We’ve all heard about the need to switch to other fuels, but how many of us are actually doing something about it. A small county north of New York, Westchester County, has recently started converting some of its fleet vehicles to run on left over grease and oil from restaurants. Despite being exempt from the gas tax government run agencies are feeling the pressure from gas prices as well.

The basis for this is that they have to run every single day, the trash collectors have to collect trash and the mail man must deliver the mail. The fifteen vehicles which were all converted to run entirely on left over cooking oil cost a total of about twenty five thousand dollars to convert, that sums up to about 1600 dollars per vehicle. It sounds expensive, however for a vehicle like a trash collection unit annual fuel costs can be far over four thousand dollars and considering that the conversion makes running the vehicle relatively free it is definitely worth it.

For the average consumer this might sound like an unreasonable demand, that we all turn our cars into grease guzzlers instead of gas guzzlers however there are industries that the benefits of oil powered cars could benefit. The first major industry that it could change could be in rental cars. Imagine you are in let’s say Atlanta and want to rent a car in Atlanta or rent a van in Atlanta for a couple of days, All you need is probably one tank of gas to get around. It would be so easy for a company like triangle rent a car Atlanta to convert a portion of its fleet to run on oil. First they could make a drop off point where local restaurants could leave their old and dirty cooking oil, they could then process the oil near the rental place producing enough product to power a good portion of their fleet of vehicles.

It all sounds good until you ask the question why a rental car company like Triangle Rent a Car Atlanta would care about switching their fuel source. The answer is clear, the cost of running its fleet of cars would decrease to close to zero and would thus be that much more profitable. Imagine being able to give the customer a special deal where they pay a few dollars less to drive a car that runs on cooking oil, only to then drop all operating costs, that transition could make the company an extra fifty dollars per car they rented out.