미국으 50개 주(State)가 각자의 나라처럼 운영되는 합중국이다.
자동차를 맨처음 개발한 나라역시 미국이다. 그런데 자동차에 관해서는 그런 오랜 전통과 역사를 보유하고 있는 미국이지만, 초창기 개스 주유소를 열고, 비즈니스를 시작할때부터, 유난히도 New Jersey 와 Oregon주를 포함한 대부분의 State에서는, 주법( State Law)을 강하게 적용하여, 절대로 셀프 써비스를 금하고, Full Service를 실시해오고 있는데, 현재도 그런, 듣기에 해괴망측한 법을 고쳐서 Self Service로 전환할 계획은, 일부 State에서는 없는것으로 알려져 있다.
만약에 그러한 강제규제를 고집하는 나라가 미국말고, 다른 나라에서 실시되고 있다면, 어쩌면 웃음거리가 될 토픽 뉴스감이 될것이다.
초창기에는 대부분의 개스 스테이션이 Full Service를 제공 하면서, 동시에 자동차 점검도 해주고, 필요시 수리도 해주는, 개스주유를 하는것 외에 영업상의 이익을 추구하기위해 자연적으로 그런 영업방식이 주류를 이루었지만, 시대가 변하면서, 자동차 Dealer들이 차를 판매하면서 warranty기간을 주면서, 자동적으로 Repair Service는 Dealer에서 받게 되면서, Full Service 주유소들은,1900대 초기부터 Self Service Pattern으로 바뀌기 시작했고, 영업상의 많은 비용을 절감할수 있었고, 또 더 많은 개스를 판매할수 있게 된것이다. 그럼에도 불구하고 1980년대가 되어서야 미국내의 개스 주유소는 Self Servicer가 대세를 이루게 된것이다.
그러나 New Jersey 와 Oregon에서는 오랜 전통을 고집하면서, 그이유를 실수로 인한 화재방지를 이유로 들어, New Jersey 와 Oregon에서는 상당수의 주민들의 요구에도 불구하고, 주법으로 Self Service주유소의 허가를 절대적으로 금하고 있다고 한다. 특히 Oregon주의 법은 설명하기를(says), 대부분의 주민들이 강력히 Full Service주유소운영을 선호하기 때문이다. 앞서 설명한것처럼 Self Service주유소를 허락하게되면, 화재의 위험이 많고, 노약자들과 장애인 운전자 보호가 어려워지고, 동시에 주유소에서 주유하는 사람들이 일자리를 잃게되는것을 방지하기위함이라고 주법은 설명하고 있는 것이다.
1982년에 Oregon주의 주민투표에서 Full Service 주유소 운영을 지지했었으나, 최근의 주민들 성향은 거의 절반씩 의견이 갈리고 있다. 2014년 여론조사에서 Oregon주민들은 거의 절반씩 의견이 갈렸었다(evenly divided on the subject). 44%는 Self Service를 선호했고, 46%는 Full Service주유소법을 선호하는것으로 나타났었다. 그결과로 지금 Oregon주는 인구 40000명 이하의 소도시에서는 Self-service주유소 운영을 허가해주고 있다.
미국은 유행의 선진국이면서, 믿어지지 않을 정도로 전통을 중시(?)하는, 세계최고의 강국임에는 틀림없다.
Most Americans facing record gas prices cringe when they fill up their tanks.
But not people in New Jersey and Oregon. They’re not allowed to touch the gas nozzle. Seriously.
In New Jersey, it’s been illegal for drivers to pump their own gas since 1949. A ban on self-service gas has been in place in Oregon since 1951, although the state relaxed restrictions for rural towns a few years ago. Violators can be fined up to $500 for breaking these states’ laws.
So why don’t New Jersey and Oregon let you pump your own gas? And what happened to the days of gas station attendants filling up your tanks in the rest of the country?
It’s a strange, complex history that dates back more than a century.
