Why do people queue at petrol stations?
Discussion
ymwoods said:
That being said, if they are blocking the entrance then its fair to go round them rather than sitting out on the road.
That happens a lot locally, particularly at Supermarket Petrol Filling Stations. Waiting for a free pump on the "correct" side. Rarely necessary. I drive around some sometimes when they queue in a 'selfish' position and use any free pump. Every pump I've used for years has sufficient length so can reach across or over the car to enable me to fill from either side.It would be better if petrol stations had a refuelling hose gantry like the F1 teams used to use, so the hose would swing out at high level making it easier to use the hose on the wrong side. I think some Shell stations may do this.
In the meantime in future when I am refuelling and theres a queue jumper who has come in behind me I'll take as long in the minishop as possible so he gains nothing!
In the meantime in future when I am refuelling and theres a queue jumper who has come in behind me I'll take as long in the minishop as possible so he gains nothing!
See this all the time at my local station. Often it's just one idiot blocking the entrance to the forecourt instead of picking a pump & waiting it out. This results in blocking the forecourt for people who don't even want fuel & quickly leads to blocking the road & the roundabout 50mtrs away. I will always drive around these idiots if I can. I'm not queue jumping, I'm trying not to block the road for other road users.
Utter morons. I've yet to actually encounter it when needing fuel myself but have driven past the station and seen it a couple of times.
More often than not though I won't have long to wait as people always seem to queue for a pump on the same side as their fuel cap, despite the fact the hoses hang from above and are comfortably long enough to reach the other side of the car. I won't complain though.
More often than not though I won't have long to wait as people always seem to queue for a pump on the same side as their fuel cap, despite the fact the hoses hang from above and are comfortably long enough to reach the other side of the car. I won't complain though.
I've got so pissed of with the queuing fiasco, the 'I want my filler cap on the same side as the pump' types, and the idiot doing their weeks shopping with their car still parked at a pump, that I now refuse to use garages with mini-markets, and also manage to fill up at non peak times.
TooMany2cvs said:
photosnob said:
That is massively different from someone waiting for the next available pump to come up with. The chap is talking about running in front of someone in a queue. It's scummy behaviour.
No, it really isn't. The "scummy behaviour" comes from the person who - rather than risk taking an extra minute by queueing for one particular pump - decides to hold the entire petrol station - and, often, the road - up by dithering and waiting for the first pump to come free.It's like expecting the entire supermarket to wait behind you rather than pick a checkout.
It's scummy-onna-stick when combined with refusing to use a LH pump because you've got a RH filler cap.
scott15 said:
I don't understand why people queue for ages to have the pump on the correct side of their car. If the only free pumps or on the wrong side for my car, I just reverse in instead. The tutting and headshaking I receive by the people queuing just makes me laugh, as i've filled up an paid before they've even got to the pump they're waiting for 
That's even more retarded than queueing to get a pump on the "right" side. Just pull up to any old pump, believe it or not the hose is long enough to go round the otherside! It's like they sit down and think about these things when designing the pumps or something.Osinjak said:
Seriously, why? You know the ones, petrols station is busy and yet some complete mong, rather than just finding a pump to sit behind, sits in the entrance to the fuel station waiting for the next free pump. Twice today I've driven round these f
king idiots and waited at a pump to fuel up. No grief, just full on stares (powerfully built fridge thrower and all that) but I just cannot understand people sometimes, just fking get on with it!
I suppose you do the same in banks and post offices then?king idiots and waited at a pump to fuel up. No grief, just full on stares (powerfully built fridge thrower and all that) but I just cannot understand people sometimes, just fking get on with it!One queue of people waiting for a window to be free and you just rock up and stand behind someone at a window?
Same thing isnt it?
I have never witnessed this at a petrol station. Maybe its because I mainly use supermarket petrol stations. If you tried queing at the entrance of a supermarket forecourt with 8/10 pumps, of course people are going to drive past you and queue more appropriately for a pump.
Queing for one to become available will work if the station only has 2 pumps. I have seen this work at cash machines where 2 are next to each other.
I see people taking queing to the extreme when buying my daily portion of heart attack inducing lunch from the Colonel. There are over 6 tills available but people tend to form one lobg queue. The shop manager keeps coming out to tell people to choose a till and not just form an unecessary queue that starts to spill out of the shop.
Queing for one to become available will work if the station only has 2 pumps. I have seen this work at cash machines where 2 are next to each other.
I see people taking queing to the extreme when buying my daily portion of heart attack inducing lunch from the Colonel. There are over 6 tills available but people tend to form one lobg queue. The shop manager keeps coming out to tell people to choose a till and not just form an unecessary queue that starts to spill out of the shop.
,Theoretical queue management says the average person has a shorter queuing time if a single queue feeds into multiple transaction points, as you get in a post office orlarge M&S store.
But in practice, a forecourt isn't big enough for this, which is why I always get stuck behind someone who does a weekly shop and spends 5 minutes filing receipts, adjusting seats and working out how to reset the fuel computer before commencing battle with the seat belt and finally clearing the pump.
But in practice, a forecourt isn't big enough for this, which is why I always get stuck behind someone who does a weekly shop and spends 5 minutes filing receipts, adjusting seats and working out how to reset the fuel computer before commencing battle with the seat belt and finally clearing the pump.
daemon said:
If theres already a queue, join the queue. Dont be a prick and decide your own rules on what that queue should be and drive round everybody.
