As I recall it, it just kinda happened. Of course, there was no need for legislation - it was just economic pressure that made it uneconomic for filling stations to pay attendants.
Where I live, there was one hold-out in town and they did fairly well simply by being the only place that offered service. They closed down a couple of years later.
I haven’t had somebody attend to pumping petrol into the car since before I was driving a car. It has always been self-serve in Aus, at least for the last 40 odd years.
Only in states that have a reciprocity agreement. Otherwise, they are in serious trouble!
Gasoline got relatively expensive fairly quickly, and naturally so did everything else. Right away. Crude oil itself had held around $2 or so a barrel for decades, then quickly doubled to $4 and then $8, sounds quaint now but in percentage terms - and along with that various middle east embargoes created outright shortages. “Self Serve” became the new norm for everything, not just pumping gasoline. Yeah, it pretty much destroyed thousands of jobs for high school kids. The stories I’ve heard are pretty good, working at some of them must have been . . . interesting to say the least. Great job for a lot of folks who were going to hang out there anyway.
The fuel pumps were all mechanical - and only had 2.x digit display, for gasoline priced under $1, they hadn’t quite anticipated gasoline over $1 a gallon.
Next up, allowing people to press their own buttons in elevators (but only in half of them).
You can press them all if you want to, but an elevator operator must be available to press them if you prefer.
Actually, most people did prefer the attendant when that was easily available.
But then, over a year or two, (1973-74 oil crisis) they decided that they preferred saving money.
There is a great little cameo scene of a gas station in the movie Back to the Future. The main character is transported back to 1950, and walks around the small town wide-eyed, trying to understand how things were back then.
Watch this 5-second bit: https://youtu.be/WY2w2-CAKgM?t=30
A car pulls into the gas station and four attendants run out-- to pump gas, check the oil, clean the windshield, and check the tire pressure.
This is only a slight exaggeration. I remember in 1972-ish when one chain of gas stations (Sunoco?) displayed a large sign with a working stopwatch.
As soon as you drove over the little air-hose that rang a bell with a loud “ding”, the clock started ticking (the single hand of the clock was in the shape of a man running, and his leg rotated from about the Six oclock position up to the 12 o’clock, in 30 seconds. If the attendant wasn’t at your car within 30 seconds, you got a free gift .
Another chain ran a series of commercials with the slogan “we don’t give a ding!”…because they proudly did not use the little air-hose like all the other chains–they claimed their attendants were always at the ready to serve you immediately.
Oh yeah, I completely forgot about this thing. This was apparently critical in summoning the attendant(s) from whatever cavern they were sheltering in.
I remember getting a bit of a yelling at as a boy for jumping up and down on one of those hoses.
You were not the only one.
Last time I went to a full serve gas station (as we sometimes call them) was 7738 Yonge St in Thornhill. Petro-Can’s web site says it’s still full serve.
Shhh!!! Statute of limitations. Conoco station on Rainbow Drive is still lookin’ for me. I’m a wanted man.
I did encounter full-service station in the 90s. It was the only one in town, and part of a mechanic shop. You’d pull up, and there was this hose you’d drive over that would cause a bell to ring, and then some guy would come out and offer to fill up your gas. And, while you were there, they’d do a quick job on your windshield. It was nice.
I did that in '77. I was a pump jockey. Would check your oil and tires too.
I prefer to just pump my own though. No option anyway, so it works for me.
When my mother was alive, and before she got rid of her car, she had problems with the gas cap. I made a ‘wrench’ for her out of a short piece of PVC that she could grab with both hands.
So if this bill is now awaiting Kotek’s signature, is there any idea when she’ll get around to signing it? Has there been any indication she’ll veto it?
I need to fill up this week and would love to pump my own.
One would think it’s a done deal, no need to wait for an actual signature. A veritable preference cascade, like the fall of the Wall in East Berlin - the pump jockey’s just walk away, in a daze. Impromptu “Freedom pumper” parties ensue. It’s gonna be wild! We’re witnessing the Arc of History, man.
Does leave New Jersey as the last outpost?
The “attendants” in Oregon were never trained profesionals, they are often just some minimum wage mini-mart worker who pumps your gas. Before I became obstinant about pumping my own gas, several times the “check engine” light would come on, my OBD tool would tell me a “evac error” and I would check my gas cap and it would just be sitting in the spot, not even tightened. It needs at least three clicks, says so right there inside the door.
After this happening multiple times, if they insisted on pumping my gas, I would get out of my car and stand right there and either watch them or ask to do it myself. This is why motorcycle riders pump their own gas, because a lot of these attendants can’t even drive or don’t own cars. Idiots charged with a job that they are required to do, but don’t really understand how.
Like I said, I have been pumping my own gas in Oregon for years, if they want to send an attendant out to watch me, that is fine, but they are not touching my car.
In almost 30 years in Oegon, I’ve only had any problem with a gas station attendant once.
I was returning a U-Haul and the very, very stoned attendant couldn’t figure out how to fill the tank and then charge me whatever it cost. I told him how to do it, but he just stood there, perhaps hallucinating, so I left. Pretty good for decades of full-service gassing.
I don’t see the connection. But am I to understand motorcyclists were exempt from Oregon’s “We Don’t Let Just Anyone Dispense Gasoline” legislation? That doesn’t make any sense. How about folks filling a 5 gallon can?
Define “disaster.” The big issue isn’t that people catch their cars on fire, the issue is that all the fucking morons insist on topping their tank and they SPILL all over the island. I used to work in gas stations when I lived in California and not a day went by when some jackhole spilled gas all over and about 95% of the time they’d just drive off and never say a word to anyone about it. Which would leave a hazard on the ground, because even if it doesn’t catch on fire, gas is slippery AF so other people would slide and fall on it. Then the rain comes–perhaps y’all know that it rains a lot in Oregon–and our stormwater system even in the biggest city in the state drains right straight into streams and rivers. Wanna guess what all that gasoline wash off does to fish populations? At least the attendants WON’T top off, don’t spill, and if they do they clean it up but this will no longer be the case with your average dumb shit driver. We already have huge problems with the fish and frog populations, guess we’ll just be able to say a permanent goodbye to all those pesky critters. Which will also be the end of the forests, since the preponderance of nutrients for the trees is derived from fish one way or another.
Can’t speak to what goes on in California. But I haven’t seen significant gas spills from people topping off tanks in any state I’ve lived or traveled in that has self-service gas, nor the dire environmental consequences you foresee.