Article URL: http://www.pizzagalaxy.com/pizzatalk/freefuel.html
Title: Pizza Delivery Costs too high? Fuel your delivery car for Free.
by
Rudy Vener
Yesterday we had a rude shock. We had to pay $50 to fill up our
gas tank. Based on this alone, we canceled a trip we were
thinking of taking. We were lucky to have the option.
If you are in the pizza business and regularly deliver, you might
not be so lucky. Delivery might be such an ingrained part of
your business that it could drastically impact your sales if you
simply stop delivering or cut back.
With gas prices so high, the cost of gas used to deliver a pizza
is becoming a major factor. But now there is something you can
do about it.
What's the solution?
Convert a diesel car or van to run on cooking oil and fuel it
with the waste cooking oil from your restaurant.
Don't laugh. At least one pizza operator is doing just that. A
recent news article describes how Keith Dalton of Cosmic Pizza,
Morgantown, West Virginia converted his diesel truck to run on
waste cooking oil from his restaurant. Dalton claims to get 50
miles per gallon from cooking oil.
Don't start pouring your waste oil into your diesel car's fuel
tank just yet though. You will need to buy a conversion kit for
your vehicle for it to work properly.
Why a conversion kit? Because cooking oil needs to be heated to
150 degrees F in order to reduce its viscosity and let it flow
through the fuel system correctly.
Your waste oil also needs to be filtered to remove the crud that
gets mixed into it with cooking.
Luckily you can purchase a conversion kit for your vehicle that
handles these technical details. There are now several sources
of diesel to cooking oil conversion kits on the market. The two
basic systems are two tank kits and single tank kits. Two tank
systems let you switch back and forth between diesel and cooking
oil while single tank kits let you run exclusively on cooking oil.
To convert your car, van or truck you need to buy the kit that is
specific for your vehicle. There are several companies providing
these kits. The kits typically cost about $790 and can be
installed by someone who is fairly handy and not afraid of
getting their hands dirty.
Here are three sources of kits just to get you started:
GreaseCar Vegetable Fuel Systems, online at www.greasecar.com,
phone (413) 529-0013.
Greasel Conversions, Inc. online at www.greasel.com, phone (866)
473-2735
Elsbett, online at www.elsbett.de/engl/
These companies' web sites also provide detailed instructions on
how to collect and store the waste oil to ensure it is free from
water and bacterial contamination.
If you have been paying to have your waste oil hauled away, you
will be seeing even more benefits as you save on this expense.
What better way to get rid of your waste oil than to power your
delivery vehicles with it?
Another benefit of this conversion is that the vehicle will not
smell of diesel or petroleum. Drivers of waste oil powered cars
report that their vehicles smell of tacos, fried chicken or
Chinese food. Think how many sales you are going to get when you
drive a delivery vehicle that exudes the aroma of pizza from its
exhaust.
With only a little effort you can recoup your investment in the
conversion in under a year and from then on it is money in your
pocket.
And finally, there is the community good will that results from
driving an environmentally friendly vehicle. Drivers of cooking
oil powered vehicles have taken their cars into EPA test
facilities out of curiosity to see what the emissions were. They
learned that they are far lower than for standard diesel fuels.
It may be time for you to seriously consider converting your
diesel vehicle to run on cooking oil. At a time when gasoline
prices are forcing other restaurants to hike delivery charges and
raise prices, this is one way that you can save on both fuel and
waste disposal costs while demonstrating to your community that
your business is environmentally friendly.
About the author:
Rudy Vener is founder and president of Pizza Galaxy, which
specializes in online ordering and Internet marketing for
independent pizza shops and restaurants. Visit
http://www.pizzagalaxy.com to read more Pizza Talk articles or to
contact the author.
Chef2Chef News Desk