To pump or not to pump: Staff shortages could finally bring self-serve gas to Oregon

Is Oregon finally going to join the rest of the nation in allowing drivers to pump their own gas? It is just one of two states that still doesn’t allow it, but this legislative session might leave New Jersey all alone.

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I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I grew up waiting for an attendant to come over to my car and pump my gas. I would also have to wait long after my fueling was complete to allow the attendant to get back to my car, remove the nozzle, and give me a receipt.

It’s still like that today.

But Oregon Representative Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican from the Willamette Valley, has introduced another bill that would allow for self-serve gas pumping.

“Previous bills have always chosen to have Oregon become self serve all together — this bill is different,” she said.

The bills eliminating the attendants have always failed. Boshart Davis said the opposition is concerned about losing jobs, and something called “the Oregon Way.”

“That’s what we do here in Oregon, and it’s been brought up before committee,” Boshart Davis said. “They say that, ‘This is what we do in Oregon. We don’t want to get out of our car.'”

Her bill, which is co-sponsored by a Democrat and has bipartisan support, would allow for up to half the pumps at a station to be self serve, and attendants to serve the rest. You keep the jobs, and offer a choice.

And Boshart Davis said allowing self serve stations is desperately needed because gas stations cannot find enough people to work the pumps. She recalls a recent trip from Portland back to her home in Albany.

“As I’m pulling in, half of the pumps have cones, or garbage cans, or something in there where you can’t pull in,” she said. “I asked the attendant, ‘How come half of these are shut down?’ And he said, ‘We can’t get enough people to staff it.'”

Drivers are waiting in longer lines at the gas pumps because of the labor shortage, and some gas stations are closing early or opening late for the same reason.

Recent polls also suggest that an overwhelming number of Oregonians want to have the option to pump their own gas.

Oregon has started to move to some self-serve over the last six years. Some counties, like those along the coast, have had limited self-serve since 2015, primarily because the gas stations weren’t open or available 24 hours a day. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, self serve was also allowed in Oregon to maintain social distancing.

I asked Boshart Davis — somewhat tongue in cheek — if the state would need an advertising campaign to show Oregonians how to pump their own gas.

“A lot of Oregonians have been to Washington,” she chuckled. “They’ve sat at a gas station for maybe five or 10 minutes, realized an attendant is not coming out, and they have figured it out. We’re smart people. We’ll figure it out.”

Under the proposed bill, there would be no price difference between the self-serve gas pumps or ones with an attendant. Boshart Davis said she wanted this to be about choice, not price.

Oregon has had attendants exclusively at the pumps since 1951. Will 2022 finally be the year self-serve passes in Oregon? The session starts Tuesday in Salem.

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