- A victory for drivers’ freedom or willful destruction of many jobs? You decide.
Oregon is famous for its gorgeous nature, craft breweries, endless rain — and not letting you pump your own gas.
That’s right, many a visitor has been taken by surprise when trying to top their vehicle in Oregon. You must hand over the pump handle to a gas station attendant who does the filling for you.
Or that’s how it used to be.
House Bill 2426, which passed State Senate earlier this month, will at long last lift Oregon’s 72-year ban on self-service gas stations. Soon, Oregon drivers finally get to exercise their freedom to fill their own tanks.
Or they’ll have to do it, depending on how you view the issues.
The passing of HB 2426 leaves New Jersey as the only remaining state in America where self-service gas is not available.
But why did Oregon ban pumping your gas yourself in the first place, and what does this bill actually do? This is the strange story of Oregon and gasoline.
Why Oregon Banned Self-Service Pumps?
Oregon’s strange law about pumping gas is a remnant of a time now nearly 80 years in the past. You see, back in the 1940s and earlier, “full-service” gas stations were the norm.
You pulled up to the station and a (more or less) happy pump attendant would fill up your tank for you. They also often wiped your windshield, checked the oil, and could even pump your tires.
That’s nice, right? But having trained pump attendants was also a matter of safety.
Before modern self-regulating pumps and other gadgets, adding gas to a car was prone to overfilling and spills. We probably don’t have to tell you that spilled gas can catch fire — especially at a time when everybody smoked like a chimney.
Fire codes in many states prohibited self-service gas stations on safety grounds. Oregon was no different, and it banned pumping your own fuel in 1951.
Of course, as pumps got more advanced and safer, many places eventually loosened the rules. The first self-service pumps opened in Los Angeles in 1947 and by the end of the ‘70s, they had become the norm.
But not in Oregon. The state has stuck to its pump-attendant guns for the past 72 years — until now.
Why the Law is Changing?
Not everyone in Oregon is against the self-pumping ban. Some argue that it’s a convenient service for drivers and adds a touch of luxury to your everyday chores.
It can be nice to be served, we’ll admit that.
There’s an economic element to it as well. Defenders of the system have claimed that requiring gas stations to have pump attendants provides valuable jobs to communities.
Now, while we definitely vouch for the working Joe, Oregon has for a long time had a slight problem. There haven’t been enough people to do those valuable jobs.
Half the pumps have stood idle at many Oregon gas stations for a long time because there aren’t attendants to man them.
That has frustrated a lot of drivers with the lines the forced full-service system creates. Sitting in line for 20 minutes is no fun when there’s a perfectly good unused fuel pump right there.
Only, you’re not allowed to touch it.
What the New Law Changes?
This isn’t the first time Oregon has loosened its gas pumping rules. In 2015, the state allowed self service at night in some rural areas, before extending this permission to all rural counties two years later.
Additionally, the state fire marshal has lifted the current self-service ban every summer since 2020. Self-pumping was also allowed during the COVID pandemic.
But the new law makes two significant changes that will likely ring the death knell of forced pump service.
First, it doesn’t completely prohibit mandated full-service gas pumping. It only states that gas stations must keep half the pumps as self-service pumps to reflect the current staff shortage situation.
That, however, leads us to the second change. Gas stations aren’t allowed to charge drivers more for having an attendant pump the gas.
Gas at full-service pumps must cost the same as that at self-service pumps. From a gas station owner’s point of view, that will make the pump attendant’s salary a pointless cost.
Unsurprisingly, the new law is likely to effectively kill full-service gas pumping — even if it doesn’t actually prohibit it.
That leaves New Jersey as the last bastion of forced full-service gas stations in the U.S. We’ll have to see how long the Garden State will hold out before letting drivers grab the pump handle themselves.
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