ANPR at the pump.....

[hornet]

Won't say who I work for, but just read this in relation to combatting "drive offs" :-

"Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems have been installed on a number of stores. ANPR picks up every car's number-plate as they pull up at a pump, and this is compared against a database managed by the Police. The system then alerts the Sales Assistant to decline pump authorisation on specific car registrations".

Good thing or bad thing? On the one hand it should stop pond life filling up their (well, probably not theirs) cars, but on the other hand it could be used to track movements of normal motorists. There's also the prospect that once Chavboy realises he can't put fuel in a "hot" car, he'll just go and nick it from existing vehicle tanks.

[hornet]

Streetcop said:

The police waste hours and hours everyday taking statements and reports of drive offs at garages. The taxpayer is paying for all this through police wages. The garages could put a stop to the trend by making people pay before the petrol is dispensed. However, the garage would lose out as people would always buy less than is needed.. Street

How can you buy less fuel than is needed?

The reason garages don't adopt a prepayment operation is to do with customer trust - at least that's the marketing spin from within the oil company I work for. The logic is that prepayment sends out the message that we don't trust our customers, which makes them feel annoyed and subsequently go elsewhere for their fuel. Valid point I think. Giving your honest customers the impression you don't trust them isn't really good for business.

As for the "frees up police time" idea....great idea in theory, but then speed cameras were supposed to do that too, and we all know what happened there don't we.

I'm on the fence here. On the one hand, anything that stops garages losing money should ultimately benefit the customer. On the other, it's yet another piece of Big Brother kit being implemented on a "if you've got nothing to hide..." basis. Then there's the state of the DVLA database to consider. What happens if you've just bought a new car and you need to fill it up? Database thinks the car is off the road or something and you're flagged up as a suspect vehicle!

Personally, I think something like a prepaid fuel card might be an idea (akin to pay as you go mobiles). You buy a prepaid card from the garage then fill up until you're out of credit. I appreciate that most garages already have fuel cards, but most of those are billed to an individual or even linked to bank accounts, which has just as many civil liberty implications as ANPR if you ask me, which is why I refuse to use them.

[hornet]

Streetcop - sorry, I meant to say that speed cameras have reduced traffic police numbers, not police generally. The worry is that even with dedicated ANPR squads, the benefit of police intuition is lost unless a car is flagged as suspect. We could have ANPR all over the place, but it won't stop a drunk driver so long as he is the RK of the car he is driving. That's the major concern.

I'd agree that anything that can reduce drive offs and/or "no means" incidents is a good thing, but I don't think throwing yet more technology at it is the answer. We risk alienating Joe Public for the sake of a few scrotes doing a runner. What next, prepayment in supermarkets to prevent shoplifting? Strikes me as using a sledgehammer to crack a small nut, but there you go.

[hornet]

Streetcop said:

In that case..you go into the shop area..hand over your cash and cashier will dish your petrol. Anyway...it's all pipedreams at the moment... Street

It isn't. There are gagares using this technology now.