[Closed] RANT: Petrol Station Pre Pump Funwittery

Seems your living up to your name 😉

it was you wasn't it!! just pull up to any of the pumps!! AAARRGGHH!

Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion

is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.

Captain Asshattery (lol) is sadly just one of the many selfish pricks that inhabit our roads.

Volvo driver in "i own the road" shocker!

😆

Car users are such pleasant reasonable people aren't they - either driving like a twerp, acting like a twerp or ranting like a twerp.......

Did you get out of the car and go and give him some constructive advice on the situation, or just impotently sit there fuming and counting the seconds till you could get on the PC and share? 🙂

Horn?
Blow?

Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion

is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.

Indeed, in my uni years I worked at a petrol station - we had a mobile phone mast built into the price display tower thing (correct terminology escapes me at the moment...)

Generally it's preferable for people to be concentrating on filling up their car. I have fond memories of the chap who insisted that our pumps were faulty, because the fuel had backed up and spilt over his coat, shoes and trousers. He said we'd have to pay for dry cleaning, and that he was outraged, etc, etc. Turned out he was trying to put diesel into his unleaded hire car - the nozzle was physically too big to be inserted properly, hence the fuel going everywhere.

Given the inability of some people to mono-task, multi-tasking is to be discouraged...especially around flammable materials! 😛

[i]Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion
is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.[/i]

It's a myth that a mobile by itself will cause an explosion but have you ever watched anyone try and hold a mobile phone conversation and do anything else at the same time? Crossing a road, driving, you name it, they can't do it.
It makes sense therefore to ban it on forecourts and allow people to concentrate on dispensing fuel.

Please let me know when you're driving as I can leave work later!

Yeah people do silly things, it's a cwazy world.

Drive to another petrol station if that was so dangerous?

Petrol forecourts leave me in a hot sweat. I have been in the same situation as the OP many times. You just know it will be you caught in the middle.

I have tried speaking to people and beeping the horn but in the end you just sit there. Ignorant fools imo

Some might say that you were in the wrong for try to pull into the forecourt when you could see that there was an obstruction.

Or just pull round him and wait at a specific pump, maybe.
That's what I'd've done, but I am bit of a bolshy cow these days...

Surely the entrance to most petrol stations is big enough that you could have driven round him and picked a pump? I've never seen one that is a single car width.

what gets my goat is the ppl who will only go to pump on the same side as the fuel cap (and so cause blockages as the OP), the fricken hose will reach across you car ****! (observed, whilst I fill up at the pump the 'couldn't use)

Go by motorbike - "queue jumping" winds the t**ts up something chronic, mind you I got my just deserts when a garage I went to recently wouldn't turn the pump on unless I removed my helmet, but got a good humoured response when I did so only to reveal thermal balaclava underneath...

I agree with the OP. It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Using a mobile on a forecourt is lethal, despite what the average STW online H+S expert might claim otherwise. I occasionally work on a petrol forecourt, as a result have been on various health and safety courses geared towards forecourt dangers. It has been repeated many a time using a mobile is a serious danger, mainly due the risk of a spark been created through increased static electricity (we even wear anti-static clothing/footwear when in close contact with fuel to minimise this risk)

An example of how a mobile phone exposed to fuel vapour can be shown here. Wait until the guy climbs on top of the tanker to lift the lid, whilst at the same time answers an incoming call... 😯

[i]what gets my goat is the ppl who will only go to pump on the same side as the fuel cap (and so cause blockages as the OP),[/i]

Why does that cause a blockage? Surely you can just drive to any pump if someone is waiting at a specific one. Do you folks all go to fuel stations that only have space to fit one waiting car?

And on the cars I own if I use the pump on 'the wrong side' the hose generally drags across the body work. Which isn't really a good idea unless you drive a car you couldn't give a shit about.

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Using a mobile on a forecourt is lethal, despite what the average STW online H+S expert might claim otherwise

Here's an article from a US government agency

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wirelessgas.html

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Here's another article for you boz

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4366337.stm

What did you say your qualifications were again?

