March 2017

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Page B6 MARCH 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on B
By Mike Jamar
well maintained, and have rarely been in an accident. They
are always garaged. For any other car this would bring pre-
mium prices. Not true for hearses. Several examples of this
can be found on . Hearses that were built
in the early 1990’s have well less than 100,000 miles and are
only in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Quite a bargain! How-
ever, most people will never consider them for their trans-
portation purposes. So, what do you do with them?
Instantly, I thought of converting them into campers. You
see campers on trucks all the time, why not on hearses? Sure,
you’d have the unenviable task of cutting off the back, en-
closing the cab, and beefing up the suspension, but they do
have a long wheel base, making them the perfect candidate.
A simple Google search confirmed that that many shared
my Frankenstein idea, but much to my surprise, there aren’t
any companies actively taking on such endeavors.
I’ve had a long, passionate love affair with cars, with
constant fascination adding fuel to the fire. I’m not a dis-
criminating man, most cars are my type, and that goes
for hearses as well. My wife, on the other hand, has a
more utilitarian view of cars. She doesn’t share my in-
something called a “Rat Hearse” that kind of looked like
a truck, but not quite. There was an Airstream Hearse,
a Tank Hearse, many hot rod hearses and other unique
hearse examples, but not one picture of a hearse that had
been converted into a functional truck.
To me, truck conversion seems like a straight forward
project, but there are few examples of it being done, and
not a single mention of a company offering this service.
Truth be told, I don’t fully understand what it takes to
make these projects a reality, nor the money it takes. This
may explain the lack of results in my searches. The old
adage of “lipstick on a pig” came to mind as well. In the
end what you’ve produced still looks like a hearse.
If anyone can answer my questions as to why conver-
sions are not being done, or if you know of a cottage
industry converting hearses into something functional,
please let me know at
Mike Jamar is founder and co-owner of Advanced Integration
Technology. Mike has been working with computers since the early
80s and started Advanced Integration in 1994. Advanced Integration
specializes in Internet inventories designed for specialty vehicles and
equipment. HearseHub was created through a collaboration between
Advanced Integration and Nomis Publications, and is now in its fifth
year of service. HearseHub brings together funeral vehicles from a
number of dealerships that specialize in high quality funeral vehicles.
HearseHub offers funeral directors a large, and easy to shop inventory,
of funeral vehicles. You can reach him at
Robinson Funeral Home Inc. takes
delivery of two New Limousines
Robinson Funeral Home, Inc . in Easley, SC recently took deliv-
ery of their two new 2017 Cadillac S&S Professional Roof Lim-
ousines. Pictured (L to R) are Chris Robinson, owner and Jer-
ry Small representing Bill Black Cadillac in Greensboro, NC.
Robinson Funeral Home Inc. is a family owned business that has
been faithfully serving the families of this area since 1875.
terest in them, and that is
especially true of hearses.
A few days ago, the top-
ic of hearses came up in
conversation (probably a
result of me gawking at
one). This prompted a
simple question from my
wife, “Where do hears-
es go that are no longer
used by funeral homes?”
I explained that some
are bought by collectors,
some are used as parts
cars, and some are bought
by those with a strong in-
terest in the macabre. The
real question though,
where do the rest go?
Hearses, as a group, are
luxury vehicles that of-
ten have low mileage, are
Converting a hearse
to an El Camino-type
truck also came to
mind. Again, the same
process as convert-
ing them to a camp-
er would be required. I
was sure I’d found the
perfect second life for
hearses. When I did a
second Google, I found
a few examples, but far
fewer than camper con-
versions. In that same
search, I discovered a
Pinterest link boasting
of thousands of pictures
based on my search. The
link mostly lived up to
the hype. While there
were fewer pictures than
advertised, I did find
ASD Celebrates 10 Years of
FuneralSync™ Integration MODERNIZE
Y O U R E X I S T I N G C O A C H
When it comes to your funeral fleet, clients of the deceased expect new
vehicles to be a part of their memorializing time. As you know, most of
your coaches have very low mileage, along with a pristine interior. The only
giveaway to its age is the older model/body style of the exterior.
