N.J. just says no to pumping gas

[AliceInWonderland]

N.J. just says no to pumping gas

By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
Wed May 17, 7:01 AM ET


It's a rainy morning at the Thomas A. Edison Service Area on the New Jersey Turnpike. Lines of idling cars and trucks stretch through a Sunoco station. But for Ardis De Los Santos, there's at least one thing to smile about - she doesn't have to pump her own gas.


She used to live in New York, where she had no choice. But a move across the Hudson River to Englewood, N.J., freed her from the hassle. She likes it that way. "It's not my cup of tea," she says of filling her tank. "It's the smell."


In New Jersey, motorists who need to fill 'er up haven't pumped their own gas in 57 years. But in the face of soaring gas prices, Gov. Jon Corzine came up with a novel plan last month to try to ease the pain: allow self-service at some stations along the New Jersey Turnpike and see if prices dip. He believed prices could drop 5 to 7 cents a gallon.


Corzine retreated after about 1,400 e-mails and calls poured in from a mostly outraged public. Concern about other state issues paled in comparison. A proposal to raise the sales tax by one cent, for example, received about 200 responses from the public, says Brendan Gilfillan, a spokesman for the governor.


So Corzine isn't going to push it. "He still thinks it's a worthy idea," Gilfillan says. "But with our budget, property taxes and ethics, there are just a number of things that are a bigger priority."


By now, full-serve is as ingrained in New Jersey's culture as the subway is in neighboring New York - though it seldom includes the oil checks and windshield washing of yesteryear.


Oregon is the only other state to bar self-service stations, and there are no plans for change. "The governor has concluded that there's no evidence that throwing thousands of people out of work would have any effect on gasoline prices," says Lonn Hoklin, spokesman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski. "Oregonians just seem to like the way it is now."


As do many lawmakers, station owners and motorists in New Jersey. Critics of a shift to self-service say pumping their own gas would be especially hard on the elderly, could create a safety hazard as inexperienced motorists try to fill their tanks and cost many station attendants their jobs while doing nothing to lower prices.


Assemblyman Francis Bodine, a Republican, says that after stopping at self-service stations in the South recently, he found that gas in New Jersey was the same price or slightly cheaper. "So I don't see any economic savings to having to pump your own gas," he says. "The flip side of it is ... there'd be some job losses." Besides, he says, "If I'm in a tux going to a black tie (event), I don't want to stop and handle a gas pump."


Bill Dressler, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline Retailers Association and Allied Trades, says there are safety concerns. While attendants are trained, many motorists would be novices. "It could be put in the wrong container," says Dressler, whose group represents about 2,200 of the state's 3,800 gas stations. There could be "somebody getting out and smoking and they didn't turn the engine off."


Dressler says that prices also would not drop. "The dealers are not making that much money," he says. "What would happen is the self-service price would reflect what's full-service today, and full-service would escalate 10 to 15 cents a gallon."


Not so, says Jim Benton, executive director of the New Jersey Petroleum Council, which represents the state's major energy suppliers.


"New Jersey has the third-lowest motor fuel tax in the nation," he says. "People don't realize that while New Jersey gasoline is typically cheap, it's not because of a full-service requirement, but because of our low motor-fuel tax. There's no reason to suggest that prices would not be in fact even cheaper" at self-service pumps.


One morning this week, the price for regular at the Sunoco Station at the Thomas A. Edison Service Area, was $2.87 a gallon. Even so, Amanda Darian, 18, didn't think it would be worth pumping her own gas, even if it saved her 5 cents a gallon.


"A nickel? Nah," says Darian, a student at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.


Even though she's going to have to work more this summer to pay her gas tab, she says, "I just don't want to get out" of the car. She has been to other states, and when it came time to fill up, "I didn't even know how."


Louis Rivera, 29, an attendant who has worked at the Sunoco station for three years, says self-service could put "a lot of people ... out of jobs."


Others don't get all the fuss. "Even some men don't want to get that smell on their clothes," says Angela Fields, buying gas at a Delta station in Bloomfield, N.J. "But if it's going to save you a quarter, yeah, I'll pump my own gas."




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hahahah two good things bout living in Oregon was always that you didn't have to pump your own gas and there's no sales tax! Welcome to Crazyland!!

[LynnieD]

I haven't been to a NON Self Serve gas station in probably 10 years!! And no, it's not fun getting out of the car, especially when its 20 below zero and snowing and sleeting, but I don't have a choice.....

I would go to a full service station if it was cheaper obviously, but otherwise, it's not a big deal in my book.....

[Mr. Authority]

I'm used to self-serve gas stations. Honestly never seen a full serve gas-station except for when I see it on TV in a old movie.

What the people should do in face of this gas gouging is either boycott ExxonMobil (They have the highest of prices here in Ann Arbor area) and/or have a day where no one uses gas.

[Wonderwoman]

I didn't even know there still were full serve stations.