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One of the given facts about funeral cars is that they use a lot of gas. There’s really no way of getting around it, you’re not going to get great funeral mileage in a hearse. Adding to the problem is the fact that manufacturers, for the most part, have turned a blind eye to the funeral industry.

One company in Japan, however, may be about to change that. There is a hearse company in Japan who intends to bring Green technology to the funeral car industry. The company, Lequios, is building a hearse based on the Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle as its base. The hearse is designed for families who want to be environmentally conscious, even when it comes to funeral considerations.

It is expected that the fuel economy for this particular funeral car would be as much as 49 miles per gallon.

When most people think about funeral cars, they don’t think about a customized flashy car. However, there is now a website devoted to the hearse driver, both in and out hof the funeral industry. For a different take on funeral cars, visit the Hearse Driver website at http://www.hearsedriver.com.

While you’re here, you’ll find all sorts of things. There are pictures of funeral cars, customized hearses, and plenty of odd and interesting pictures. There’s also a calendar of hearse-related events. You can find a classified ad section where hearse sellers and buyers can connect. There is even an introduction to the hearse driving community where you can learn the lingo.

There are plenty of ways to interact, as well. There’s a guest book, a bulletin board, and the “twisted opinion” where you can vote on various topics.

In a tough economy, funeral directors are searching for ways to cut costs on funeral expenses. As with other industries, the funeral world has faced increasing costs of supplies, fuel and other expenses. Fortunately, there are several areas funeral directors have been able to cut costs without cutting services.

One way to cut costs has been in vehicles. More and more, funeral homes are holding off on buying new hearses. The average hearse costs $80,000, and the resale value is minimal.

Another cost cutting method has been through simple things like in-house laundering of the sheets and towels used to move bodies.

In addition, funeral equipment costs have been cut, too. Sheet metal urns are now selling more than copper or bronze urns. Coffins that are stained mahogany are replacing coffins made of solid mahogany.

Funeral homes are also bringing lawn and landscaping services in house, as well as switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Ultimately, there are many ways a given funeral director may be able to cut costs while still insuring quality funeral services.

When you think about a cemetery, you rarely think controversy. People don’t mind having one in their neighborhood; Cemeteries are relatively quiet, as neighbors go, and they’re unobtrusive.

However, a funeral home is, in the minds of some folks in Arlington Heights, a very different prospect. There is a funeral home that hopes to move its business into a cemetery in that town, and neibhgors are complaining.

The primary reason people are complaining is that they say the funeral home is “a constant reminder of death,” according to a local news story. Locals are also worried, however, that overflow traffic from the home would wind up blocking the narrow street that it will be located on. Some homeowners are concerned about flooding problems, or about how the funeral home’s presence would affect their housing values.

The Arlington Heights Village Board will have to give final approval before ground is broken on the new funeral home.

Baby boomers have, as a generation, been known for bucking trends. Even at the end of life, baby boomers are making their own statements about how things should be. Even funerals for baby boomers can feature more and more unique and nontraditional elements.

Many funerals today, for example, may feature musical performances and less traditional music. In some cases, eulogies by family members and friends are even starting to replace the traditional funeral sermon delivered by clergy.

It’s not uncommon, today, to find a video of the deceased being played on a wide screen LCD TV next to the open casket. In some cases, the funeral director is becoming as much an event manager as he is a funeral director.

Some baby boomers choose specific themes for their funerals. For example, they might have an Old West funeral, complete with a covered wagon instead of a hearse and a barbecue dinner after the funeral. The only real limits to these funerals is the imagination of the person planning the funeral. In many cases, boomers are planning their funerals ahead, specifically so they can design the event.

Whether this trend of individualism and self-expression, even in death, will continue with the next generation remains to be seen. One thing is sure, however: this generation wants to go out with a boom, rather than a whimper.

As baby boomers grow older, even the face of the Funeral industry seems to change. Boomers have a different sense of appreciation for the funeral service, and they’re interested in getting something different from it than many previous generations. Today, funerals are as different from one another as weddings.

