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Updates: JVS.04.13.10, mnb04.15.10 Revision: 02
Three Roto-Rooter franchises are
using Smart Cars for their sales personnel, and All Seasons One Hour
Heating & Air Conditioning, Huntsville, Al., is using two Chevy Aveos for
its comfort advisors.
Roto-Rooter sales representatives
have been driving the three-cylinder
Smart Car Passion model for a couple of months. Over the next year,
management will receive regular
reports, regarding the cars’ mileage
and usefulness.
A franchise manager reported that
the car gets 39 to 41 mpg around town,
according to Paul Abrams, public relations manager, Roto-Rooter Services
Co. If the Smart Cars in use at the three
franchises prove to be helpful and efficient, the company will field more of
them, or possibly some hybrid sales
cars; also, the company is researching
the possibility of using fuel-efficient
cargo vans.
According to Donna Lanier, president and owner of All Seasons One
Hour Heating & Air Conditioning,
the Chevy Aveos are very fuel efficient and unique; the cars are getting
a lot of attention when on the road,
which increases the company’s marketing exposure.
Trim: 2.125” x 9. 25” (NO BLEED)
Printing & Finishing: 4/C Offset
“The car is getting 28 mpg to
32 mpg in the city and 35 mpg to
38 mpg on the highway, giving the
company the opportunity to save on
fuel,” says Lanier.
POWERED BY VEGETABLE OIL
If contractors and fleet managers are
not in the market to buy a brand new
fuel-efficient or alternative-fuel vehicle, and happen to own a diesel vehicle,
they can convert it to run on vegetable oil. Clint Kershaw, owner of a Mr.
Rooter Plumbing franchise in Pleasant
Valley, N. Y., did just that — he decided
to buy a conversion kit and use filtered
vegetable oil from restaurants in his
F-350, 1-ton pickup truck.
Publication: GM Contractor
In order to use vegetable oil as a fuel,
he purchased and installed the necessary parts and system from PlantDrive,
a division of NBT Building Products
Ltd., which provides kits and components to convert diesel engines to
use 100% vegetable oil as fuel without
chemical processing or the addition of
harmful chemicals.
According to Kershaw, restaurants
have been receptive to his reusing their
vegetable oil.
“I get vegetable oil from restaurants
that were literally throwing the vegetable oil away when they were done with
it; now I fuel my truck with it,” explains
Kershaw. “You get the same mileage as
with diesel fuel, and the engine knows
no difference. There is no conversion
to the engine; it’s just putting valves in
to switch back and forth between the
vegetable oil and diesel fuel.
“I have to filter it and heat it because
vegetable oil gets thick in the cold, so
it has to be heated; so now in the win-
ter, I can use it, but not all the time,”
adds Kershaw. “I have both fuels in my
truck; but if you live in a warm climate,
it’s crazy not to do this because you can
use it all the time.”
Kershaw says there is a possibility
of converting other trucks at his fran-
chise to run on vegetable oil in the near
future.
“My septic truck and pumping truck
can be converted — any diesel engine
truck can be converted,” comments
Kershaw. “The difficult part of this is
the supply end; a busy restaurant will
put out 10-15 gallons a week, so you
need a lot of places to get the oil from,
so the sourcing can be difficult.”
The future of green vehicles
According to a new study from
Pike Research, a market research and
consulting firm that provides analysis
of global clean technology markets,
a large number of fleet managers
are utilizing hybrid-electric vehicles
as a solution, with hybrid fleet sales
expected to surpass 830,000 vehicles
in 2015, says Aaron Fowles, corpo-
rate communications specialist for
Sanyo North America, a component
