Paying attendants to pump gas is very expensive, so much so that many gas stations curtail their hours in order to save money. As a result, most New Jersey gas stations are very small when compared with neighboring states.
The “bottom line” of our current situation is that New Jersey consumers pay more for gas, have considerably less availability than neighboring states, and are prohibited from taking advantage of up to 5% credit card discounts by “paying at the pump.”
The question then becomes: if the prohibition against self-service in New Jersey was lifted, thereby saving 10 to15 cents per gallon in attendant delivery charges, and an increase in the gas tax of 15 cents per gallon was implemented at the same time, consumers would not experience any price increase, gas would be much more readily available, and a stable source of future transportation funding would be realized.
Also, think about the thousands of construction jobs that would be created as New Jersey’s existing gas stations were replaced by the mega stations you see in neighboring states, most of which also include 24-hour convenience stores.
The displacement of attendants would be more than offset by the hiring necessary to staff the 24 hour operations of self-service stations.
