Oregonians ‘survive’ rural self-serve gas change

The new year brought a new self-serve gas law, which made Oregonians the butt of jokes across the internet. It’s been nearly three weeks since gas stations in rural counties have been allowed to offer 24-hour self-service.

Culver Shell and Feed previously had after-hours self-service, and will now offer self-service throughout the day. Customers fueling up Thursday had pumped their own gas before and thought it was funny people elsewhere are making such a big deal of it.

“It’s easy really. Just ask for help one time and you can get it from there, I think,” Jordan Jones said.

“It’s not difficult. You put your card in, lift the handle, let it go. It clicks off itself,” Jake Shaw said.

Gas station attendant Jalisa Hughes said there haven’t been any major problems since the new law went into effect.

“The biggest problem is people hitting debit when they’re not supposed to, when it says on the directions not to do that,” she said.

Employees said allowing customers to pump their own gas at any time is a great option for when they’re in a hurry and don’t want to wait for an attendant. And while workers will still gladly pump your gas, many people are excited to do it themselves.

“Everybody’s happy. They like doing it. I had this one lady come in, she was so excited, she said she was an independent woman now because she could pump her own gas,” Hughes said.

“It’s a godsend to the business owner,” said Karen Hanson, another station employee. “It takes a lot of pressure off of them, that sometimes when we get really busy people can pump their own fuel.”

While some people think it’s a great option to offer, others say it’s going to do more harm than good.

“It’s not a very good idea,” said Bruce Parnell, a customer at the gas station, “A lot of people are going to lose their job over it. I mean, if I owned a service station and I could get by with one person, I wouldn’t hire a second one.”

The new legislation allows for self-serve pumps, but does not mandate stations have them. And since Oregonians have grown accustomed to full service, several stations, including Culver Shell and Feed, said they won’t be cutting attendant jobs any time soon.