Folks in New Jersey and Oregon aren’t allowed to touch a gas nozzle to top off their own tank. It’s only partly because their heavy-handed nanny states don’t think they can be trusted doing anything as dangerous as pumping gasoline on their own. They don’t mind paying more because they like having someone do it for them.
Pumping gas isn’t for amateurs
Cringing at the price is what most Americans are doing, as they pump gallons of liquid gold into the endless drain that gets them back and forth to work.
People in New Jersey and Oregon get to sit and stare at their phone until the attendant tells them how much the gas cost them. It’s literally illegal to do it yourself there.
It’s been that way since 1949 and that’s how the locals like it. They don’t want gas fumes on their clothes. In rural towns, they let you get away with it but not in the city.
“Violators can be fined up to $500 for breaking these states’ laws.” The rest of the country misses tank filling attendants. “The state’s residents have little interest in self-service. A March poll found that 73% of them say they prefer having their gas pumped for them.”
As soon as the first gas stations came along, with mass produced cars in the early 1900s, the first self-serve pumps came with them. They didn’t catch on until they got stylish in Sweden. That happened around 1980 and the rest is history.
“Their rise to the top was not a smooth one,” Ronald Johnson and Charles Romeo point out in a 2000 study they wrote about the growth of self-service.
Coin operated pay-pumps
All the way back in 1915, the earliest self-service pumps in the United States “were designed primarily for emergencies or for after dark when gas stations were closed.” Thanks to good old American ingenuity, “people would pre-pay with coins to operate them.”
Back in the late 70’s, full-service stations fought tooth and nail against the idea of do-it-yourself fueling. “They saw cheaper, self-service gas as a competitive threat to their business and wanted to limit its spread.” They obviously lost.
Following the money around, the first gas stations had a product with a slim margin of profit. To get drivers addicted to their brand, they offered competitive services like “oil and battery checks, windshield wiping and vehicle repairs.”
Cheerful young bow tie wearing attendants would hustle out and check your tire pressure while the tank filled.
Facing extinction, they played up the non-existent risks of customers daring to pump their own gas. Untrained drivers, they warned ominously, “would overfill their tanks and start a fire.” They had all kinds of help from “local fire marshals.”
By 1968, “self-service was banned in 23 states.” The switch started in 1980. “Modern self-service gas stations actually were pioneered in Sweden. Drivers there paid less for self-service than for full-service. From there the concept spread through Europe.“
