Why do people queue at petrol stations?
Discussion
Skyedriver said:
Well I wait for a pump where i can fill without stretching the hose around or over the car and would get bloody irate with anyone who tried to cut into the pump I wanted.
Hopefully you'll be queueing adjacent to the pump you want to use and not at the entrance to the petrol station so there won't be space available for someone to cut in front of you!I must admit to being baffled by the number of people who find it hard to manage the nozzle with one hand and hold the hose away from their paint with the other...
I'm with OP, and I think people were misreading his post.
The petrol station isn't a 'single master queue', rather each pump is it's own queue.
At the Sainsbury's I use, there are 3 pump 'units' - with 2 pumps on each side, so 12 pumps in total.
It's quite a tight station, and if more often than not, all pumps will be in use when I get there in the afternoon.
90% of cars will just pull into the station and queue at the first pump, followed by a second car. This second car will actually be waiting longer for fuel, simply because they lack the common sense to drive 5 metres further over and queue at pump 2,3,4,5,6,7....
They also block the entrance when doing do because it's a stupid little mini roundabout right at the entrance.
Usually I'll just squeeze past them and join the queue furthest away, at pump 11 or 12.
The petrol station isn't a 'single master queue', rather each pump is it's own queue.
At the Sainsbury's I use, there are 3 pump 'units' - with 2 pumps on each side, so 12 pumps in total.
It's quite a tight station, and if more often than not, all pumps will be in use when I get there in the afternoon.
90% of cars will just pull into the station and queue at the first pump, followed by a second car. This second car will actually be waiting longer for fuel, simply because they lack the common sense to drive 5 metres further over and queue at pump 2,3,4,5,6,7....
They also block the entrance when doing do because it's a stupid little mini roundabout right at the entrance.
Usually I'll just squeeze past them and join the queue furthest away, at pump 11 or 12.
St John Smythe said:
chrispj said:
I must admit to being baffled by the number of people who find it hard to manage the nozzle with one hand and hold the hose away from their paint with the other...
Quite. How difficult is it to do this?Personally, i'm happy to fill up to the off side, but would have preference not to have to bother. I certainly wont sit and wait for a free pump just to be on the near side.
St John Smythe said:
chrispj said:
I must admit to being baffled by the number of people who find it hard to manage the nozzle with one hand and hold the hose away from their paint with the other...
Quite. How difficult is it to do this?Waiting a few extra minutes for me is no issue as sometimes it takes 25 minutes to get the normal amber light (50 miles to go) to brim 46 litres of fuel in it anyway.
One thing that genuinely surprises me is the number of people who seem to see this as a "big problem".
I passed maybe 10 filling stations on the way to work this morning and not one had a queue.
I also think whilst in their minds a lot of people will sail past a long queue of people whilst waving their todger out the window at them and rock up to the first pump that suits, whilst everyone in the queue looks on with a combination of awe and despair that they hadnt thought to do it, the reality, i would imagine is that they sit meekly in the queue and then whinge about it on forums.
If someone is dithering then i think everyone would drive round them - and if thats the only scenario the O/P is talking about then i'm with him all the way.
If theres a clear queue already and people are waiting for a pump to free up, you'd look a bit of a tool driving round them all and sitting behind the next pump that looks likely to free up.
If its out onto the road, and it bothers you for whatever reason, then either go elsewhere or come back later. No world shortage of petrol stations.
I tend to get my fuel on the way to work in the mornings, once a fortnight, and theres never really a queue at ASDA at 06:45 in the morning which suits me because (a) i dont have to wait and (b) i tend to find that the general public usually find some way to cock things up and make things difficult for the everyone else and therefore are best avoided where possible.
I passed maybe 10 filling stations on the way to work this morning and not one had a queue.
I also think whilst in their minds a lot of people will sail past a long queue of people whilst waving their todger out the window at them and rock up to the first pump that suits, whilst everyone in the queue looks on with a combination of awe and despair that they hadnt thought to do it, the reality, i would imagine is that they sit meekly in the queue and then whinge about it on forums.
If someone is dithering then i think everyone would drive round them - and if thats the only scenario the O/P is talking about then i'm with him all the way.
