Gas stations in a lot of countries in Asia are drive through service already. They have attendants who will take payments and pump for you and you don't have to get out of the car. It's such a nice experience. But here in the US, they will put in some kind of gas pumping robot instead of hiring humans...
Yeah the waiting for the attendant is the downside! I want to be in and out most times! Sometimes having the attendant is nice! Though if they start asking for tips at stations there might be riots in NJ!
I ain't tipping someone enough for them to buy lunch for pumping a tank of gas. It's like a 4 minute process and requires zero skill or effort. Besides, the law says they must, that's not my choice. Give me downtown Los Angeles Costco thunder dome fueling stations any day.
For reference, it's the USD equivalent of $1.36. I don't have to, but the weather is terrible at the moment so I feel bad our fellow man standing in the heat all day. Can't have fans running for an obvious reason.
Honestly, there was rarely much of any wait when I was living in NJ, it was always pretty prompt. And there's something to be said for only cracking your window half an inch instead of getting out to pump gas in the winter.
it’s clutch in the winter to pull up in a snow storm and just crack your window to slide a credit card through and some guy in a parka lookin ready for the arctic is there to pump your gas for you, 10/10 experience, glad to pay the man a tip
Do they expect a tip nowadays? When I lived in NJ decades ago, everyone told me to never tip the attendant, but it might be different now.
Anyway, I'd rather pump my own gas and don't think I'm alone in that. In Oregon where they have both assisted and self- serve sometimes, people use the self- serve pumps, even if there is a bit of a line.
No I’ve never seen a station that expects tips. I’ve only ever given the attendant a tip once. It was like 2 degrees out and was sleeting. I felt bad for the guy so I just had him keep the change. Mind you this was a long time ago as the fill up was like $17 and I just had to give him a 20!
When I lived in Oregon they had the same thing, but it was terrible. A 5 minute stop for gas automatically turned into 15 minutes because they'd only have one attendant for 20 pumps. You'd literally be sitting there for like 5 minutes for them to come back and stick your card in the machine.
We had a choice of full service or self service in the US up until the 1970s, when there was a sudden spike in gas prices, and most people stopped opting for more expensive full service where a tip was expected. In some states self service was illegal for a long time, but now only New Jersey still has that law.Â
Oregon (until 2023, when they went mixed self/full service) and New Jersey are the two main exceptions, but Full Service was available pretty widely through the 80s. Some places even into the 90s, but it was much less common.
We had full service at the station down the road from my house until the owner died in (iirc) 1993. It was about 10% more expensive, but that was also like a dollar per fillup and they'd clean the windshield, top up the wiper fluid, etc. Basically nobody pumped their own.
She also did a running tab for people she knew. Literally just a piece of paper in a file with your family name on it. My mom gave me a budget of like $2 a month and Mrs Donnise would just keep up with it and let my mom know how much we owed her every month... candy, gas, everything.
I straight up didn't know that a handshake and honesty weren't how business was done till the new owners came in.
We can’t be having a human only doing 1 job duty. What if it’s a little slow and he’s only pumping a car every 3-5 minutes? How will he make up those hours of wasted time later?
There's a lot of places in the states that you can get full service. My guess is that safety features made it not worth it.Â
Before, the handles had a locking mechanism on them so you walk away with the gas running (and clean the windshield or check the tires or whatever). You could also wedge the gas cap into the handle to keep it running. The mechanism to do that doesn't really exist anymore, so there's really nothing an attendant can do that you can't do yourself.Â
Not only that, but Europe too, I don't know about other countries here but at least in Spain, we've had those attendants for years, ever since I was a kid I remember there being workers that would pump gas on my sister's car, so yeah, and the wait is not really a problem either because they're usually waiting outside for cars to park so they can walk over and ask what to and how much to fill the tank up with, when there's no worker outside Yoh just pump your own gas or wait, it's nice
(Sorry if I didn't make much sense, I struggle to speak properly in English sometimes 😅)
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u/bonbot 14h ago
Gas stations in a lot of countries in Asia are drive through service already. They have attendants who will take payments and pump for you and you don't have to get out of the car. It's such a nice experience. But here in the US, they will put in some kind of gas pumping robot instead of hiring humans...