Oregon Goes Mad Over Petrol Pump Change

Sometimes wonder about you colonials.
Just sometimes..
Think I was about eight last time I saw an attendant at a petrol pump.
"People are raising Cain on social media about a law in Oregon making it legal for citizens to pump their own gas.
A law passed through Oregon’s legislature in May and signed into law in June will allow counties with 40,000 residents or fewer to pump their own gas. Oregonians are not pleased about the change.
The law, which will take effect Jan. 1, has created a minor firestorm in rural parts of Oregon, where full-service gas stations have been the norm since 1951. A local CBS affiliate in Medford, Ore., asked its viewers on Facebook about the new law – the responses have ranged from anger to confusion.
“I don’t even know HOW to pump gas and I am 62, native Oregonian…..I say NO THANKS! I don’t want to smell like gasoline!” one woman wrote in a comment on a survey the new station posted Dec. 29. The poll elicited more than a thousand responses.
Another shared her opinion, with several commenters suggesting full-service gas stations are safer than those permitting residents to feel the exhilaration of filling their own tanks.
“It is safer for people, if a station attendant does the service. The only advantage of pumping the gas yourself, would be paying a few cents less a gallon. Getting older, and being disabled, I’d rather have the help!” another person wrote, noting there are times when attendants are welcomed.
Still other Facebook denizens were dismissive toward those expressing concerns about a change to the six-decade old law. “It’s official. Oregon is full of mentally defective, full grown children, incapable of the most mundane of adult task,” wrote one person whose reaction was a common one on the thread.
Oregon reformed the law in 2015. The change allowed motorists to pump their own fuel at night, but the state is still one of two in the country that ban self-service. Motorists in New Jersey, for instance, face stiff penalties for touching pumps – fines range between $50 and $250 for the first offense and up to $500 for subsequent offenses."
People Freak Out After Oregon Strikes Law Banning Self-Service Gas Stations

 

Interesting. I wasn't aware of such laws in OR and NJ. Near me, in Canada, there are 2 full-serve stations within a 20 minute drive. The great majority (say >95%) are self-serve, and it's been this way for at least 20 years. Some of the very rural areas have more full-serve stations. I do admit that I enjoy full-serve on those cold -30 deg days like we're the one we're having at the moment.

As for "smelling like gasoline" , I love the smell of gasoline in the morning. The only thing better is diesel!

 

This is all Social Justice Warring and has nothing to do with safety. It's to provide jobs for those who don't have the discipline to move on to better things. In my vagrant yoot, pumping gas was a job for kids trying to earn enough for some beer and weed for their days off. You'd sometimes see an older fellow pumping gas, but he was the owners ne'er-do-well brother-in-law with a drinking problem. Nowadays with the loss of semi-skilled manufacturing jobs it's become a lifestyle for those without the imagination to move into a trade school.

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I grew up in NJ. I don't know how they do it, but even with the Full Service there, gas (as far as I am aware) was always cheaper than out of state in places that make you pump your own. I wonder if the new Oregon laws mean people now are out of a job?

 

My first real job was a gas station attendant (pump jockey). That was in 1977. Within a few years, 99 percent of stations locally were self-serve.

 

Not sure ive ever seen a pump attendant in Australia...im sure they were a thing...but never seen one. Pretty much everything is self serve here, being waited on makes an Aussie feel lazy and a dick. Wonder how they go with Cell/Mobile charging...I don't want to smell like electrons!

 

Otto and others should remember The "Circle of Service" At their local Clark station.Fill the tank,check the oil,wash the windshield and sell the smokes. When I worked the midnight shift,age 17,I carried a .380 in a shoulder rig.One night a state trooper rolls in and asks for a pack of Luckies.I lifted the lid on the cig box and out pops the .380 and hits the deck. The trooper looked,shrugged and walked away. Lots of robberies back in the day.

 

Full service pumps were fantastic in Riyadh. I remember the attendant apologised to me when the full tank of gas cost $5 USD. In Europe it would've cost $100 USD, for the privilege of self-service...

 

I pumped gas as a teen. By not quite getting to the middle of the penny number on meter, at the end of my shift I had enough to pay for a gallon of gas. $0.35

 

Note that the law is not mandating self-serve, it is allowing it. I was on a family trip to the Northwest back in the early 90s. We stopped at a gas station in Oregon and proceeded to start pumping our own gas. An attendant came out and informed us it was illegal for us to pump our own gas in Oregon. He told us it had something to do with protecting jobs. Most gas stations in MN are self-serve, but there are always a few that still have at least a couple pumps that are Full Service.

 

I deliver takeaways to keep the beer money topped up. Needs must etc.

 

If you can't pay your bill by March, a reputable doctor will give you another six months to get caught up even if you didn't follow his orders..

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First, we had to drill for oil. the refine it and store, then pump it yourself, not like Oregon! Seriously everything in town was pumped by the station. The upscale ones checked the tires, oil, cleaned the windshield, etc. . Some just filled the car or sold by the gallon.. We lived on a farm and had gas delivered by a jobber to our tanks to fuel tractors, trucks, cars, a bulldozer, etc. My mom usually filled up in town but the rest of us used a long handed pump but one older pump had a glass reservoir on top..
Gaines