For the first time in more than seven decades, drivers in Oregon are allowed to pump their own gas.
I can’t see myself headed back to Oregon any time soon, but good. It was so frustrating trying to get gas behind a line of twenty five cars being “served” by a single slack jawed yokel taking smoke breaks between each car and God help you if you needed gas at night when everybody was closed.
New Jersey gas attendants can be surly, but my experiences driving there at least moved the cars through getting gas efficiently.
As someone from NJ I agree 100% with surly. Also you can get someone weird or the guy who just wants to talk the entire time. I really do hope this changes one day.
Or the guy who tries to wash your windows then asks for a tip. I’m still annoyed at that, and it was at least 15 years ago.
Having lived in NJ most of my life, and recently driving almost cross country to FL, the only benefits of living in FL is that there are like never any lines waiting for gas, and I don’t have to wait for a guy to come out. I just pull up, fill up, and GTFO.
Moved from Florida to New Jersey. You can keep Florida and I’ll keep my gas attendants! 😉
The state’s 72-year ban on self-service pumps was due in large part to safety concerns for drivers. A state law cited “increased risk of crime and the increased risk of personal injury resulting from slipping on slick surfaces.”
What an abomination of an excuse, and I live here.
Well, it may have been true 72 years ago.
Modern pumps are engineering marvels so probably right.
I’ve used vintage gas pumps, and they work the same. It is cooler to see the mechanical counter turn over though than a digital display
Hahaha so instead of fixing cime we just spend less time outiside… Fucking stupid state
That must’ve been one of the most useless regulations. Is that just about jobs? I can’t really imagine it being a security risk issue or any other reason
Yeah, jobs. And yeah, it was fucking stupid. Imagine outlawing opening the front door to any business, so that every business would have to hire greeters to generate jobs. Same same.
It’s just welfare, but in its cruelest possible form. If we’re going to require someone to piss 8 hours of their day away contributing nothing to society (worse than nothing in practice… gassing up in Oregon took FOREVER cuz you’d be stuck waiting for an attendant to serve a backup of 15 cars) just so that person can collect a pay check… why not just give them the pay check with no strings attached? Then they can use that time to improve themselves, or at the very least, not spend their waking hours inhaling gasoline fumes and ruining their knees and such.
Protect people, not jobs. Robots and AI are replacing most of us soon anyway: mandating busywork is NOT the solution to getting food on everyone’s table.
Did that also apply to electric cars? Or were you allowed to plug it in yourself
You can plug it in yourself but you are obligated to have the following conversation every time: https://youtu.be/FzAb8rVqDkY
Haha this is perfect^^
As long as you’re a certified electrician, go right ahead. Otherwise, jail.
Sounds like union territory. Which IBEW local is that?
Time for me and my male model homies to finally have that gasoline fight we’ve been putting off forever.
Don’t forget that orange mocha frappuccino!
Don’t worry guys. Whole continents manage to pump their own gas without Major issues. I’m sure you will manage it too 😉
We know. This wasn’t a ‘citizens needing help’ thing. This is a ‘propping up an archaic “job creation” law at the annoyance of the citizen’ thing.
They’re going to keep the full-service option. Now we have a choice.
I traveled through Oregon in June and didn’t know about this law. I pumped my own gas in Astoria, Portland, and another place and no one stopped me. No one came out to pump my gas either.
I’ve been to Portland 3x and nobody has ever stopped me from pumping my own gas. I’ve definitely interacted with attendants inside prior to gassing up as well. Wonder if it’s due to the Canadian license plates/accent?
That definitely might be it. We definitely share the plates and I can’t shake the northern BC accent.
They always let me pump my own gas when riding a motorcycle in NJ. My mom would be clueless if they dropped that law though.
Is an attendant required to plug the charger connector for you at a supercharger station?
As someone from NJ and recently took a trip with a friend in his Tesla, no. Most likely because the law never included language for it because it never existed when it was put in place. I also doubt anyone is going to adjust this either not only because it is stupid to do so but because NJ has even had some rumblings in the past few years about ditching attendants and will most likely happen someday, just who knows how soon.
They don’t have attendants, at least not here in Oregon. Maybe they do where you live?
I drove through Oregon and that threw me off when I was at the gas pump. What a weird law. Someone must have super fucked up to get that law pushed in the first place lol.
About fucking time
Doesn’t long island NY still have this too?
Don’t give in! I’ve been in NJ my whole life. I’m not ready for this
Why would you want that bullshit?
I’m not for or against this law. I just like not having to get out of my car when it’s freezing outside.
At the expense of someone else being outside for hours?
That’s not a good argument. The workers are being paid to do the job. The same way Garbage collecters, crossing guards, etc are being paid to be outside.
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How about health? Nobody should have to work a job that puts their future health at risk, especially a pointless job such as this. There are not a ton of studies on it but the ones that have been done show some of the effects from breathing in fumes majority of the day and it does negatively effect you where it could lead to higher % of complications later on. Of course people will argue against these claims, but who really wants to find out? It’s a job nobody should have to do so nobody should have to take the risk at all.
