Oregon lifts ban on self service gas

[storewanderer]

Finally...

https://csnews.com/oregon-lifts-ban-self-service-gas

The stations will probably have more equipment damage as a result of this though.

[veteran+]

What a shame.........................

Kids like me in NYC earning tips (quite a lot back then) for pumping gas and cleaning windows are extinct.

Next.........................New Jersey.

[Super S]

Self serve has actually been legal in some rural areas of Oregon for at least a couple years. The last two times I drove to Idaho and stopped for gas in Baker City, it was self serve.

This is a change that I welcome. As somebody who lives in Washington, I regularly cross the river to Oregon to buy gas because it is typically at least 50 cents a gallon less. The small town stations are typically well staffed. However, I have seen many instances of thinly staffed stations with a large number of pumps, and it can sometimes turn in to a 20 minute ordeal just to have the 1-2 attendants help when a station is busy. I also own a couple of older cars which can get quite touchy with the pump kicking off unless you hold it the whole time. Attendants won't do that, but are quick to scold you if you even touch the pump.

And, at some Oregon stations, if you want to pay cash, the attendants (mostly in large towns) are not allowed to carry cash and won't have any change on them, and you have to get out and go inside to pay, and the attendants won't do anything until you show them a receipt, which kinda defeats the purpose of not being allowed to pump your own gas.

Something that needs to be clarified is that Oregon was not "full serve" it was what is often called "mini serve" which means that all they would do is pump your gas and nothing more except sometimes cleaning a windshield, which is rare. I don't feel that the simple act of pumping gas is deserving of a tip, especially with a higher minimum wage.

[Brian Lutz]

Back when we lived in Washington my parents would do the drive from Seattle to Salt Lake City on a semi-regular basis, and my Dad went to great lengths to make sure he wouldn't have to fill up the car in Oregon (or stop in Oregon at all for that matter.) The tricky part of that is that the last gas station on I-82 in Washington is in Kennewick about 25 miles away from the Oregon border, so if you miss that there's basically a lot of middle of nowhere between there and the next gas stations in Umatilla. When I started making the drive myself one thing I eventually figured out is that the Arrowhead Travel Plaza outside of Pendleton (on the Umatilla Tribe reservation) allowed self-serve gas, but as noted above on my last few trips the stations in Baker City were no longer staffing the pumps and had effectively become self serve. I don't expect to be driving through Oregon again any time soon, but it's really not as big a deal as some people make it out to be, but there seem to be people getting worked up about it on both sides.

[SamSpade]

Next.........................New Jersey.

Creeps closer and closer by the day.
https://www.nj.com/news/2022/03/nj-is-c ... s-too.html

[BillyGr]

And, at some Oregon stations, if you want to pay cash, the attendants (mostly in large towns) are not allowed to carry cash and won't have any change on them, and you have to get out and go inside to pay, and the attendants won't do anything until you show them a receipt, which kinda defeats the purpose of not being allowed to pump your own gas.

Pretty much what other places with self-service do. You have to go in and pay first, then go out and pump the gas.

This is basically the same thing, except that someone else was doing the pumping.

Possibly since most times you just put in for a certain amount of money, but the prepay doesn't indicate what type of gas you want (if the pump offers multiple, as most do) - so they'd have to wait to be sure they gave you the right thing!

[Super S]

I want to give an update on how things are going now that the ban has been lifted.

A station I use often in Rainier, Oregon has pumps clearly marked Self Serve, which happened on day one. No confusion here Most small town stations are set up this way now.

However, I have found some inconsistency in how other stations are dealing with this.

Some stations in the Portland area are continuing as mini serve only at all pumps, and will not allow you to pump your own.
Others are allowing Self Serve at all pumps, but do not have pumps clearly marked, and attendants just ask if you want to pump it yourself or want them to pump it. At least the stations still have attendants, but this is confusing. At one station, I saw people lined up for Mini Serve, while nobody wanted to use the Self Serve pumps. I have also seen one where they still do not have the card reader configured for customer use even though said pump was marked as Self Serve, the employee had to come enter ID into the pump to unlock it.

The rural stations seem to be embracing this more than the stations in the larger cities.

But what I find the most interesting is how the stations are not investing much in new signage to clearly show which pumps are Self Serve, and how stations, as well as customers, aren't embracing Self Serve in some areas.

[storewanderer]

This is very interesting. It seemed like when they rolled this out in the rural areas everyone embraced self serve fairly quickly and it was a pretty seamless process. Some stations like you point out keep someone around to "help out" but most customers don't seem to care about the help.

I wonder in the larger cities if it has turned into a competitive thing of sorts to keep pumping gas for people. Of course a lot of people don't care to interact with/touch a gas pump and if a station will still pump for them and they can just stay in their car then maybe they would go to that station over one that doesn't pump it for them.

My other thought in the large cities is if these stations have limited pumps/are busy if they think keeping the attendants around will speed up the flow of traffic through the station/reduce vandalism of their equipment. For instance I will often park at a gas pump then go walk into the convenience store, I may be in there 5-10 minutes taking up the pump. At larger stations with many pumps or rural stations this isn't really an issue. But at a busy station in a larger city this is an issue and having an attendant out there gets people like me called out and told to get away from the pump and park then go into the store.

[ClownLoach]

This is very interesting. It seemed like when they rolled this out in the rural areas everyone embraced self serve fairly quickly and it was a pretty seamless process. Some stations like you point out keep someone around to "help out" but most customers don't seem to care about the help.

I wonder in the larger cities if it has turned into a competitive thing of sorts to keep pumping gas for people. Of course a lot of people don't care to interact with/touch a gas pump and if a station will still pump for them and they can just stay in their car then maybe they would go to that station over one that doesn't pump it for them.

My other thought in the large cities is if these stations have limited pumps/are busy if they think keeping the attendants around will speed up the flow of traffic through the station/reduce vandalism of their equipment. For instance I will often park at a gas pump then go walk into the convenience store, I may be in there 5-10 minutes taking up the pump. At larger stations with many pumps or rural stations this isn't really an issue. But at a busy station in a larger city this is an issue and having an attendant out there gets people like me called out and told to get away from the pump and park then go into the store.

I think that the mini serve model may be a deterrent to the card skimmer issue as well. Pumps are better supervised. Last time I was in Oregon many pumps still had not updated to EMV chip use, an expensive and costly process that takes a long time (still don't understand this). Assuming they still have not updated, the gas stations would be liable for any fraud since we are past the deadlines. That alone is probably enough to keep the mini serve in place until pumps can be updated to more secure forms of payment acceptance. Over time this issue will resolve itself and they will all move to self serve as much as possible.

[Alpha8472]

If the attendant is pumping gas the customer is more likely to go inside to buy something. Perhaps gas stations realize that they make more money when people shop in the store while the attendant pumps gas. The attendants bring in sales for the store.