Unattended Gas Stations
 

My sister in law claims you can still access fuel at a closed gas station if paying with a credit card. Her father also claims "you need to know which ones do this".
I'm thinking that she was lucky enough to come across a station where the last dumba$s on duty forgot to turn off the pumps....

Anyone throw some light on this trivial subject? Why on earth would any company let their gas be pumped without someone on duty? Fire hazard, surely? :unsure:

Cheers.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

When I lived in Belgium we had a gas station in the village which was debit/credit card only, there was no convenience store just gas pumps.
As you could not obtain fuel without using only a debit or credit card (no cash sales) I guess they felt secure enough.
With the relatively small profit margins on fuel I would think that employing some one just to watch pumps would not be cost effective.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

There is a station near us which doesn't have any attendants. It's pay at the pump by debit/credit only, open 24hrs. Obviously no shop or anything just covered pumps and small building, I guess used as some kind of office.

So I guess it's possible.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

I've had fuel from an unattended station in the middle of nowhere (Maxwell New Mexico) - it was 8pm, everyone had gone home, the town was closed. But the petrol station was open for business - credit dcard only

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

Unattended gas stations (credit/debit cards only) are very common in the Netherlands. Without doing any research my guess is that about 1 in every 8 gas stations is "gas pumps only", no convenience store, no clerk, nothing. Oh, but the air to fill your tires is free!

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

There are many stations around me that do that. I suspect that some places have local laws to prevent it, such as... Oregon, lol.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

They are also in France.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

It did strike me as a fire hazard; we have one near us ... I wouldn't want to live next door to one ...

Probably not available in NJ, where you can't even pump your own gas during the day ...

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

I had to comment on this because I just filled up my car yesterday at Safeway and noticed a sign on the pump I was using. It said that from midnight Christmas Eve until midnight Christmas there would be no one in the kiosk, so you would be able to use the 24 hour pay at the pump for your gas.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

Well - that'll be me telt!
Thanks folks.

SIL is still a bampot :p

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

There are some in Arizona that were permanently unattended.

In fact - Tesco's back home has one iirc. Card only, no attendant any of the time.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

I don't think they worry about fire hazards around here, not when half the people filling up their trucks have a fag in their mouth as they do it. I just get the gas in my car and get the hell out of there so paying at the pump saves me time.

Re: Unattended Gas Stations
 

If the only issue is supervision and not theft, then it shouldn't matter if there was any one on duty or not...regards to what the law is on the subject, I dunno.

But I imagine if you're in a fireball doing a jig due to stupidity then it wouldn't matter, attended or not. Most of them don't even wake up when you pump anyway.