I used to change people’s oil for a living and get soaked in the stuff all day long. We should ban lube shops too as changing your own oil is super easy and only takes minutes to do yourself.
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Should we also eliminat landscaping jobs due to the negative health risk? They’re have to work in the blazing heat of the summer, using loud equipment, breathing in fumes. According to you, we should ban landscaping companies, and make everyone take care of the own lawns and yards.
Many jobs have some sort of health risk, gas attendents included.
Once again, I am not for or against the law in NJ. If they got rid of the law tomorrow, than I couldn’t care less. I’m perfectly capable of pumping my own gas, and have done so both in and out of state. I just like the convenience of not having to do it.
Why have flaggers for road work? Drivers should just learn to slow for road work. People shouldn’t be forced to work such a pointless and dangerous job, right?
Umm…
This is such a ridiculous take. If we can get rid of a dangerous job, we should. If we can’t, they should get extra money as hazard pay, not minimum wage or just above it. If the argument is, but that job isn’t hard, maybe just maybe we shouldn’t mandate it exist just for the sake of having anything and actually take care of people.
Where I live, the business can choose. We have both options. People rarely choose the full serve since it’s more expensive.
That’s fine as well. If NJ allowed businesses to choose than I’d likely do full serve when I don’t feel like doing myself.
Why do I want to get out my car and do that bullshit. Let someone else do it
Because it’s faster and it’s really easy.
Sure it’s easy. And it’s fast either way. Let the other person do it. I’ll stay in my car
Pumping gas isn’t hard to do. I drive through Jersey sometimes and although I’m always happy that their gas runs a bit cheaper, I’m always annoyed that I can’t just get out and do it and be on my way.
I’m curious, do you have to tip the gas attendant?
When I was in Oregon, I saw them being tipped.
No
When I did the job in OR about 10 years ago, it wasn’t expected. More of a “oh hey here’s a dollar for washing my windshield while it pumped” or “$48.60? Here’s a 50, keep the change”, if anything.
They don’t really tip when I was in Jersey
I’d like the option for days where i’m in a rush, but definitely don’t want it to be the norm.
When I was a kid, gas stations in Indiana had “self-serve” and “full-serve” (they pump it for you) options. I’m not sure why they stopped. Probably to save money by hiring less people.
Or, hear me out, having someone else pump your gas for you in the modern age is fucking wild
But why? What makes it different than any other service job? I pumped gas in NJ for several years, and it was a decent job all things considered.
I hate pumping my own gas. It’s dirty, it smells, the machine is always different in every company, so you have to get used to a new thing if you go to some place you don’t usually go to, and if the weather is bad, you have to stand out in the cold and wind. I’d absolutely pay a premium not to do that. Maybe not 100% of the time, but often.
That doesn’t keep gas stations from offering it, does it? It’s just not mandated anymore
Gas pumps are pretty standardized, I’ve traveled all over the country and not once have I looked at a gas pump and been like “how the fuck do I use this?”, that sounds like a personal problem.
It’s the payment part that’s confusing. Because each pump does it differently. It’s not the dispensing gas part.
Either you put the card in the slot or tap it on the reader. I’ve never seen any pump do it differently. And they all have prompts on the screen that walk you through it if you’re confused.
If you really can’t handle it, you can go in and ask for 10 gallons on pump 3 or whatever.
Yeah I’ve ne
Yeah, i’ve never been confused by that either.
A hess gas station I was at a few years ago put regular in the middle instead of on the left. Started pumping before I noticed. Also, as I totally believe you about driving all over the country, you should know that octane levels vary a bit in places like Wyoming.
Pumps now also include ads as you pump your gas too. Now we’ll be able to stand in the rain listening to ads while we pay the same price to pump our own gas and then get our credit card skimmed because nobody is around to watch the pumps at night.
Self serve drives up gas prices due to insurance. Insurance goes up due to a couple of people smoking while filling gas and gas station without anyone being the favorite place for looters. The self serve campaigns advertise how gas will come down due to it, but it actually goes up. So question is who you want to pay - insurance companies or min wage employees…
Yeah you are gonna need to cite some type of credible information for this.
I live in the UK and for as long as I can remember and probably considerably before that (and I’m not young) fuel has been self service.
I also have seen plenty of people smoking and using phones (surely the bigger danger is backfiring cars though). You know I cannot recall a single news story about a fuel station exploding due to this. I reckon that’s the kind of story that makes it onto the news. Not to say it never happens, but with the amount of fuel pumped daily, I’d expect it to be a common event yet I cannot recall a single time I heard about it happening.
So, feels like insurance companies fear mongering stations into higher payments to me. Sure it’s possible, but highly unlikely.
Because it is bull. A cigarette doesn’t burn hot enough to light gas on fire. If anything it would be the wood matches, you know that thing no one has anymore. There is a reason why sailors are allowed to smoke on tankers.
