Ron Natalie wrote:

Jessica wrote:

karl gruber wrote:

Actually, in Oregon, it IS against the law to fuel your own airplane.
Can't fuel your own car either.


Heh, even in New Jersey (no self service at service stations) you can
fuel your own airplane, and the marina "line man" will hand you the
nozzle to fill your boat too. Go figure.

The only exception to the self service for road vehicles that I've
found in NJ is the base gase station at McGuire.


That's because the airports and the marinas weren't the one that got
that law put in placed. Despite the bogus claims of safety, the
reason the law exists is because the small gas station owners banded
together with enough political clout to stave off the single
employee mega gas and go that they feared would put them out of business.

Another weak attempt (this time by the NJ governor) was just made last
month to permit self serve filling stations in New Jersey. I think it
was just a trial program for the NJ Turnpike Authority roads' service
plazas. The politicians/governor backed down from this revolutionary
idea after they claimed to receive a large number of complaints from the
electorate who don't like to pump their gas. Others said that NJ
drivers are too stupid to pump their gas because they aren't used to it
and they could all blow themselves up. (I guess a large number of NJ
people who have cars never leave more than a tank's distance from the
small garden state---or are they admitting that full serve IS available
elsewhere?)

Apparently some believe that self serve / full serve are mutually
exclusive and that permitting self serve would cause all "full" service
to disappear. (Funny, plenty of stations around me (not in NJ nor OR)
offer "full" service and some focus on it exclusively.) Anyway I still
hate getting gas in that state because a lot of the time I have to wait
for the attendant to get off the cellphone with his girlfriend,
encounter difficulties with communicating the complex expression, "fill
up with regular gas, please," and then am treated with continuous
attempts to top-off/overfill the tank/destroy my evap emissions
canister, followed by gas running down my car's paint as the nozzle is
removed.

Pay at the pump is still a novelty item in NJ and often if you want to
use plastic you will have to wait for the attendant to come to you after
pumping, get your card, run off to the register/card skimmer, help some
other customers, talk to the girlfriend, come back for signature, etc.
If you are lucky to have pay at the pump, you can't use the dangerous
pump device so you will still have to give the card in advance to the
pumper and maybe they will give it right back to you or maybe they will
keep it on top of the pump for safekeeping during your tank filling.

The only thing that is keeping the system afloat is NJ's low gas tax so
that their full serve appears cheaper, but in reality it costs more
after adjusting the gas tax difference.

And you thought the FBO's lineman could be bad....