If theres a clear queue already and people are waiting for a pump to free up, you'd look a bit of a tool driving round them all and sitting behind the next pump that looks likely to free up.
If its out onto the road, and it bothers you for whatever reason, then either go elsewhere or come back later. No world shortage of petrol stations.
I tend to get my fuel on the way to work in the mornings, once a fortnight, and theres never really a queue at ASDA at 06:45 in the morning which suits me because (a) i dont have to wait and (b) i tend to find that the general public usually find some way to cock things up and make things difficult for the everyone else and therefore are best avoided where possible.
daemon said:
Personally, i'm happy to fill up to the off side, but would have preference not to have to bother. I certainly wont sit and wait for a free pump just to be on the near side.
You might want to change your password on here, because it seems somebody else is using it...daemon said:
TooMany2cvs said:
daemon said:
TooMany2cvs said:
daemon said:
A lot of the hoses i've seen dont reach over from above, they come from out of the pump itself.
Still PLENTY long enough to reach around the average car.Sure, there are instances where you can't fill from the wrong side - a van, f'rinstance, where the filler is behind the front door - but for 90+ of vehicles in the average filling station? Dead easy. IF you engage brain. Which, of course, is the usual problem.
Go you!
TooMany2cvs said:
You might want to change your password on here, because it seems somebody else is using it...
I was misquoted - by you actually. if you look back to where i posted that originally, and back to the previous page, where i pointed this out before. I was originally commenting on
"as has already been said, the hoses are quite long enough to reach the over your car. why some folks have not worked this out is quite sad."
To which my reply was "A lot of the hoses i've seen dont reach over from above, they come from out of the pump itself. " - a lot come from the side / below.
I NEVER said i wouldnt fill from the offside.
Keep up at the back!
daemon said:
One thing that genuinely surprises me is the number of people who seem to see this as a "big problem".
I passed maybe 10 filling stations on the way to work this morning and not one had a queue.
I also think whilst in their minds a lot of people will sail past a long queue of people whilst waving their todger out the window at them and rock up to the first pump that suits, whilst everyone in the queue looks on with a combination of awe and despair that they hadnt thought to do it, the reality, i would imagine is that they sit meekly in the queue and then whinge about it on forums.
If someone is dithering then i think everyone would drive round them - and if thats the only scenario the O/P is talking about then i'm with him all the way.
If theres a clear queue already and people are waiting for a pump to free up, you'd look a bit of a tool driving round them all and sitting behind the next pump that looks likely to free up.
If its out onto the road, and it bothers you for whatever reason, then either go elsewhere or come back later. No world shortage of petrol stations.
I tend to get my fuel on the way to work in the mornings, once a fortnight, and theres never really a queue at ASDA at 06:45 in the morning which suits me because (a) i dont have to wait and (b) i tend to find that the general public usually find some way to cock things up and make things difficult for the everyone else and therefore are best avoided where possible.
Thing is, it doesn't bother me at all, nor do I arrogantly cut past people or feel smug when I do so.I passed maybe 10 filling stations on the way to work this morning and not one had a queue.
I also think whilst in their minds a lot of people will sail past a long queue of people whilst waving their todger out the window at them and rock up to the first pump that suits, whilst everyone in the queue looks on with a combination of awe and despair that they hadnt thought to do it, the reality, i would imagine is that they sit meekly in the queue and then whinge about it on forums.
If someone is dithering then i think everyone would drive round them - and if thats the only scenario the O/P is talking about then i'm with him all the way.
If theres a clear queue already and people are waiting for a pump to free up, you'd look a bit of a tool driving round them all and sitting behind the next pump that looks likely to free up.
If its out onto the road, and it bothers you for whatever reason, then either go elsewhere or come back later. No world shortage of petrol stations.
I tend to get my fuel on the way to work in the mornings, once a fortnight, and theres never really a queue at ASDA at 06:45 in the morning which suits me because (a) i dont have to wait and (b) i tend to find that the general public usually find some way to cock things up and make things difficult for the everyone else and therefore are best avoided where possible.