Take, for example, personalization services. Through personalization services, funeral directors and families work together to make a funeral more meaningful, and more creative. Whether it is something as simple as a multimedia display or something more complex such as alternative funeral activities, people want to be able to celebrate their loved ones’ lives in a unique way.

Part of this trend also has to do with changes in media. With the advent of the successful HBO show “Six Feet Under,” more people are interested in the workings of the funeral home. With public mourning events following 9/11, people are also much more aware of how they approach loss on a community basis.

Whatever challenges lay ahead, today’s funeral directors are up to the task.

When it comes to the funeral industry, it would seem that vocation tends to come to appear at an early age. Many funeral directors, according to a recent study, tend to choose their occupation in their high school years. While this phenomenon isn’t unique to the funeral industry, it does appear to be especially common.

There are a variety of reasons cited that seem to be common themes when it comes to choosing the funeral director career path. Many people choose the funeral industry out of a desire to simply help people through the process of grief, while others seem to have a more technical interest in the funeral process.

For those people that switch careers sometime in their lives, a life event of one sort or another seems to pull them towards a career in the funeral industry. Many people with a background in psychology or grief counseling, for example, find the funeral industry to be a natural transition.

Whatever it is that draws someone into the funeral industry, one thing is certain: it is a career path that isn’t for everyone. It takes a special person to be able to work in the funeral industry.

As is the case with so many other industries, advancements in computer technology are affecting the funeral industry. Whether it’s streaming webcasts of a live funeral using a website that’s password-protected, or whether it’s a wireless Internet kiosk at the funeral home, technology is changing the way funeral directors do their job.

This advancement in technology also allows funeral directors to add to their services. For example, some funeral homes offer websites where family and friends of the deceased can post messages, or where they can upload video tributes. Many funeral homes provide a photo tribute service, making a picture or video CD or DVD with pictures or videos of the deceased, which may be shown during the visitation hours as well.

Technology is even changing the way funeral directors locate loved ones’ bodies. A GPS system in a funeral car can help the driver to locate the place of death in a quicker and a more accurate manner.

As the funeral industry moves forward into the future, funeral directors are finding more and more creative ways to use technology to enhance the grieving process as well as their business.

It isn’t often that the entertainment industry gets the funeral industry right.

Recently, however, a documentary bucked that trend. The documentary, The Undertaking was a look by PBS’s Frontline program into the work and lives of the Lynch & Sons funeral directors in the towns of Milford and Clawson, Michigan.

The program even won the Emmy Award for Best News & Documentary.

The Undertaking was, originally, a book written by Thomas Lynch. The film follows several families through their process of dealing with terminal illnesses, and tracks the way they deal with issues of funerals, burial, and cremations.

For PBS, The Undertaking received more positive responses from viewers than any other documentary developed by Frontline. The University of Michigan created a study guide inspired by the documentary that’s being distributed to major seminaries, hospice programs and mortuary schools across the county.

The Undertaking can be seen in its entirety online at PBS Frontline’s site.

Funeral cars aren’t meant for speed, as anyone in the Funeral Industry can tell you. Driving a hearse requires a certain degree of decorum, as well as a health respect for the deceased.

Recently, there was an incident in Glasgow, Scotland, where one funeral director found out just how seriously his employer takes that idea.

Funeral director Scott Ralston was fired from his job at Co-operative Funeral Care at Shieldhall, Glasgow, after an incident that took place in October of 2007. His employer accused him of not showing enough respect for the deceased in the way he drove. Ralston had been employed by the firm for 16 years prior to the incident.

Ralston’s employer claimed that he squealed his tires, honked his horn, and and drove “faster than five miles per hour.” These actions were against the policy of the company, according to company statements, and led to Ralston’s dismissal from the agency.

Ralston was vindicated, however, at a tribunal this month. The tribunal discovered that it was standard practice for funeral directors to drive a hearse faster than five miles per hour, and they also noted that there were signs telling directors to use their horns at the exit of the funeral home garage.