The Petrol Station Rant
Is anyone else sick and tired of waiting in a line that stretches out to infinity to get some measly gas at your local petrol pump? First off, each station will only have two gas pumps, which will always have long lines in front of them, and several petrol pumps, which will often be standing idle. Secondly, the gas attendents will serve each customer in the slowest possible way. On most occasions, they will have to alternate the two pumps that they do have to keep the pressure steady, a practice which ensures only one of the two pumps can be pumping gas at a time. On other occasions, they will just smile complacently and tell you that the gas just ran out, despite it only being late afternoon.
Then, of course, there will always be the “king of the road”, who feels it is his right as lord of all he beholds, to cut in on a long line and cause a fight to erupt, in which case all attendants must leave their duties and either watch or break them up, delaying the long line even more. With petrol prices causing more and more people to switch to CNG every day, we need more gas pumps, and we need them now!
you should feel lucky that you don’t have to pump your own gas when it’s -40 outside. we do.
I just realized at the end of the article that you’re talking about real Gas (Compressed natural gas)… I thought it was petrol and I was wondering why would they run out petrol in mid afternoon.
Stupid north americans like to call petrol gas…
Atleast you guys are lucky that you have consistent prices.
What happens here in toronto is that Petrol prices change on the whims of the oil companies. Some time the price is 95 cents per litre and at other times when they feel benevolent, it’s 75 cents per litre.
So of course no sane person would fill up at 95 c/L. We all wait for a time when it’s 75 cents (mostly after 5 pm uptil 8 pm). When that time comes it seems like it’s a free for all. Even thought the gas station in my neighbourhood has 8 pumps, there is a huge line up (atleast 4 cars per pump).
To add a little fun to this, the gas attendant will announce in how much time, the price is going to go up. 5 minutes left, 3 minutes left, 2 minutes left… While this is going on and you’re waiting for your turn, the guy in front of you decides to go into the store to pay (you swipe your credit card at the pump to pay) and then while he’s there, he’ll buy something to eat, maybe something to drink as well. All this time he’s left his car there at the pump… Grrrr…
He comes back then sits in the car and looks at his receipt… it’s all in order… good for him.
I heard petrol prices in Pak also just went up? They went up by 35% in UAE too, after god knows how many years.
MT: Lol……. i lived in states but never had to go thru this :) This sounded most funny that they announce the gas prices are going to go up in 5 mins…. LOL!!!
Khurram: Yeah they went up again by 7.5% :(
Misha: The reason for only two stations, i’ve been told, is that most of the stations had outsourced/rented their space to a third party for CNG purposes, cuz they didn’t see much future in it but had to satisfy the initial customer demand. However, after seeing the demand go north, they realized what a big blunder they had made. Now, the company that is running the CNG operation wants to expand because of the increase in demand, but the owner of the station doesn’t allow him to bring in the necessary equipment (bigger compressors) for this expansion. That is the reason you see only two pumps working while the others are lying idle. Once the tussle is over, usually the station owner will win it, then he will bring in his own machines and you will have normal supply of gas…… this has happened in our neighbourhood, that’s why i know all this :)