Oregon lifts ban on self-serve gas, leaving N.J. as the only state prohibiting it
The new law took effect Friday after Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill allowing drivers to dispense fuel themselves.
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.
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.
And some people will go to extraordinary lengths to defend them.
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.
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.
So true. And as a bonus, a person receiving a universal basic income can also contribute by getting a useful job, even if just for a few hours a week.
I would rather see someone doing art part time hours than having them make gas lines worse for full time.
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^^
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.
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!
Clearly no Oregonians in this thread. Everyone I’ve met in Oregon loves that they don’t have to pump their own gas.
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.
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.
Serious question: why? It seems worse in every way.
I don't understand anyone who says there's long waits, because I never have that problem, even when it's crowded. Conversely, when I lived in the midwest, I would have to wait for people to finish taking their sweet time paying inside before I could get to the pump.
Here we have an attendant who handles the pump and most people don't even get out of their car. They just drive away when it's done.
Anyhow, it's not a big deal to me either way. I don't mind that there's people being paid for that, because our gas prices don't seem higher for it compared to our neighbors. But I also wouldn't terribly mind getting out and pumping it myself either
I was about to say. I appreciate every time they agree to pump my gas. The convenience, and the speed of just staying in your car is awesome!
Pick a better gas station is what I have to say to people that are upset at how the service was at one gas station.
Having grown up in the east, and the size of MEGA GAS STATIONS that let cars just SIT PARKED IN THE GAS STALL was the true goal of this bill. It was about commercializing the "store" because there is no profit in the gas industry.
I'll still search out and return to gas stations that employ attendants.
Sad day.
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.
Electric vehicle charging is usually done at places you stop for a while, like department store parking lots. I don't see the stations at gas stations much at all
And they were never governed by the gas station laws
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.
It’s probably 50/50 for me. Half the time I wish I could do it myself to get it done, but the other half of the time it’s nice to not have to get out
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.
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.
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?
About fucking time
Doesn't long island NY still have this too?
LI still has full service gas, but they have no law against self service, so it’s not really the same as NJ or Oregon.
I love in western New York and places have full service still here, although it's not as common and you can always pump it yourself.
There's one township that has full service attendants but nobody is going to get mad if you pump your own
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’m curious, do you have to tip the gas attendant?
When I was in Oregon, I saw them being tipped.
They don't really tip when I was in Jersey
Lol hell no you don’t
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.
I'd like the option for days where i'm in a rush, but definitely don't want it to be the norm.
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...
Oregon has the fourth most expensive gas by state. New Jersey is pretty high up there, although admittedly cheaper than its neighbors by a few cents. I would doubt that full vs. self service has any real impact on gas prices
The reason West Coast states have expensive gas is that there are no pipelines connecting them to the rest of the countr, specifically Texas. Washington and Oregon produce zero crude oil. California can't produce enough for the whole West Coast so a majority of oil has to be shipped by a more inefficient way, causing prices to go up. This is reflected by the fact the 4 most expensive states for gas are California, Washington, Hawaii and Oregon.
I suspect you tip the guy filling your car though? Probably a few dollars each time?
From what I read tipped workers are generally paid below minimum wage and as such the cost difference to a station is probably negligible.
But the real cost to you will be less because I doubt you're going to tip the cashier and definitely not pay at the pump..
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.
Yeah you are gonna need to cite some type of credible information for this.
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.
If this were true, full-service gas stations would be common in places where they're not mandated by law because it would be cheaper and more profitable for the owners. They are not.