The owners of F.W. Sullivan's in downtown Fredericksburg plan to start a local taxi service with cars that run at least partly on the kitchen grease produced at their William Street restaurant.

Turnup Taxi Service will start in about a month, said Jake Crocker, one of the owners of the FWS Group. That company owns F.W. Sullivan's, several Richmond eateries and two downtown Fredericksburg restaurants under development--Jorge's Cantina at 106 George St. and The Chimneys at 623 Caroline St. Crocker and his partners also recently started developing smartphone applications.

FWS Group has ordered the equipment needed to convert kitchen grease from Sullivan's and its other restaurants into biodiesel for a planned initial fleet of two Volkswagen Passats. Crocker said the grease now just gets put into a barrel at the back of Sullivan's.

The cars, which can also be filled with traditional diesel fuel, will be kept in the Sullivan's parking lot at the corner of William and Prince Edward streets. They'll be wrapped with the Turnup branding.

The cabs won't be available only for customers of the FWS Group's restaurants, but Crocker and his partners are working on ways to make it easy for those patrons to use the service, perhaps including the cost of a taxi ride being added to their tab. A smartphone app is being developed for Turnup that will let people order up a cab. There will also be a traditional phone line.

Crocker hopes that Turn-up will grow from its initial two-car fleet and eventually expand into Richmond, Northern Virginia and perhaps beyond. He said they got the idea from a similar service started in Richmond.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405bfreehling@ freelancestar.com