For the first time in more than seven decades, drivers in Oregon are allowed to pump their own gas.
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.
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.
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.
Fraud is a legitimate concern though. Skimmers are rampant, so I wonder if Oregon will see an uptick in card compromise.
That is a very good concern to have but even when the station’s had attendants, people still got skimmed at gas stations. It’s a concern that everyone should have at any place where you swipe or insert your card to pay. Banks, stores, ATM’s, etc
so you take your hand, place it on the card reader and give it a shake. If the card reader is loose and can pull off its a skimmer.
Well, it may have been true 72 years ago.
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
As long as you’re a certified electrician, go right ahead. Otherwise, jail.
Time for me and my male model homies to finally have that gasoline fight we’ve been putting off forever.
Clearly no Oregonians in this thread. Everyone I’ve met in Oregon loves that they don’t have to pump their own gas.
Granted I’m not a native Oregoner, but when I lived there I also thought it was stupid. I have not missed that part of Oregon one bit.
Born and raised Oregonian that prefers to pump his own gas. It’s about damn time.
If enough people love it, then full service pumps will still hang around as an option. Personally as someone who lived in Minneapolis for 20 years, full service pumps would have been fucking amazing in the winter, but mandating them by law is just stupid.
The fact that full service doesn’t exist even in the frozen tundra of MN leads me to believe very few people are actually willing to pay extra for it.
If enough people love it, then full service pumps will still hang around as an option.
Yes we all know that companies never cut out extras to reduce costs. That is why flying domestic gets better every year, when video games are released they have been properly QAed and dont need to be patched. I remember when I was a kid you had to bag and scan your groceries yourself, now every store has all these open registers where people do that for you.
Corporate world is like this as well. Back in the day I had to answer my own calls, we didn’t have security or IT, or receptionists, or secretaries, and you had to make your own coffee. Now, I go to work in my nice office (thank goodness cubicals and open office are gone) and there are so many support staff to keep me focused on getting stuff done.
I am positive that a product that is effectively irreplaceable will be the same way.
What? I honestly have no idea what you’re on about. I was kind of following your rant till the last sentence.
Companies tend to lower extras to lower costs. Once they do that the needle moves and that becomes acceptable.
Grocery stores used to offer free shop for you services. They don’t anymore. They used to have multiple registers open they usually have about two now. They used to bag for you, they don’t anymore. They used to rig you up now they expect you to do it. Heck in my state they don’t even give you bags anymore.
If people were willing to pay what it cost for those services, they would still be commonplace.
Blame the people who will drive across town to save 10 cents on a can of soup as much as the companies who have found competing on price to be a viable strategy.
You can still fly with plenty of luxury and service, but you’re going to pay more than a cheap coach seat. I can go to a store where my groceries are bagged for me, but their prices are higher than Aldi, where bags are not provided. I can get custom steaks cut to my liking, but it’s going to cost me well north of the pre cut steaks at Costco.
Who knows if full service will stick around. If it costs and extra $.50 or $1.00/gal to fill up, are more than a tiny fraction of people going to pay for it? Probably not, but at least people aren’t being forced to pay for a service they don’t value.
A full service option is mandated by law. This new law just means we can choose self serve now. The rules are different in rural Oregon where, due to the vast distances, especially in eastern Oregon, not being able to get gas can be legitimately dangerous.
I grew up in WA state but have been in Oregon for 20 years now. I’ve become accustomed to someone pumping my gas, but it’ll be like it was. I guess I don’t understand the big deal either way.
Doesn’t it just make gas more expensive?
Also, how about electric vehicle charging? Do these attendants have to plug the car in for you? Just a matter of time before gasoline cars are obsolete.
No it’s actually cheaper than Washington and California prices. Companies aren’t going to lower their prices just because their costs went down. That isn’t how the gasoline market works.
I live in Oregon most of my life. I moved to Montana for work for a period of time and moved back to Oregon. I absolutely hate having my gas pumped. I found it so much quicker to pump my own gas. Though when I traveled to and from Montana I noted there are a lot of idiots that don’t know how to responsibly pump their own gas. The only time where I somewhat even remotely hated pumping my own gas was when living in Montana and pumping when it’s -30F outside.
I fuckin’hate it. Most people I know hate it. I know maybe a handful of people who like it, but they are the exception. In any case, we still have the full-serve option, except for in rural Oregon.
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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?
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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.
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.
There are some bizarre and pointless laws in this country.
Was probably reasonable when they were enacted - before your grandparents met.
Just because we have chiseled abs and stunning features, it doesn’t mean that we too can’t not die in a freak gasoline fight accident.
The way I heard it, if the only people pumping gas were employees, the company didn’t have to pay as much liability insurance.
Then why make it a law? Gas stations would all choose to have full service only if it was cheaper.
It’s a law specifically so that these jobs exist. It has nothing to do with liability insurance. Rather, one guy was able to lower his prices by having people pump their own gas and other gas stations didn’t like that
Reingold decided to offer the consumer a choice by opening up a 24-pump gas station on Route 17 in Hackensack. He offered gas at 18.9 cents a gallon. The only requirement was that drivers pump it themselves. They didn’t mind. They lined up for blocks.
"The other gas station operators didn’t like the competition. Someone tried shooting up Reingold’s station. But he installed bulletproof glass, so the retailers looked for a softer target - the Statehouse. The Gasoline Retailers Association prevailed upon its pals in the Legislature to push through a bill banning self-serve gas. The pretext was safety, but the Hackensack fire chief had already told all who would listen that Rein- gold’s operation was perfectly safe.
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.
Don’t give in! I’ve been in NJ my whole life. I’m not ready for this
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’d like the option for days where i’m in a rush, but definitely don’t want it to be the norm.
That sounds fair, but be aware that full service stations are probably going to disappear there within ten years because of the change.
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…
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.
The rare station around me that offers full service, is always more expensive, usually 10-15 cents per liter (40-60 cents per gallon). So that logic doesn’t hold up.