I just value my time, and like to be as efficient as possible, and in this scenario that relates to queuing at a pump with only 2 cars at it, rather than joining an existing queue of 4 cars.
It's simply common sense, something a large chunk of the general population seem to lack.
It's also helpful to other people - by joining the furthest queue away, more people can then enter the forecourt and join a queue. It's on the same grounds as not leaving your car at the pump while you do your weekly shop inside.
None of these things are life or death, but just a bit of forward thinking and consideration can make life a tiny bit easier for everyone.
smithyithy said:
Thing is, it doesn't bother me at all, nor do I arrogantly cut past people or feel smug when I do so.
I just value my time, and like to be as efficient as possible, and in this scenario that relates to queuing at a pump with only 2 cars at it, rather than joining an existing queue of 4 cars.
It's simply common sense, something a large chunk of the general population seem to lack.
It's also helpful to other people - by joining the furthest queue away, more people can then enter the forecourt and join a queue. It's on the same grounds as not leaving your car at the pump while you do your weekly shop inside.
None of these things are life or death, but just a bit of forward thinking and consideration can make life a tiny bit easier for everyone.
Are you not talking about a scenario whereby there are queues behind each set of pumps as opposed to a scenario whereby there is one queue waiting for a pump to be free across all sets?I just value my time, and like to be as efficient as possible, and in this scenario that relates to queuing at a pump with only 2 cars at it, rather than joining an existing queue of 4 cars.
It's simply common sense, something a large chunk of the general population seem to lack.
It's also helpful to other people - by joining the furthest queue away, more people can then enter the forecourt and join a queue. It's on the same grounds as not leaving your car at the pump while you do your weekly shop inside.
None of these things are life or death, but just a bit of forward thinking and consideration can make life a tiny bit easier for everyone.
I'm with you BTW. The problem being of course that the vast bulk of people out there dont give a s
te about anyone around them and just suit themselves.
This is what I encounter.. The scale is a bit off, but it's roughly like this. The road is quite narrow as it's sort of within a retail park, but it's right by my work off the motorway so I always fill up here.
The cars at the bottom left just swing in and sit there, some times 3 of them at a time, while there's plenty of space to move across into a queue, so I just squeeze past to their left and join the furthest available queue.
I'd never intentionally cut in front of someone.
smithyithy said:
This is what I encounter.. The scale is a bit off, but it's roughly like this. The road is quite narrow as it's sort of within a retail park, but it's right by my work off the motorway so I always fill up here.
The cars at the bottom left just swing in and sit there, some times 3 of them at a time, while there's plenty of space to move across into a queue, so I just squeeze past to their left and join the furthest available queue.
I'd never intentionally cut in front of someone.
daemon said:
smithyithy said:
This is what I encounter.. The scale is a bit off, but it's roughly like this. The road is quite narrow as it's sort of within a retail park, but it's right by my work off the motorway so I always fill up here.
The cars at the bottom left just swing in and sit there, some times 3 of them at a time, while there's plenty of space to move across into a queue, so I just squeeze past to their left and join the furthest available queue.
I'd never intentionally cut in front of someone.
daemon said:
I also think whilst in their minds a lot of people will sail past a long queue of people whilst waving their todger out the window at them and rock up to the first pump that suits, whilst everyone in the queue looks on with a combination of awe and despair that they hadnt thought to do it, the reality, i would imagine is that they sit meekly in the queue and then whinge about it on forums.
PanzerCommander said:
I'd need three hands to do that or I'd have to pull the car so far forward that it blocks the gap bewteen the pump islands
Is this a huge faux pas? I do it all the time to bring the hose round the back of my estate. It hasn't ever blocked access to the pump ahead so I don't see it as a problem.PanzerCommander said:
Waiting a few extra minutes for me is no issue as sometimes it takes 25 minutes to get the normal amber light (50 miles to go) to brim 46 litres of fuel in it anyway.
25 minutes to put in 46 litres of fuel?! Thanks for the heads-up, will take care not to queue behind any Mustangs I come across! That would drive me nuts having to waste 25 minutes every time I visit a petrol station, presumably with a V8 you spend a lot of time there...Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff