arrive. Every job comes with a Certificate of Destruction. If you want to watch, book a witnessed session at our office.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Standard mileage rates (2026 business rate) (checked November 2026)
- City of Portsmouth, Shredded Paper Instructions (checked November 2026)
- Federal Trade Commission, Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How (checked November 2026)
- Internal Revenue Service, How long should I keep records? (checked November 2026)
Get your zone and your total before you book
Give us your address and a box count and we will confirm your zone and the full price. Or skip the fee entirely and drive the boxes down any weekday between 10 and 5.
Where we shred
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38, near I-495. Free parking out front.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Witnessed sessions and pickups outside these hours by appointment.
- Drop-off: walk in, 99¢ per pound
- Pickup: $129.95, $159.95 or $199.95 by zone
- Witnessed: $1.99 per pound, $100 minimum
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.