I Want to Pump My Own Gas!!!

Whenever I travel by car beyond the Oregon boarder I find myself breathing kind of a weird sigh of relief when I make my first stop for fuel.  I actually get to pump my own gas!  It's not that I have some strange fuel fetish, but I live in the great state of Oregon where self-serve fuel is illegal and I am required to be filled up at the whim of a service-station employee.  If the station is busy it generally means that I wait, often an extended period of time, while the station's single employee makes the round between cars, chats with friends, sips on their soda, or stops for a smoke.  Apologies for this stereotype....I know there are exceptions....but truthfully this is the more common experience.  I'm old enough to remember when service stations offered full-service where each time you got gas your windows were cleaned, oil checked, tires filled, etc.  This is not what the Oregon law demands.  In fairness once in a great while an attendant at a service station will clean my front window.  It is sad that whenever this happens I feel like I've been given a special treat.

The Oregon law give several specific reasons why I should not pump my own gas.  Lets evaluate each of them:

1.  People with training in pumping are better at keeping down fire risk.


Exactly what kind of training do service-station attendants get?  As far as I can tell the training is on-the-job.  I can find no state statute that spells this out.  Because the position of "service-station attendant" is often a minimum-wage job you are not likely to find many attendants with post-high school educations.  These things suggest that this would not be considered a "skilled" position.  I've also looked for statistics that demonstrate that self service is more dangerous.  I can find nothing to support this in spite of the fact that most of the country allows self service (large sample size).  This is a silly reason for the law.  If lawmakers were serious all attendants ought to be required to take and pass a meaningful course in pump safety and fire prevention.


2.  It is nearly impossible to enforce safety standards on the driving public.


I would argue it is nearly impossible to enforce safety standards on attendants.  Since most stations are severely understaffed it is more likely an attendant will make a mistake during busy times when they "hustling" between cars and impatient patrons.  I do not know this for a fact but my guess is that the understaffing is by choice to control expenses.  If lawmakers were serious service stations ought to require a specified number of attendants to safely serve customers during peak business.


3.  Seniors and disabled drivers can’t get adequate help at self-serve stations, and are instead forced to find a full-service outlet and pay a higher price.


This is certainly an important need.  However, common courtesy rather than a state-wide law could deal with this issue.


4.  Oregon’s rainy climate leads to more slick spots at gas stations, meaning higher liability insurance rates.


That's why the state of Washington also has this law......wait...the state of Washington doesn't have this law.  Further, they do not have higher gas prices.  Throw this reason out as well


5.  Decreased maintenance of pumps because they aren’t regularly monitored.


If this were a concern then such a law would be more common in our country.  Frankly how much damage can one do to a pump by pushing buttons and squeezing a nozzle?  It is not rocket science.  Again, show me the data!  


6.  Self-service contributes to unemployment – especially among young people.

I suppose this is true.  I've tried to find out just how many service stations there are in the state of Oregon to construct some sort of estimate on the true impact but was unsuccessful.  My guess is that impact would not be as substantial as some make it out to be but I have no hard data to back up my opinion.


7.  Exposure to toxic fumes is a health hazard.

The state actually listed this.  So, we hire a bunch of young people to absorb the entire exposure to "toxic fumes?"  Makes sense.  Perhaps you must be immune to toxic fumes to actually get one of these jobs


8.  Toxic fume exposure is heightened for pregnant women.

I'd start laughing except I'm still laughing from #7.  Really, how many times a week do pregnant women gas up their cars?  The state is starting to reach here.


9.  Gas drive-off thefts are cut down with the law.

In this day and age I doubt this is true.  Most stations require prepayment for gas which eliminates this problem all together.  Even in states where drive offs are possible the estimated annual loss in 2009 was somewhere around $1000 per station.  Sounds like a lot but my guess is that is less than the annual cost of an employee plus benefits.


10.  Children are sometimes left unattended when customers go to make payment.

The fact that there are many many stations that require customers to "go inside" to pay for their fuel, particularly if they are paying cash, negates any advantage here.  The truth is that station owners do not thing about this, or anything else in this list, when they do business.  I strongly suspect most station owners would like to do away with the law.

Bottom line is that this law is outdated and none of the issues listed in the law exist.  Since I have lived in Oregon the proposed change to this law have come up and been defeated twice.  Not really sure why.  I would very much like to see it come before the voters again.  Since the last vote traffic issues and congestion at popular stations (those with the lowest price) has increased dramatically.  My guess is many would no longer mind serving themselves.  However, Oregon seems to have this desire to be different for the sake of differences.  My hope is that changes one day.  For now I can only sit back and wait until the people of this state decide it is okay for me to pump my own gas.

Cheers