customers_suck

brilliant

*cracks up* That's hilarious!! I'll have to show this to my friends, a few of them work at gas stations!!!

nice! I've seen that a few times actually. There are a lot of Oregon and Washington plates here in Vancouver, and I'm sure I've seen streaks on an Oregon plate before. I remember thinking, "why isn't that guy more careful when he pumps his gas??" But then the other day, someone in this community mentioned there was a law in Oregon that people can't pump their own gas (what's that about?? lol) and this entry explains a lot! heheheh.

I didn't know about Oregon having that too, but I found out about New Jersey when we went there over the summer. What a major pain in the ass. I don't know what the reasoning is behind it but if you can't handle pumping your own gasoline, then you should not be driving.

It's a job thing. More gas pumpers means more jobs. Kind of a silly way to do it, but hey, it's employment. =)

Actually, in Oregon, it's a hazardous materials thing. Gas pumpers have to complete a course to be able to handle gas. Gasoline is considered too hazardous for us normal folks to handle.

Ok....and the rest of us in other states aren't good enough to have to worry about handling the gas? We can just kill ourselves and die from the hazardous gas because we aren't special enough to be thought of? lol. That'd be a grand question to ask the people who came up with those laws, just to see how they'd BS their way out of it.

I'm more insulted having lived in washington for 11 years where you pump your own...

Haha, no. I wish.

It is a haz-mat thing in the sense that, yes, the original reasoning behind passing the law was that gasoline is dangerous and requires special knowledge to dispense safely (in addition to the fact that it was supposed to keep gas prices lower by having fewer accidents [fires, I imagine] occur at service stations). However, I don't know of a single station that requires a training course before you can pump; strangely enough, the law doesn't require anything specific in the way of training. Because, as others have pointed out, almost everybody already has a pretty solid idea of how to safely dispense gasoline; there was virtually no training before I got to pump--only about how to process transactions, nothing about how to actually do the pumping. It was assumed that (especially since I'm originally from California, I imagine) I already had a perfectly good knowledge of how to pump the gas.

For what it's worth, though, I have often heard quoted that the number of immolation injuries/fatalities occurring at gas stations in Oregon is lower than the per capita rate in any other state. So there must be something to the safety argument; it's not total bunk. I think it's the fact that in the other 48 states, if somebody's an idiot and decides to do something phenomenally unsafe, there's the chance that no station employee will notice and stop it. But in Oregon, we're there watching every single pump, and if anybody does anything remotely unsafe, the gas pumper is usually all over it (you have no idea how much glee I took in making people put out their cigarettes/turn off their engines before I'd pump them a drop of gas).

So, while originally it may have been mostly an issue of safety, at this point it's mostly a matter of jobs. And, frankly, a lot of older Oregonians are too used to not pumping the gas, and can't stand the idea of having to actually get out of their cars to do it themselves. So while attempts to repeal the law come up pretty regularly, it doesn't look as though it will happen any time soon.

How in the world can you injure yourself pumping gas?!? I mean, there's signs all over the place telling you not to smoke and whatnot.

Oh wait, I just answered my own question. If there's a sign, stupid people will do the exact opposite of what it says. "What's that ma? It say to turn them der engine off? That means I rev it up right?"

Which reminds me, what's the point of the "No cellphones" sign at gas stations?

Apparently cell phones release static when they're being used. Static electricity and flammable liquids don't mix. Heard that on NPR a few months ago.

Quite right; cell phones can generate static electricity, which can ignite gas fumes. Static is also the reason that you have to take a gas can out of the bed of a truck before filling it--putting it on the ground eliminates any static charge present.

In fact, at my station the signs read, "TURN OFF ALL PORTABLE BATTERY OPERATED DEVICES BEFORE FUELING". This includes not only cell phones, but even your car's radio, an Ipod, whatever. But as much as I hate cell phones, I never made anybody turn one off (although they did have to put the phone down for a moment and acknowledge my existence as a human being before I would serve them). So many people pull up on the phone and chat the whole time they're getting gas that my boss probably would have accused me (rightly so, I imagine) of decreasing his revenues if I had refused to serve people who couldn't shut up.

i work at a self-serve gas station as a clerk, and on more than one occasion i've had to hit the emergency pump stop because someone was smoking while pumping. usually i then proceed to verbally humiliate the perpetrator via the pump-island intercom.

Yeah, from what I understand as told to me by a friend from New Jersey, by this point it's more of an employment issue than anything else.

Well, that and something about stupid people smoking while pumping gas.

Personally, living in Los Angeles, I'd trade my freedom to pump my own $2.05 gas for New Jersey's full-serve price, which was at something like $1.55 when I was there last month. :P

But in Oregon, we're there watching every single pump, and if anybody does anything remotely unsafe, the gas pumper is usually all over it (you have no idea how much glee I took in making people put out their cigarettes/turn off their engines before I'd pump them a drop of gas).

On the other hand, during my many trips through Oregon, if I had a nickel for every time I pulled into a stop-and-rob and the counter person came out to pump my gas with a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth . . . well, I might not be rich, but I could at least buy a grande latte.

So, are you, in an oblique way of saying it, stating that residents of West Virginia, Alabama, Mississipi and Kentucky, more intelligent than residents of Oregon, in that they have been granted the ability to personally handle their own gas..

Or well.. perhaps its the distinct lack of people able to pass a safety test in which to have trained "professionals" handle gas for you, so they opted not to pass such a law, given that numerous gas stations would subsequently close due to lack of elgible staff.

I'm saying that, in oregon, they think that most folks are too stupid to handle gasoline...

And I agree with them 95%. (got to allow 5% for people who *aren't* complete morons)

Well, seeing as the law has held up to popular vote...

having lived on the west coast all of my life i can safely say there is a reason why oregonians are not allowed to pump their own gas. people who move in are exempt, and there are a few born and raised oregonians who slipted through the cracks. but really not the brightest bunch i have ever seen. really the entire west coast is that way, but peoples in seattle have an excuse (being the people who just voted to make adult possesion of pot the lowest priority for police), and cali being the place where you breathe in more chemicals just by existing then if you smoked a cart of cigarettes (and yes i do mean cart, grocery shopping cart full of the buggers). i know that is an over-generalzation . . . but it certainly seems that way. i would never leave the west coast but we each have our own problems (and any that do not fall into the 'why are you breeding?' category)

I'm an Oregon driver. I must be pretty nice. I don't have any driplines. :)

I have never, in my 19 years of living, seen a full service station.

All self serve in Kansas, unless I'm sheltered.

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/12/05/gas.pump.fires/

I actually had the distinct honor *cough* of seeing someone burst into flames while pumping gas...shoulda heard him scream. The guy next to him just dropped his jaw and quickly tossed his cell phone in the car, lol.

Of course, I live in Texas and I think I've only seen one full-service station, in the many cities I've lived in here...but I'm sure we've got 'em.