California boasts lots of drive-through businesses, but one of the most unusual is located in San Jose’s Cambrian Park area, where customers can drive through to a truck that shreds personal documents.

Red Dog Shred is located on Union Avenue on the same plot of land that houses Lunardi’s and Wendy’s. Formerly United Shredding, which took care of corporate and government shredding needs, owner Cliff Pranschke (pronounced “pran-ski”) sold to Cintas Corporation two years ago. the business now is for residential and small business drop-off customers.

The business is family owned and operated by Pranschke, his partner Linda Ballard and his daughters, Jennifer and Alicia. Customers are welcome to bring one or more banker’s boxes to the Union location. the company also offers its services in Milpitas, Fairoaks, Folsom, downtown Sacramento and soon in Mountain View.

Customers come in with their documents and watch attendants shred the material and pay the $7 per box, which typically contains about 20 to 25 pounds of paper. Pranschke says some customers bring in a box or two every couple of weeks. Red Dog accepts all types of materials–paper, cardboard, credit cards, CDs, disks and other media and x-rays. everything that comes in and is shredded or processed is then delivered to a recycling plant.

The company also accepts most types of e-waste including computers, monitors, television sets, phones, fax machines, copiers, computer components, cables, cords, mice and keyboards. It does not accept household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, refrigerators, heaters or air conditioning units, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, oil, paint or other hazardous materials.

When recycling computers, Red Dog removes and shreds the hard drive so that any personal information is thoroughly destroyed. It can take care of one or a larger quantity, depending on the client.

“We give out boxes free to people that need them or they can bring their documents in plastic bags. we use bankers boxes because we know what they weigh,” Pranschke says.

The shredding unit is a large truck that Pranschke says can shred 10 boxes in three minutes. Once, he says, a woman brought in her documents, watched them get shredded and left. “She came back the next day, apologized for forgetting to pay and then paid us,” he says.

He started out in construction, cleaning up water and fire damage for insurance companies and removing mold and asbestos, but he says he got tired of it. “This business was a spur of the moment idea,” he says. “I had about 20 boxes of documents that needed shredding. I decided to change businesses and purchased a shredding truck on Sunday and opened for business on Monday. at one point I had five or six trucks on the road.”

Business was slow at first, he says, but he joined the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and started advertising, and businesses throughout San Jose and Campbell started using his services. the current location at 2677 Union Ave. is on land that was sold last year by the Cosentino family to JP Dinapoli Companies and is located behind Lunardi’s. Pranschke expects to move the Cambrian location at some point, but plans to stay in the area.

“We have no intention of moving until Dinapoli plans to build something here. If we do have to move, there’s plenty of places we can relocate to nearby on Bascom,” he says.

People love to come into the office, he says. Until recently, they would come in to say hi to Roxie, Pranschke’s golden retriever. Two other dogs now greet customers: Trixie, a Shih Tzu, and Sadie, a black lab.

Red Dog Shred is located at 2677 Union Ave. and is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the business can be reached at 408.377.2925.

<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_19932823tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_19932823Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:02:53 GMT”>Drive-through shredding service located in San Jose’s Cambrian Park

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Tags: credit cards, linda ballard

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