So everyone should wait on the one person at the front who's taken it upon themselves to decide for everyone that they'll wait until the next pump is available? Choose a pump and drive over to it, don't hold everyone else up.Patrick Bateman said:
daemon said:
If theres already a queue, join the queue. Dont be a prick and decide your own rules on what that queue should be and drive round everybody.
So everyone should wait on the one person at the front who's taken it upon themselves to decide for everyone that they'll wait until the next pump is available? Choose a pump and drive over to it, don't hold everyone else up.Would you do it in a bank or post office? Just walk past everyone and stand behind someone getting served?
Never had this issue for years now.
Why? because I goto the shell thats always nearly empty on the way to and from work.
Never qued,never had to wait for fktards wanting the right pump or doing their weekly shop.
I'd rather pay the premium of a few p than experience filling up at a supermarket petrol station.
Why? because I goto the shell thats always nearly empty on the way to and from work.
Never qued,never had to wait for f
ktards wanting the right pump or doing their weekly shop.I'd rather pay the premium of a few p than experience filling up at a supermarket petrol station.
Hoofy said:
Ekona said:
I'm with the OP. Queue for each pump individually, not the whole station: That's just common sense.
Yep. Don't see what the problem is. Makes more sense than blocking a road.Brilliant.
photosnob said:
That is massively different from someone waiting for the next available pump to come up with. The chap is talking about running in front of someone in a queue. It's scummy behaviour.
No it isn't, it's selfish moronic behaviour on the part of the idiot sat in the entrance. Picture the scene, my local Shell garage isn't particularly busy but the pumps are mostly full however dimwit decides to sit in the entrance to the station waiting for the next available slot. Where he's sat is at least one and a half car lengths away from any pump and as I pull up behind him, I'm stuck with my arse halfway out in the road causing a minor inconvenience because now the two way traffic can't flow because someone has to wait behind me to get past. I don't have time for morons who can't think about the consequences of their stupid actions so yes, I went round him and queued at a pump like any normal human being would do. As it turned out I think I fuelled and paid up about 30 secs before him so it made bugger all difference to anyone. I just wish people would think about what they're doing. (As for my rant originally being in SP&L, my bad, thought I was in GG).
It's something I never experienced until I moved down South and it annoys me greatly too - we're not talking about queue jumpining here because if a pump is free and the blocking person refuses to use it, why shouldn't I drive around him to use it myself?
ETA just re-read the OP and noticed I misunderstood, but I still agree with him - there is no excuse for blocking an enterance, just pick a line and queue.
The same applies to Car Parks - people who pull into a pay and display then sit in the entrance apparently waiting for a space to become available instead of driving around. Happened almost every time I went to Guildford (the bays next to the bus station) and often the blocker would sit there oblivious to the fact that there were empty bays on the other side of the car park next to the exit. I don't know why but I never experienced such behaviour North of the border.
ETA just re-read the OP and noticed I misunderstood, but I still agree with him - there is no excuse for blocking an enterance, just pick a line and queue.
The same applies to Car Parks - people who pull into a pay and display then sit in the entrance apparently waiting for a space to become available instead of driving around. Happened almost every time I went to Guildford (the bays next to the bus station) and often the blocker would sit there oblivious to the fact that there were empty bays on the other side of the car park next to the exit. I don't know why but I never experienced such behaviour North of the border.
Edited by parabolica on Sunday 19th October 10:59
Chrisgr31 said:
It would be better if petrol stations had a refuelling hose gantry like the F1 teams used to use, so the hose would swing out at high level making it easier to use the hose on the wrong side. I think some Shell stations may do this.
In the meantime in future when I am refuelling and theres a queue jumper who has come in behind me I'll take as long in the minishop as possible so he gains nothing!
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.In the meantime in future when I am refuelling and theres a queue jumper who has come in behind me I'll take as long in the minishop as possible so he gains nothing!
daemon said:
Would you do it in a bank or post office? Just walk past everyone and stand behind someone getting served?
Petrol stations aren't like banks, where there's a single queue which distributes to the first available counter. They're more like supermarkets, where there's a queue per checkout.If you were in Tesco, and some numpty had decided to stand there and hedge their bets as to which queue was going to come free first, would you just blindly stand behind them, then tut if somebody did the normal thing and walked straight up to a till?
Would you then patiently continue to wait if a till came free, but they preferred to wait for a different one?
Two scenarios..
1 - Forecourt is massive and the queue on arrival does not go close to the entrance to the petrol station. In this situation the 'one queue for all pumps' system works fine. (I would ignore the queue if the 'wrong side' pumps are free though, and use one of those)
2 - Queue on arrival is by the road and the above does not work as the road will be blocked. Therefore anyone with a brain should pick a pump and queue behind it.
Trouble is people are stupid and set in their ways and won't react to the current situation.
1 - Forecourt is massive and the queue on arrival does not go close to the entrance to the petrol station. In this situation the 'one queue for all pumps' system works fine. (I would ignore the queue if the 'wrong side' pumps are free though, and use one of those)
2 - Queue on arrival is by the road and the above does not work as the road will be blocked. Therefore anyone with a brain should pick a pump and queue behind it.
Trouble is people are stupid and set in their ways and won't react to the current situation.
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