When Cam Caudle joined the U.S. Army after his college graduation in 1991, he didn’t want to be just an everyday soldier. He wanted to go above and beyond, so he set his goal high and became an Army Ranger.
Now, as the franchise owner of Shred360, based in Wesley Chapel, he has been carrying that desire to reach higher into the business world.
“We take a lot of pride in doing a great job for people and doing more than is expected of us,” Cam says. “People are happy to see us arrive, and my guys are phenomenal, so (our customers are) happy when we’re done, too.”
Cam started his business in 2015 when his friends and fellow military veterans wanted to expand their South Carolina-based document-shredding business into Florida. He agreed to start a franchise in Wesley Chapel, where he lives. The franchise model hasn’t expanded, but Cam’s business surely has.
Back then, his company was just him and one truck. Now, he has five trucks and a staff of three full-time drivers, a couple of part time drivers and a sales director, and the business covers the entire Tampa Bay area and then some — north to Gainesville, south to Port Charlotte, and east to Orlando.
Shred360 provides primarily on-site document shredding and hard drive destruction for both businesses and individuals.
Although Shred360 does have a drop-off option, Cam says, “Most of the time, we go to wherever the material is, whether that’s a home, business, or storage unit. From a security standpoint, it’s better that people can watch their documents be destroyed right in front of them.” He adds that although the destruction happens inside the truck, “it is visible on a screen.”
He also says that the alternatives to on-site shredding are far from ideal. You can either use a home office shredder, which is cumbersome and time consuming, or drop documents off at a store, where you’re often leaving them in a bin — for who knows how long and without any idea of who will have access to them until they are destroyed.
Karen Wallace is practice administrator for Friendly Smiles Dental Care, with four locations in the Tampa area. She says she was one of Shred360’s first customers.
“We needed an alternative to having shredders in our office,” Wallace says. “It was so loud and disruptive, and not really sufficient for the amount of paper we have to destroy, due to HIPAA regulations.”
She adds that she’s continued to work with Shred360 because of Cam and the way he runs the company.
“In business, it’s so refreshing to meet someone like him,” Karen says. “I’ve always been so impressed. If one of his guys is out for some reason, he comes out, driving the truck (himself).”
She calls Cam the “consummate professional” and says everyone he hires follows in his footsteps.
“When they come in, they’re quiet, they don’t interrupt any work, they say ‘hi’ politely and depart,” she says. “It’s like white glove service.”
Medical offices such as Karen’s, along with law firms, credit unions, hospitals and other businesses with a lot of records that need to be destroyed, have ongoing service with Shred360, where documents are picked up on a regular basis, anywhere from once a week to once every twelve weeks.
The other service is a one-time purge, although Cam says many of his clients purge again at a later date.
Shred360 can accommodate everyone from residential customers with a few boxes to commercial customers with a full warehouse — and pretty much anything in between.
“In the time it takes an employee to shred a box of documents at an office shredder,” Cam says, “we can do 250 pounds.”
Before starting Shred360, Cam says he sold all kinds of things, from furniture to medical equipment, but he says none of those jobs were exactly the right fit.
“I love what I do now,” he says.
He appreciates the opportunity to make his customers happy — and you can’t argue with his results —of 630 Google reviews, 628 are five stars (out of five), and he insists that the two four-star reviews his business has received— from eight and five years ago, respectively — should have been five stars, too.
Giving Back
Cam also sees his business as a way to both give back to the community and set an example for his children and stepchildren. He and Ines, his wife of three years, have five children between the two of them.
Shred360 does a charitable event every month, where they set up like a drive through lane at a particular location. People pull up next to the truck, stay in their car, have their documents shredded while they wait, and then make a donation to the selected charity.
In nine years, Cam says Shred360 has raised more than $70,000 for organizations that are doing good things in the community, including the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Community Food Pantry, and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
“These events are important for serving the community where I live,” he says, “We’re busy, so sometimes it’s hard to fit those in, but they’re important, so we still do them.”
To find out about upcoming charity shredding events, visit Shred360.com/Tampa or “Shred360Tampa” on Facebook.
Cam also has been a long-time member of the Rotary Club of New Tampa, which meets on Friday mornings at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club, and in 2021, he was one of the co-founders (and is still a Board member) of the New Tampa Rotary’s After Hours Satellite Club. He says that Rotary gives him another outlet to volunteer, support the community, and show his kids the importance of serving others.
It goes back to those early lessons he learned in the Army. He started active duty two weeks after graduating from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, in 1991 on a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, and stayed in active duty until 1996.
“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now, if not for the Army,”Cam says. Not only is that where he met the owners of Shred360, but also because of the values that have carried over from that experience to his business.
“Doing things with integrity, doing more than what’s expected,” he says, “My motto is. ‘When you think you’ve done enough, do more./”
He’s proud that Shred360 has won “Business of the Year” through the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce and that he has also been honored as its volunteer of the year.
For a price quote on a one-time purge of documents for your home or business, or if you would like information about setting up ongoing service, call Shred360 at (813) 944- 2223, visit Shred360.com/Tampa.
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