WINTER HAVEN, FL – Since Polk County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office began using the microGreen Extended Performance Oil Filter for 800 of its fleet vehicles in 2010, the Sheriff’s Office has been able to lower maintenance costs. Use of the filters allows for extended oil intervals, which in turn reduces vehicle downtime and waste, according to a case study released by microGreen.

Prior to switching to the microGreen filters, the Sheriff’s Office changed the oil in pursuit vehicles every 5,000 miles and on administrative vehicles every 7,500 miles. This resulted in oil changes three to four times annually. The case study stated that each oil change took about one hour and 45 minutes, including driving time to and from the service provider, and for 800 vehicles, this translate to significant downtime. With the new oil filter, the Sheriff’s Office reduced its oil changes to just one annually, reducing fleet oil use by 70% and oil filters by 50%.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office fleet manager Francis Hart chose to first test the filter on 25 vehicles for 30,000 miles and performed multiple oil analysis tests before expanding its use. Hart still has each vehicle’s oil analyzed at 30,000 miles to ensure the filters are still performing.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office has 1,400 pieces of equipment on active duty, including motorcycles, buses, vans, sedans, and specialty equipment. Patrol cars accumulate an average of 18,000-20,000 miles per year, while administrative vehicles add an average of 15,000 miles per year. Collectively, the Sheriff’s vehicles drive more than 1.4 million miles per month, according to the case study.