Do we need to go back to Pump Jockeys

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: johnachak
In some states, New Jersey for one, it is illegal to pump your own gas. Every station in NJ has pump jockeys. I'll bet they have fewer spill accidents and fewer gas thefts.


I would agree with that. Up here, Co-ops have full serve only or the option of full serve and self serve in their bigger stations. Most others are self serve. To avoid thefts, some stations have pre-pay around the clock, others depending upon the time of day. Heck, all the Esso pumps up here have been upgraded for chip cards, while the others are lagging a bit.

As you might be able to tell, I fill up at some weird hours if I know which stations have new debit/credit terminals.

 

[Rick in PA]

One of the things we lost when the service stations became self-serve gas stations was the education of many young men. I worked for many years as a "gas jockey" at a service station, we also performed car repairs. Many of the young guys that passed through our service station, and service stations across the land, learned much about the craft of mechanics. We learned how to take care of our cars and how to repair mechanical equipment in general. I lament the loss...

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
One of the things we lost when the service stations became self-serve gas stations was the education of many young men. I worked for many years as a "gas jockey" at a service station, we also performed car repairs. Many of the young guys that passed through our service station, and service stations across the land, learned much about the craft of mechanics. We learned how to take care of our cars and how to repair mechanical equipment in general. I lament the loss...


GearHeadTool is a pump jockey...

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

I pumped a lot of gas in college. "Full Serve" meant a lot more than just pumping gas.

Upon request, checking the oil, tires and coolant level was performed.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: Miller88

My last experience with a pump jockey:

I had just got my Cherokee and went to a gas station thta pumps it for you (mainly because they're the cheapest in that part of the city). After about 3 minutes of the guy fiddling with the gas cap, I got out to see what was broken. Turns out the guy was turning the cap counter clockwise. ... .. ...

Typo?

No, I think Miller88 had it right. My gas cap turns counter-clockwise to remove it, clockwise to replace it and snug it down. ("Lefty loosey, righty tighty.") If the attendant was turning the cap clockwise, as Miller88 said originally, he was actually tightening it!

 

[morepwr]

When I had that job as a high school kid I prefered to be called a "petroleum transfer technician"

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
One of the things we lost when the service stations became self-serve gas stations was the education of many young men. I worked for many years as a "gas jockey" at a service station, we also performed car repairs. Many of the young guys that passed through our service station, and service stations across the land, learned much about the craft of mechanics. We learned how to take care of our cars and how to repair mechanical equipment in general. I lament the loss...


The other bonus was that I could work outside around cars. I worked at a restaurant for half a day and couldn't stand it. Walked across the street and got a job pumping gas and loved it not enclosed by 4 walls.

The trick is to make the pump jockey job temporary, not a career as that is a sign of a loser.

 

[javacontour]

The St. Louis metro area has vapor recovery nozzles, so few if any fumes.

Pump jockeys may mean these nozzles are required anywhere someone is dedicated to the task.

Something like this: http://www.husky.com/husky/vapor-recovery/husky-v

Originally Posted By: Shannow
You will never go back to pump jockeys.

There is no way on earth that you can legally have a person sucking that volume of fumes for 8-10 hours a day.

I was in my gap year when the change came through (unleaded had way more aromatics), and the plan was that a person filling even a couple of times per day spread the risks .

Btw, it took over a year before I could smell a stuck needle on my su carbies after that year

 

[javacontour]

Yes, in some places it meant pulling out the dipstick and inserting in almost all the way, and then pulling it back out and suggesting that the motorist was a quart low on oil and selling a can of 10W40. Then, he pulls what looks to be a can of 10W40, but it's empty, inserting the oil can tap in the opening from when they really used the oil and pocketing the money for an unneeded quart of oil.

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I pumped a lot of gas in college. "Full Serve" meant a lot more than just pumping gas.

Upon request, checking the oil, tires and coolant level was performed.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: travlnman
Last winter, one morning it was about 15deg...I pulled up to local station and a pickup at the diesel pumps was filling up but all went inside because it was cold. When I pulled into the lot , the tank was full, pump did not shut off and it was pouring fuel out of the tank and all over the place ! At the cost of diesel at that time, I know he pumped out $50 on the ground before I could get inside and yell to the attendant to shut the pumps off....then the customer loudly complained about having to pay such a large amount of $ ! The owner was there, and simply said " the sign on the pump says not to leave your vehicle unattended...pay up !

My last experience with a pump jockey:

I had just got my Cherokee and went to a gas station thta pumps it for you (mainly because they're the cheapest in that part of the city). After about 3 minutes of the guy fiddling with the gas cap, I got out to see what was broken. Turns out the guy was turning the cap counter clockwise. ... .. ...

Typo?

I've actually been pretty lucky with NJ stations. I've only ever had one bad experience, where I had yell at the poor guy pumping, telling him that I needed Premium, 93 octane. The .1 gallon he had already pumped wasn't anything to get angry over.

I've seen people with the car running, though I doubt there's really any risk of explosion from it. Most people have zero clue about how the very important things they use every single day work, nor the dangers from improper operation.


