Unlike the majority of the United States, drivers in the Garden State are required to have an attendant that pumps their gas. It’s not a matter of preference or customer service; it’s the law. As of 2023, New Jersey stands alone as the only state in the nation where pumping your own gas is illegal.
Oregon was the only other state besides New Jersey to prohibit self-service gas for decades. Oregon’s ban was enacted in the 1950s after a slew of gas station fires were caused by customers putting gas into their vehicles.
Fast Forward 72 years, and Oregon passed a bill in 2023 that gave drivers the right to self-serve at retail gas stations. Instead of ending the familiar full-service option entirely, the bill gave Oregonians the choice of self-service at up to half of the pumps in any gas station.
Several attempts have been made in New Jersey over the years to enact a law similar to the one at play in Oregon but so far, no dice.
Why is it Illegal to Pump Your Gas in New Jersey?
You may have seen an impatient customer hop out of their vehicle and try to start pumping their own gas or take out the pump while waiting for the attendant to come around and disconnect them, but these are technically illegal acts. Even if it does move things along for everyone.
If you’re caught pumping your own gas, an attendant can stop you and it’s well within their right to do because it has direct negative consequences for their business. The station could face penalties and be subject to fines which the owner/operator would be responsible for paying.
The roots of this strange regulation go back to the year, 1949, and with it – the enactment of the Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act. The primary justification at the time, and still upheld, centers on safety. Like Oregon’s ban, legislature argued that entrusting untrained individuals with gassing their vehicles up with highly flammable liquids posed a risk of fire and other accidents.
In the late 1940s, a gas station owner named Irving Reingold in Hackensack decided to offer lower prices to customers willing to pump their own gas. Of course, this proved wildly popular for Reingold, undercutting his competitors who had a “gentlemen’s agreement” to maintain higher prices.
Rival gas station owners reportedly lobbied state lawmakers to do away with self-service, effectively protecting their businesses from price competition. The Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act conveniently served this purpose, cloaked in the guise of public safety.
The Pros and Cons of Self-Service Gas in NJ
Over the decades, as self-service became the norm across the country, New Jersey stubbornly clung to its prohibition of self-service gas. Several attempts to repeal the ban have been made, often citing consumer convenience and potential cost savings but these efforts have been shut down each time.
Some residents appreciate the convenience of not having to leave their vehicles, staying safe and comfortable in their climate controlled cars but the flipside to that argument is the freedom of not having to wait for an attendant to serve you when you’re in a rush and the gas station is busy and the minutes in your day are ticking – there’s something to be said about being able to self-serve your way in and out, as fast, or as slow as you need.
Another point that’s brought up is the jobs provided by gas station attendants which frames the ban as a way to support local employment. There’s even a sense of state identity tied to the full-service model, with bumper stickers proclaiming “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas” becoming a quirky symbol of the state’s distinctiveness.
Economically, the impact of the ban is a subject of debate .One side says that eliminating the need for attendants would lower gas prices, others say that the difference would be negligible. New Jersey has relatively competitive gas prices compared to neighboring states, a fact that proponents of the ban sometimes point to as evidence that the full-service model doesn’t necessarily lead to higher costs.
So yes, New Jersey is an anomaly in the United States when it comes to pumping gas, but the ban on self-service gas with the laws origins are historically intertwined with now outdated efforts to stifle competition in the early days of self-service stations, and even more twisted, New Jersey’s identity and stubborn pride.
At the end of the day, it would be nice to have the option to pump your own gas, like Oregon did giving customers the option to do it themselves or be served by an attendant. Going this route would satisfy everyone, retaining jobs while giving the ones impatient to get on with it, the freedom to get in and get out.
The Latest Development on Self-Service Gas in NJ
Over the past few months, another attempt has been made to move things in the self-serve direction. State Senator Jon M. Bramnick proposed a bill that would enable self-service gas options in New Jersey when gas stations have four or more pumps.
Bramnick himself has doubts about the bill getting off the ground, “I get it because I’ve seen a few four-letter words in my legislative office on some emails. But I think it’s the right thing to bring up the discussion again. This could be a Dracula bill. It could never see the light of day. But I’m gonna give it a shot.”
