https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472444/ivenco-sold-to-us... (sic)
There is a certain pattern there, of home-grown startup, mentored through internal growth and success - then sold off, at which time all sorts of the usual merger weirdness and slipping-through-cracks happens.
Australia, NZ, UK and most of Europe all operate on a fill then pay.
Some stations in Australia at least are an exception that open 24/7 and have no employees and are prepaid and some manned stations where they charge at the pump during night hours for safety reasons.
Huh? Every gas station I've seen in the US is fill before pay. Except in NJ where there's an attendant.
These days, most petrol stations do keep the pump disabled until a human inside presses a button. I assume the staff member is doing a quick visual check to check for anything suspicious or unsafe.
And it's not like you can't pay at the pump, most petrol stations have supported it for ages, it's just that most people in NZ would rather pay inside. I suspect the historic "fill up before paying" experience is just so streamlined that nobody bothered learning how to pay at the pump, no need to guess how much petrol you will need or risk needing a refund. And if you were going to buy anything else from the shop, it's actually faster to pay inside.
You can fill up 24/7, even if the store is closed.
I also don’t drive that much these days so may be misremembering things. The only issue I had with payments was in a station in a small town in Italy which refused to accept most foreign cards (ant least based on other people around me also struggling) and was the automated no-human type of station so there wasn’t an easy solution.
I used an unattended gas station for the first time few weeks ago and it took me 10 minutes to figure out why the diesel isn't flowing... Though I didn't even notice it's unattended at first.
In Denmark they are almost all unmanned, and if manned you still pay at the pump with a credit/debit card.
The manned gas stations are for serving hotdogs :)
Ask HN: Did you encounter any leap year bugs today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39554539 - Feb 2024 (85 comments)
smfh.