Boz - how does a mobile phone cause a spark? Seriously, unless it's quite, quite faulty. Why don't all customers have to be earthed when pumping fuel?

And that video is inconclusive: he gets something out of his pocket but it doesn't look like he's answering a phone.

I once parked on the 'wrong' side of the fuel pump and attempted to drag the hose out to reach around my car. Couldn't do it! I couldn't make it stretch at all, so had to reverse back and go find a space on the side I normally use... 😳

People like me is why you're having to wait those precious extra few minutes... 😉 (though I'd never sit in the middle of the forecourt)

multi-tasking is to be discouraged

allow people to concentrate on dispensing fuel

Now [i]these[/i] are more sensible ideas. Turns out it's not inexplicable after all 😳

Uplink - there are numerous articles/evidence that says otherwise to those reports. Dont ask me to find them as i am not a H+S expert, just someone who has heard it first hand on a training course. Better to be safe that sorry though and just not use a phone when filled up eh, you know, just incase...?

[i]What did you say your qualifications were again? [/i]

Sorry, i didnt realise i had to be a University lecturer to post an opinion on a MTB forum....

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up - make sure it's on a still hot summers day.... 😉

Is that like wearing a helmet when cycling "just in case" you fall off...?

(runs away, giggling)

while I'm willing to accept that 'sparks' can cause ignition, what I can never quite get my head around is why people think mobile phones are more likely to cause a 'spark' than anything else...

like all the electrics in a car when you start the engine for example...

or a Nintendo DS, PSP, Ipod etc, what exactly is it that makes Mobile phones so much more risky eh, surely that was covered in the training?

I'd be more concerned about that kid in the back of the BMW X5 waving a birthday balloon dangerously close to his new nylon jumper if it were me 😉

now, commence (no pun intended) flaming....

Sorry, i didnt realise i had to be a University lecturer to post an opinion on a MTB forum.

You certainly don't but you gave the impression that it was fact not an opinion
It's OK I won't ask you to find any evidence - I'll take your youtube clip that you described as how a mobile phone can cause a fire/explosion as irrefutable 😉

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up - make sure it's on a still hot summers day....

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up - make sure it's on a still hot summers day....

And I don't own a car.

LOL, ok lads you win 😆

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

It's NOT always possible. A lot of stations I've come across have the hose coming out at waist level and don't extend enough to reach over the car.

So, unless you pull the car right up past the pump and bring the hose around the back of the car they DO NOT always reach. You can't always position yourself like that if someone is using the pump in front of you.

And I don't own a filling station.

I've been told off (over the tannoy) for using my mobile while parked inside my car at one of the parking spaces on the forecourt, at least 10 metres away from the pumps 😳

Couldn't help thinking that if the risk was that great then nylon should be banned, everyone should be grounded and they shouldn't really use electric signs and giant strip lights 🙄

[i]leaving me free to pull up to an unfavoured side, stretch the hose over, fill up , pay and go before they've got out of the car[/i]

Wow, you won the fuel pump race - I'm sure you feel you’ve achieved something but no one else gives a shit. Bet you only stuck a tenner in when you really wanted to fill the tank up, just so you could 'win'. You must have a very mediocre life.

Fuel station angst is highly amusing though, please keep it up.

leaving me free to pull up to an unfavoured side, stretch the hose over, fill up , pay and go before they've got out of the car

Back of the net.

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re mobile phones

it was on mythbusters - they couldn't cause an explosion (and they tried really, really hard)

I always thought the reason for the mobile ban was incase you dropped the phone and the battery fell out which could cause ignition with fuel?

>I once parked on the 'wrong' side of the fuel pump and attempted to drag the hose out to reach around my car. Couldn't do it! I couldn't make it stretch at all,

Yes, and you were filmed.