Self-service bans
The United States has experimented with self-service gas since the first stations were built in the early 1900s. Yet it wasn’t until about 1980 that self-service became the primary gas station model in this country.
“Their rise to the top was not a smooth one,” write Ronald Johnson and Charles Romeo in a 2000 study on the growth of self-service.
The earliest self-service gas pumps in the United States appeared around 1915. They were designed primarily for emergencies or for after dark when gas stations were closed. People would pre-pay with coins to operate them.
Full-service gas stations adamantly opposed self-service. They saw cheaper, self-service gas as a competitive threat to their business and wanted to limit its spread.
Fuel sales have slim profit margins. Gas stations made their money and distinguished their brands by offering a variety of services such as oil and battery checks, windshield wiping and vehicle repairs. Station attendants in full uniforms – some wearing bow ties – filled up customers’ tanks, a key part of their larger service strategy to attract drivers in the first half of the 20th century.
Full-service gas stations played up safety hazards around self-service, arguing that untrained drivers would overfill their tanks and start a fire. With support from local fire marshals, gas stations lobbied state legislators to pass bans on self-service. By 1968, self-service was banned in 23 states.
It was not until the success of self-service internationally and a crucial change in gas stations’ business model that self-service began replacing attendants in the United States.
“Modern self-service gas stations actually were pioneered in Sweden,” said Matt Anderson, the curator of transportation at The Henry Ford museum in Michigan. “Drivers there paid less for self-service than for full-service. From there the concept spread through Europe.”
At the same time, vehicle warranties began to stipulate that cars must be serviced at dealerships, a shift that eroded gas stations’ service and repair business.
“Traditional full-service gas stations lost their profit center in automotive repairs and were forced to change their method of operation,” said Wayne Henderson, the author of the book “One Hundred Years of Gas Stations.”
Gas stations had to look for new ways to grow profit. They moved to self-service, which reduced their costs and increased volumes on gas sales, and they diversified into selling food, tobacco, coffee, snacks and other items with higher margins.
Self-service “ended up being more popular because it could create large volumes and opportunities for other profit,” said Gary Scales, a doctoral candidate at Temple University writing a dissertation on the history of gas stations.
Gas station operators began pushing states to repeal their self-service bans. By 1992, around 80% of all gas stations nationwide were self-service, up from just 8% two decades prior.
‘Political third rail’
Despite frequent legislative attempts, court challenges and opposition from the gas station industry, New Jersey and much of Oregon still don’t permit self-service.
Oregon’s law says it’s in the public interest to maintain the ban. Allowing self-service would increase fire hazards, create challenges for elderly citizens and drivers with disabilities and lead to gas station attendant job losses, according to the statute.
In 1982, Oregon voters defeated a ballot measure to overturn the ban, but more recent polling shows attitudes in the state are split. A 2014 poll found that Oregon residents were almost evenly divided on the subject, with 44% backing a move to self-service and 46% in favor of keeping the ban.
Oregon relaxed its ban in 2018, allowing self-service for drivers in rural counties with populations under 40,000.
In New Jersey, the self-service ban, along with the state’s reputation for low gas prices, is part of its culture. “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas,” proclaims a popular bumper sticker.
Attempting to overturn the ban has been seen as a loser politically.
“On self-service gas, that’s been sort of a political third rail in New Jersey,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in April.
But record gas prices and gas stations’ struggles to find workers have led to renewed attempts by New Jersey gas station industry advocates to lift the ban. In May, 75 gas stations in the state lowered prices in an effort to gain support for allowing self-service gas.
It’s unlikely that the state will allow drivers to pump their own gas anytime soon, however. The president of the state’s Senate opposes a bill that would end New Jersey’s ban.
The state’s residents have little interest in self-service. A March poll found that 73% of them say they prefer having their gas pumped for them.
“There is apparently one thing all New Jerseyans can agree on nowadays,” Ashley Koning, the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said when the poll was released. “And that’s the time-honored Jersey tradition of having your gas pumped for you.”
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