Wolf Limo Conversions understands this, and provides you with a beautifully
enhanced - Modernized Exterior Body Conversion. Simply put, we use your
existing funeral coach, then apply our exclusive exterior conversion
process with precision artistry. Once completed, your older transport will
then sparkle as a late-model gem!
COST EFFECTIVE (74% SAVINGS) EXTERIOR BODY CONVERSIONS
After
Before•
•
SALES: 800.921.1004
SUPPORT: 314.484.3612
EMAIL: WSLIMO @AOL .COM Wolf Limo
C O N V E R S I O N S
Before
After
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CALL FOR SPECIALS ON THE XTS CONVERSION
1014
1111
MEDIA,PA— On Tuesday,
January 10th, ASD–An-
swering Service for Di-
rectors’ FuneralSync™ in-
tegration feature reached a
significant milestone. The
feature, which allows funer-
al directors to automatical-
ly sync their software and
websites to ASD’s systems,
was first introduced to the
funeral profession a decade
ago. The first version of the
tool was a somewhat man-
ual process that allowed for
transfer of some very basic
information. Over time, this
feature, now known as Fu-
neralSync™, has evolved to
become the most flexible in-
tegration tool available to di-
rectors.
Funeral professionals
spend hours every week en-
tering data into their funer-
al management systems and
posting information on their
websites. FuneralSync™ was
created by ASD to help their
clients reclaim the time once
spent on these redundant
tasks. The feature allows fu-
neral homes to automatical-
ly transfer funeral service in-
formation from their funeral
home’s website to ASD. Di-
rectors can also use Funeral-
Sync™ to pull First Call in-
formation, including call
recordings, from ASD di-
rectly into the funeral home’s
management program.
There are thousands of fu-
neral homes nationwide uti-
lizing FuneralSync™ to save
time, reduce data entry er-
rors and operate more effi-
ciently. In 2016, more than a
quarter of a million obituar-
ies were automatically trans-
ferred over to ASD through
FuneralSync™. Each obit
represents time ASD has
given back to their clients.
Rather than having to log
into various databases and
copy/paste information into
multiple fields, the data is
automatically synced with-
out any effort. When con-
sidering the fact that each
obit could take up to five
minutes to enter, ASD’s Fu-
neralSync™ feature saved fu-
neral professionals 20,000
hours of redundant work in
2016 alone, not to mention
the headaches saved by elim-
inating the chance for errors.
One of ASD’s biggest goals
when developing Funeral-
Sync™ was to partner with as
many of the funeral profes-
sion’s leading software and
website companies as possi-
ble. The company’s owners
understood that their clients
used many different provid-
ers and did not wish to set
any limits on this timesaving
technology. In 2013, ASD
released an enhanced version
of FuneralSync™ that more
easily allowed companies
to integrate. This gave ASD
clients the freedom to uti-
lize their advanced solution
without having to switch
providers. The updated ver-
sion also offers increased
flexibility. For example, cli-
ents can edit their funer-
al home’s website obituaries
from within the ASD Mo-
bile app and
website portal.
The following software and
website companies have used
the FuneralSync™ API to in-
tegrate with ASD: funer-
alOne, Batesville, Consoli-
dated Funeral Services, SRS
Computing, FrontRunner
Professional, FuneralTech,
Continental Computers,
Gemini Graphics, Frazer
Consultants, FuneralNet,
Ionic Servic-
es, and MKJ Marketing.
“FuneralSync™ gives ASD’s
20,000 plus funeral profes-
sional users the freedom to
integrate with any funeral
software or website compa-
ny,” says ASD vice president
and owner, Kevin Czachor.
“This feature is a winner for
all involved, allowing direc-
tors to spend more time with
families and less time enter-
ing data while increasing ac-
curacy.”