When the tank was full, the guy spent 3 minutes turning it the wrong way trying to tighten it. Now ... I've never come across a car with a reverse thread gas cap ... so I'm not sure why my Jeep was so hard to figure out.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Yes, in some places it meant pulling out the dipstick and inserting in almost all the way, and then pulling it back out and suggesting that the motorist was a quart low on oil and selling a can of 10W40. Then, he pulls what looks to be a can of 10W40, but it's empty, inserting the oil can tap in the opening from when they really used the oil and pocketing the money for an unneeded quart of oil.

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I pumped a lot of gas in college. "Full Serve" meant a lot more than just pumping gas.

Upon request, checking the oil, tires and coolant level was performed.
+ 1 on the dipstick trick We all know you have to WAIT before getting a good reading from a crankcase dipstick.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Yes, in some places it meant pulling out the dipstick and inserting in almost all the way, and then pulling it back out and suggesting that the motorist was a quart low on oil and selling a can of 10W40. Then, he pulls what looks to be a can of 10W40, but it's empty, inserting the oil can tap in the opening from when they really used the oil and pocketing the money for an unneeded quart of oil.


They called that "short sticking."

Then there was sticking the tanks where you had to lower a stick, about 15 or 20 feet long down the tank, pull it out and read the gallons. Kind of like a giant dipstick. They had some pasty gunk you smeared on the last several inches that would change color and give you a read on how much water if any was at the bottom of all that fuel.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
I pumped a lot of gas in college. "Full Serve" meant a lot more than just pumping gas.

Upon request, checking the oil, tires and coolant level was performed.
Yep, all that, along with changing an occasional air filter, checking brake fluid, ps fluid, tranny fluid, doing oil changes and lube jobs (occasional grease gun fights when it was slow

). If you worked evenings or graveyard shift you got to wash the shop floors too. And we did all that for about $2 an hour back in the 1970s.

 

[mrsilv04]

I've been at gas stations where an eight to ten year old kid will hop out of the car to pump the gas, and the attendant inside will shut off the pump, and bark over the loudspeaker that "An adult needs to pump the gas at pump 10".

 

[Shannow]

Rules are over 12 here...again, to keeop the kid's snout out of the vapour stream.

 

[Dave Sherman]

Printed on every gas pump I've encountered:

Stop engine
No smoking
Remain at pump while fueling
Do not top off

Yet I see folks contradicting at least one of these almost all the time.

 

[javacontour]

My wife worked at a C-store during her college years and recalls sticking the tanks.

I don't think the current generation of tanks gets manually measured these days. Didn't we have some EPA rules in the past decade the required stations to meet standards that required most to install new tanks, with leak detection, etc???

Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Yes, in some places it meant pulling out the dipstick and inserting in almost all the way, and then pulling it back out and suggesting that the motorist was a quart low on oil and selling a can of 10W40. Then, he pulls what looks to be a can of 10W40, but it's empty, inserting the oil can tap in the opening from when they really used the oil and pocketing the money for an unneeded quart of oil.


They called that "short sticking."

Then there was sticking the tanks where you had to lower a stick, about 15 or 20 feet long down the tank, pull it out and read the gallons. Kind of like a giant dipstick. They had some pasty gunk you smeared on the last several inches that would change color and give you a read on how much water if any was at the bottom of all that fuel.

 

[Shannow]

Oz UPS legislation requires groundwater monitoring bores adjacent to the tanks, inventory control (level detection, and in/out analysis), and still need regular "dipping" as part of the monitoring process.

As an aside, my gap year was the transition from leaded to unleaded. The leaded tanks were always ice cold, while the unleaded were always at body temperature, and left a sulfur smell on your skin for hours.

Never got a reasonable explanation for that.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: RamFan
Originally Posted By: Shannow
You will never go back to pump jockeys.

There is no way on earth that you can legally have a person sucking that volume of fumes for 8-10 hours a day.


Ask the state of Oregon about that.


And Joyzee, as the two posters above you have noted.

 

[Shannow]

Stupid things I saw in a year of pumping petrol, and operating the console...not that the console operator is legally responsible for everything going on on the forecourt, and has obligations to cut flow if they see something dangerous.

If a guy jammed the handle with his petrol cap, and washed his windscreen, I'd leave him go...if he walked off to the toilet, I'd kill it...Some guys had carved wooden doohickies to jam under the handle, which usually meant that they had some modicum of common sense.

One day, guy jammed a pump and wandered off to the toilet. As he was only one on the forecourt, rather than cutting the pump and arguing a two part bill, I wandered out to unjam the handle. Got to the car, and found he'd jammed a mini bic butane lighter end on under the handle.

Incredulous, I took it out, left it on his trunk, and wandered back to the console.

He came out, saw what I'd done, glared, then did the same again.

I wandered out, and reached for the pump, and he started brushing me away, and talking about his property, and me not touching it..anyway I grabbed it, and walked inside.

With that, still holding the handle full tilt, he pulled it out of the tank,m spewing petrol over his car, and demanded my Boss.

Boss came out, and this bloke went into a rant about my behaviour, and wanting me sacked. Boss then asked me my side, and I asked the customer to demonstrate exactly what he did...which he did, causing my boss to double over in laughter, call him every stupid S.O.B. name that he could, and respectfully ask him to never come back.