Tsk, that’s nothing – when I was at university I worked for three years in a Tesco petrol station. One of blokes who worked there didn’t check the fuel lines correctly and cross-contaminated the tanks. Fortunately no customers were affected, but it cost a fair amount:
• The cost of emptying the tanks
• The cost of decontaminating the tanks
• The cost of the lost fuel
• The cost of the additional fuel required to fill the tanks
• The cost of the lost custom from the pumps having to be shut down whilst the situation was sorted
I think it was worked out at about £65,000…
Customers accidentally refuelling with the wrong stuff was really common. I remember one bloke having a massive rant because of our ‘faulty nozzles’ which had spilled petrol all over him. We had to point out that he was trying to put diesel in an unleaded car, which was the problem – the nozzle was too big to fit in. He looked a bit sheepish and apologised – his usual car was diesel, but he was refilling a courtesy car…