We have very few “full service” stations in North Carolina. In fact I have only been to one gas station in my life that was not pump your own. It scared me to death when I got out of my car and there was some guy messing with my gas tank. I almost left.
It makes me feel uncomfortable to have someone else pump my gas.
I don’t know if Rhode Island is all full service or what, but when I went through there in June they wouldn’t let me do it. since I go everywhere on my bike I HATE it when they pump my gas since they have no clue as to how to put gas into a MC. I’ve had gas everywhere from the idiots pumping the gas. Normally they let me do it though. only the guy in RI knew what he was doing.
Now that I know NJ is full service I get gas in PA before going through NJ. now I’ll have to remember that next year when I’m out on the west coast to skip Oregon
I spent two weeks in Oregon doing field work in the Summer of 1998. I asked a Texas ex-pat living up in Portland about the law, and this is how he explained it:
Also, note the next time you pull into an Oregon gas station that the pump islands are NOT labelled “Full” [Service], but “Mini”. In short: we’ll pump your gas, but wash your own damn windows and check your own damn oil and tires!
I’ve heard the reason this is so in NJ is that there is a law there that doesn’t allow existing jobs to be outmoded.
Any info from Garden State residents?
That must be so COOL! I suppose every town has a full-service blacksmith shop. Those can be ever so handy when the car needs new horseshoes. Are fax machines illegal so that the courier services don’t find themselves wanting for work?
I’ve wondered about this, and almost posted a question about it in this thread.
Here in CA, many nozzles have vapor-return boots on them. It takes two hands to fill a motorcycle tank. Hold the nozzle with one hand, and hold the boot up with the other. My ex-g/f knew I guy who bought a new bike (his first). He complained to her that he could only go 50 miles after refueling. It turns out that he was just sticking the nozzle in as if he were filling a car. So you have the end of the nozzle reaching half way into the tank! (On the “up” side, he was always able to “fill” his tank for about a dollar! ;))
I didn’t see many bikes in Oregon. Probably just the route I took (I-5) or the time of year (summer) – well anyway, I didn’t see many bikes there. I wondered if the pump jockeys know how to fill them?
I live in Oregon. Have all my life. I personally have mixed thoughts about the self serve/no self serve issue. I would, for the most part, prefer to pump my own gas. But there are times when I just don’t want to.
As for price, I don’t get around the country much so I really don’t know how much it is selling for in other places, but about 1 1/2 hours ago, I got some gas here and I paid $1.60.9 a gallon.
I think the reason for no self serve here is that if we had self serve gas, the firemen would have to work because some careless smoker would get some gas, while smoking of course, and would spill the gas on the ground at the same time he dropped his lit cigarette and would blow everybody to kingdom come. Yeah that’s it. Makes perfect sense to me. 
In all actuality, just about every major election or semi-major election there is something on the ballot about voting in self serve. It never passes for some reason.
Well, there’s an easy one to disprove. Here in Saskatoon, SK, Canada, there are a variety of self- and full-service stations - perhaps proportionally more full-service than elsewhere, because of the bloody cold weather six months of the year. Anyway, there is zero price difference between full service and self service in Saskatoon. All the stations charge exactly the same price for your litre of gas. Moreover, at the ‘dual serve’ stations, the ones with one self-serve island and one full-serve, the prices are still the same for either flavour.
Full service does not always cost more. Next argument.
And do the “volunteer” attendants also wash and wax your car for free MrDeath?
No volunteers involved, IBBen. The gas stations do it to compete. One tried-and-true method of competition is called ‘superior service’. And it works for me; I always go to the full-service stations, all prices being equal, and in this burg, they always are.
But you do have me on the dual service guys. The only logical reason I can come up for on that one is, some people must prefer to get out of their toasty warm cars when it’s -30 degrees, grab a big hunk of -30-degree metal in their hands and then proceed to pump -30-degree liquid through the hose that is clenched in their fists. But you always did have to be a little bit weird to live in Saskatoon. . . .
Actually, I believe that such discrimation is illegal. I could be mistaken, but I think that if you have a handicapped tag on your car, the station must sell you full-sevice gas at the self-serve price. The only catch is that the station must offer full-service. You can’t expect the station with only one cashier (sealed in a bullet-proof box) to pump your gas for you.
Has anybody tried one of those electronic robots that fills your car for you? I don’t suppose they have those in New Jersey, but what about elsewhere? I’d be worried that they would damage the fill-tube or the fuel door.