Although effective as of Monday, January 1, 2018 at 12:01 in the morning, the state of Oregon permitted drivers to use pumps to fill up the tanks of their vehicles by themselves in counties with a population of fewer than 40,000 residents — leaving New Jersey as the only state in the United States in which motorists pumping fuel into vehicles is against the law at any time during the day or night, anywhere in the state — more populated areas of Oregon still mandate that employees of service stations pump fuel into vehicles instead of drivers…
A Brief Tutorial on How to Pump Gasoline Into Your Vehicle — For Oregonians
…but the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic prompted some exceptions; and a recent heat wave resulted in the temporary suspension of the prohibition of self-service fuel to protect employees from being exposed for long periods of time in the dangerous heat.
As a public service, The Oregonian produced this video last year as a tutorial to assist people who needed a primer of sorts to be less hesitant about pumping fuel into their vehicles themselves.
Don’t forget the cap.
Final Boarding Call
The reasons why self-service fuel stations are not permitted in portions of Oregon are similar to those of New Jersey, which are mainly for safety, financial, and political reasons.
A time once existed when fuel stations offered a choice of full-service — through which attendants offered to clean your windshield and check the level of your oil while the tank was filling with fuel — and self-service, which only requires that you pump your own fuel at a lower price per gallon…
…but due to both the cost of retaining personnel to operate and maintain service and motorists willing to save money by pumping the fuel themselves, the full-service concept became virtually extinct — and rarely does anyone hark on the bygone days when attendants paid compete attention to their vehicles.
I personally have never had a problem pumping my own gasoline — regardless of wherever in the world I may be at the time. I pumped my own diesel fuel in Iceland; but attendants at the fuel stations along the toll roads in Morocco pump the fuel into vehicles instead of the motorists.
Other articles at The Gate which pertain to pumping gasoline at fuel stations include:
- Do Not Fill Plastic Bags With Gasoline.
- Three Reasons Why You Should Not Top Off the Fuel Tank of Your Car?
- You Still Cannot Pump Fuel Into Your Vehicle in New Jersey
- 7 Tips on How to Avoid Being Charged for Fuel When Returning a Rental Car With a Full Tank of Gasoline
- On Which Side is the Gasoline Tank Cap?
- 14 Ways to Save Money on Fuel: June 2021 Update
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
