Sara,

I'm glad you've received some responses to your question, and I'd just like to add some other things to consider based on my own experiences.  I've found that generally pricing for commercial offsite storage is determined by volume, so the more records you store with a vendor the better your pricing may be--depending upon the length of your contract (long-term contracts may provide even better pricing, in addition to high volumes).  

Vendors typically charge by the cubic foot, so they'll usually want to know how many cubic feet you want to store with them, not how many boxes.  For EXAMPLE, if a vendor charged you $.50 per cubic foot per month, to store your records, a 1.2 cubic foot box (standard letter/legal size) will actually cost you $.60 per month (1.2 x $.50).  If you had 1,000 1.2 cubic foot boxes to store, you'd pay $600.00 each month (1,000 x $.60).  

I think vendors generally make more $$$ on services (i.e. retrievals, refiles, etc.), which are also usually priced by the cubic foot as well.  For EXAMPLE, if a vendor charged you $3.00 per cubic foot to retrieve a single, 1.2 cubic foot box, that actually translates into $3.60 for that box ($3.00 x 1.2).  Usually retrieval and refile rates are the same, so you'll pay another $3.60 to return that box to the vendor as a refile.  Now you're up to $7.20 for that box, but you then have to factor in a $1.50 per cubic foot handling charge for both retrieval and refile services for that box, which adds another $3.60 ($1.50 x 1.2 x 2) to the mix now totaling $10.80 for that single 1.2 cubic foot box.  However, you're not done yet because you haven't added in delivery and pickup transportation charges.

So you see, it can get complicated and expensive, and there'll be additional charges for rush retrievals, fax on demand, after hours access, etc.

Unfortunately, I can't share our vendor pricing with you (the numbers I used above are EXAMPLES, and do not reflect any actual charges by our vendor), but it seems like the responses you've received so far are spot on!  

Please let me know if you find any sort of industry guidance on what these kinds of services "should" cost, as whoever said that "it depends," was exactly right.  In addition to volume, it also depends on what part of the country your records are being stored in (pricing will be different if you're in New York, NY vs. Ogden, UT); the media of records being stored (paper vs. digital vs. microforms); whether you need a vault; whether you need a temperature controlled environment; the quality and reputation of your vendor; whether you have odd-size boxes to store; and many other factors like these will also affect pricing for offsite storage services.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your project. 

Thanks.
Earl

Pipeline Records and Information Management Excellence... Get PRIMEd!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earl Johnson, Jr., CRM  |  Corporate Records Manager
Colonial Pipeline Company  |  1185 Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 100, Alpharetta, GA 30009
Email: [log in to unmask]  |  Office: 678-762-2586  |  Blackberry: 404-402-4420

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