The Sheriff’s Office in Buncombe County, N.C., will save more than $13,000 per year by running their fleet of ten Ford Crown Victorias on propane. This will result in reducing close to 20 tons of greenhouse gas emissions! Buncombe County received funding under the Southeast Propane Autogas Development Program (SPADP), administered by Virginia Clean Cities.

Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan wants to do both, boost their bottom line by saving on fuel costs and also reducing emissions by utilizing cleaner burning cars – “We were looking at two main things when it came to switching to alternative fuel vehicles.”

It should be noted that the Buncombe patrol cars travel an average of  25,000 miles per year per vehicle, and the fleet is using more than 17,000 gallons of propane autogas annually. Fleets in western North Carolina are supported by the Asheville-based Land of Sky Clean Vehicles Coalition.

It’s great news to learn about alternative fuels such as propane saving on fuel costs and lowering greenhouse emissions. I would add that vehicle fleet managers who are considering alternative fuels should also consider adding a fleet tracking system to go even further in their fuel saving efforts. Those systems provide additional operational cost reductions by managing driver behavior such as idling and speeding, a known factor in reducing fuel costs.