Hi Everyone! My first thread. Been looking at Esso and Shell pay at pump mobile systems. Esso say motorcyclists can use their mobile to pay if they keep their phone in their pocket during the actual filling. Shell say NO to using mobiles near pumps. Unless inside a car. So don't call text or email me, or reply to this thread when I'm at the Shell garage, you'll blow everything and everyone UP! Even with the phone in my pocket. Shell must be the best bang per buck ever. Just wondering if anyone uses either system on a bike?
Eh? Old school is wandering in to pay with cash. Technically it should be handing cash to the attendant but such places are a bit rare for that these days.
Aren't these rules about using mobiles near petrol pumps a bit outdated now ? I don't know, I'm just asking. The big hairy scary cashier at my local petrol station reckons a mobile phone can ignite petrol fumes. How ? Maybe years ago when mobiles where just like desk phones with a battery the size of a suitcase but now ? really ? how ?
Exxonmobil (Esso) introduced pay at the pump by mobile after years of incident free activity in 5he USA. Risk from mobile is extremely low ... personally I’d be more worried about blowback or overfill as you fill the bike tank and petrol running onto a hot engine. One piece of general advice ... NEVER fill a petrol can sat in the boot of your car, always put it on the concrete forecourt ... static discharge can be a serious issue when transferring petrol.
I remember years ago when I was a kid, the guy from our local fuel station would regularly have a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth whilst filling up
That's probably not as bad as you think. If you put a bit of petrol in an egg cup and hold a lit cigarette over the cup, would it ignite the fumes ? I reckon not. I reckon you need a flame. When I was young and silly I ignited the neck of a can of petrol with a cigarette lighter, right at the top. It's just the vapour that burns right at the top of the neck. You just put your hand over the flame to put it out. I vaguely remember pouring petrol over the ground and then throwing a lit cigarette onto it, the petrol did not ignite. Things you do eh ?
Not just as kids. I was known as Pyro-Phil for while. Spent last 30 years living next door to a fire station, just in case!
You rock up to your petrol station in a 2-tonne metal death machine that literally needs to ignite fuel to move. But yea, don't dare use a mobile phone there!
It's actually more likely because the phones may interfere with the pumps electronics and cause it to give free fuel!
It's static spark that can blow up petrol stations not mobiles, someone, somewhere decided it was mobiles just to add it to the list of things we're not allowed to do thought up by some dickhead with power (crazed) while twiddling their thumbs (feck I'm in a bad mood today)
I believe the initial reason for banning mobile phones on garage forecourts was concern that if dropped and the battery dislodged, it may spark at its connections. I cannot help but think that is rather unlikely and there are far more likely causes of igniting the petrol. None of which basically seem to occur, so it's just another case of health and safety madness. In fact, many petrol stations apparently have cellular transmitters in their tall signs as they make a pretty good mast and keeps it hidden. So it was never about the wireless signals themselves igniting the fuel. That was just some misunderstanding that got spread about as 'fact'. If you recall, mobile phones were also banned on airplanes and in hospitals due to claimed fears of the wireless signals interfering with sensitive instruments. Strangely, once they figured out how to charge for using mobiles, the concerns vanished.
Many yonks ago when youtube was in its infancy two Egyptian pranksters on bikes (iirc) posted a video where they mocked up a situation where it looked like one of their mobile phones sparked near a petrol pump which then became engulfed in flames. Obviously to any rational thinking person that is soooo unlikely. Anyhowz it went viral and within days gullible admin at the petrol companies were banning mobile phones on forecourts. But they were perfectly happy to have millions+ of spark plugs doing what they do every day in filling stations across the world. And now they encourage mobile phones users to use these erstwhile 'lethal' devices to pay at the pump.
