Tom Nobile | NorthJersey.com

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WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – Only during a global health emergency might New Jerseyans finally start handling a gasoline pump.

A group of gas station owners believe Gov. Phil Murphy should combat what they call a budding safety and financial crisis at the pumps by suspending a singular, seven-decade old Garden State tradition: the ban on drivers fueling their own vehicles.

In the past month, attendants across the state's 2,200 stations have quit in droves over fears of contracting the coronavirus from customers, forcing some businesses to close shop, according to an industry trade group. Others have shuttered for a week or more after their employees tested positive – all while sales have reportedly plummeted with fewer cars on the road leading to lower demand.

Murphy has remained mum on the issue, last remarking in late March that “we have no plans to turn our gas stations into self-service at this time.’’ His office didn't respond to a request for comment this week.

The gas station lobby, however, has proposed a solution, an executive order that relaxes the state law against self-service fueling, at least temporarily.

Ironically, the argument for the change is the same as the one that proponents have long used to justify a ban: public safety.

“Providing gasoline stations with this option would allow motorists in New Jersey to refuel their vehicles more safely by eliminating close contact with gasoline station employees," reads an April 2 letter sent to the Murphy administration on behalf of 183 stations. That would "contribute to the slowing of the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the risk to fuel supply lines within the state by the closure of gasoline stations.”

New Jersey and Oregon remain the only states with laws restricting self-serve gasoline. In late March, Oregon made the practice optional in response to the outbreak, leaving the Garden State as the nation’s lone holdout.

A change would shift attendants to a more supervisory role, allowing them to sanitize handles and buttons on pumps and to assist the elderly or disabled if needed, according to Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline-Convenience-Automotive Association. The group represents hundreds of independently owned gas stations across the state.

“You could pump your own gas and get back in your car after using your own credit card that you don’t have to hand to anybody,” Risalvato said. “I don’t see the sense in not permitting that when you are closing parks.”

Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com

Help can’t come soon enough for Kashmir Gill, the owner of 65 gas stations statewide, who helped author the letter to the governor. At peak employment, he enlisted 350 attendants across his Exxon, Mobile and BP locations, a majority of them immigrants. Within the last month, that number has dwindled to 150, forcing him to cut hours of operation, he said.

The problem, according to Gill, is that maintaining 6 feet of separation from a customer is “near impossible.”

Since the coronavirus outbreak, Wawa convenience stores in Old Bridge, South River and Sayreville have been forced to close temporarily because employees tested positive for COVID-19.

"That scared gas station attendants,” Gill said. “Imagine you have to give me change. You're giving me the previous customer’s cash and you’re putting the same money in your pocket, and then giving that to 500 other customers throughout the day.”

The effects have trickled down to smaller operations like the two-pump Mobile in New Milford, operated by Vikram Kumar. He said his sales dropped 75% almost overnight, with his current clientele comprised of mostly hospital workers, police and other government employees. All of his attendants are outfitted with masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, but he still can’t keep a regular rotation.

“I can’t guarantee their safety, so how can I force them to come to work?” Kumar said. “I’ll be out of business in the next five weeks if things don’t improve.”

A majority of drivers wear masks and gloves themselves, according to Gill, and are sometimes hesitant to roll down their window.

“Customers have come and asked to pump their own gas. And we have to tell them ‘Ma’am, sir, it’s illegal’. They don’t understand that it’s a New Jersey law,” he said.

The ban has its roots in a Bergen County price war dating to 1949, when local gas station owners banded together against entrepreneur Irving Reingold, the last businessman to offer self-serve fuel in New Jersey.

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Reingold’s prices undercut the competition, and rival station owners reacted by persuading state lawmakers to outlaw self-service, citing public safety as the reason. The state statute reads, in part, “Because of the fire hazards directly associated with dispensing fuel, it is in the public interest that gasoline station operators have the control needed over that activity to ensure compliance with appropriate safety procedures.”

Through the decades, the prohibition in New Jersey has stuck, even as improvements in credit-card payment systems and pump safety technology helped make self-serve gas available across the country.

Former Governor Chris Christie talked about lifting the self-serve prohibition on the campaign trail in 2009, but later seemed to change his view, citing public opposition and the risk of losing part-time service-station jobs. The industry says it employs more than 5,000 attendants in the state.

The law has survived despite thawing support among station owners. The businesses had long argued that relaxing the ban would allow big oil companies to open high-volume self-serve outlets on the busiest highways, undercutting smaller competitors. But that fear receded as the larger players shed most of their properties, saying the profit margin was too low.

The gas station trade group estimates that full-service adds at least a 15-cent premium per gallon at the pump.

Still, some in the state Legislature remain dedicated to bringing New Jersey in line with the rest of the country.

Republican state Sen. Gerald Cardinale has introduced half a dozen bills since the 1980s to repeal the self-service law. None have reached a vote, even though advances in pump technology have rendered safety arguments obsolete, said Cardinale, whose district covers northern Bergen and Passaic counties.

The real obstacle, he said, is the belief that New Jersey residents are above self-serve, a cultural credo epitomized by the popular bumper sticker “Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas.”

“We’re the only state left with this idiotic notion that people cannot pump their own gas safely,” Cardinale said. “I’ve always maintained that they have a choice.”

Follow Tom Nobile on Twitter: @tomnobile

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