I am with MrNutt on this one makes my blood boil, more so when it turns out the T**T blocking the pumps is doing their weekly shopping inside then decide to pay by chip n pin and cant remember their sodding number........I just want pertol from a petrol station not much to ask?

[i]more so when it turns out the T**T blocking the pumps is doing their weekly shopping inside then decide to pay by chip n pin and cant remember their sodding number[/i]

If you're sitting in a queue outside how do you know the person has fotgotten their pin number?

Didn't some Exploding Science program with Richard Hammond show that the static generated by a shell suit is more likley to cause a spark than a caravan full of mobile phones all ringing at the same time?

[i]If you're sitting in a queue outside how do you know the person has fotgotten their pin number?[/i]

because "someone in front of me went in and paid without a problem" would be a pretty poor rant.

grievoustim - Member

re mobile phones

it was on mythbusters - they couldn't cause an explosion (and they tried really, really hard)

Darnit, Tim has revealed the source of all my knowledge! 😳

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

not a large mpv - some might but are so few and far between it ain't worth the hassle

and as to the car that is unaccountably stationary look closely and you will find it has a "i like tuggin' truck drivers" sticker on it - fact!

In a taxi, a couple of months ago in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt. We pulled onto the forecourt and up to the petrol pump - none of which had those plastic things round the pump unit so we could see all the pipes, cogs, levers and hamsters etc. and the whole mechanism was covered in dust. Driver gets out the car, lights up a cigarette, hands some cash to the pump master who duly fills up the car while we're sitting in it, and the engine is ticking over (although we then got out cos we got the fear at that point). Driver is wandering around the forecourt, smoking a fag and chatting on his mobile phone in the 40 deg C heat. We all got back in and drove off. So it kinda makes you wonder what all the fuss is about.

It's the Egyptian ahmsters wot make it safe over there: they're trained firefighters so everyone using filling stations is like "yeah, no worries, the hamsters will see us clear".

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Update: I fell for this on Sunday. Smugly ignored the queues and pulled up to the "wrong side" pump, going past it a little to minimise the distance from pump to cap.

Pesky fixed length hose (no pully-out bit) wouldn't quite reach and I had to face the shame of getting back in and moving the car elsewhere. 😳

Ahh the wonderful Forecourt Game!
The times I've just driven round the ditherers, straight up to a pump, without batting an eyelid..... Bliss.

The best EVER was when the fuel protests were on. I decided it would be a good idea to fill up both my and Mrs PPs motorbikes as a precaution so we could get to work. So off to the petrol station I trot, past a line of maybe 50-odd cars waiting on the road, straight up to a pump as the car drove off. Filled the bike before anybody really had time to get angry about my blatent pushing in, and was off down the road.

And again on the other bike 5 mins later...!

I passed the same cars twice..... 🙂

Peter you neglected to mention that you were wearing little more than a bikini made of three minute steaks

I work in O&G and the only explanation I've ever been given is that mobiles casue interferance, which could muck up the pumps, although the more common answer is "everyone else does it". Thus if a mobile ever did cause an explosion, and the signs werent up it would be the oil companies fault as everyone else had taken reasnoble steps to mitigte the risk. Whereas banning polyester jumpers and wellington boots is harder (thus unreasnoble) despite it being more of a potential risk.

Pulled into petrol station with some mates in the car. One of them was smoking a fag. On thinking this wasn't a good idea. He decided to throw it out of the window, onto the forecourt. Genius. Then realising this was an even worse idea got out pretty sharpish and stood on it. Oh how we mocked him.

was told off a mast engineer or whatever there technical name is that some older 1st gen phones had been found to bugger up the flowmeter counts/readouts in certain brands of petrol pumps when being used and so banning phones from filling stations was one way round this.

Check your phones handbook, at the back, for places where you are advised not to or are excluded from using it.
You will likely find the big yelloe EX sign;
[url= http://www.seton.co.uk/setoneurope/product/0/20/100001-1%20200020-2%20300097-3%202071057674486-4.html ]Explosive[/url]