Clearly there is places where pump theft is not that common or tackled in some other way, because there are countries where post-pay is still the default.
I do know that at some post-pay pumps the cashier has the ability to lock and unlock the pumps from inside
A long time ago, I used to work at a gas station when post-pay was allowed. All of the pumps required the cashier to activate them when somebody picked up the nozzle, but it was just expected that you hit the button to allow them to pump first. Most of the time, it’s just a normal transaction. Sometimes, you realized some asshole stole gas when the next guy was at the pump.
Enough of this happened, especially during periods of high gas prices, that my boss would say “prepay is required now”, and we’d tell them they have to come inside first. Eventually, paying with credit cards was so popular, and cash transactions were so rare, that nobody allowed post-pay anymore. There wasn’t a point, when the risk was people would steal gas, and it’s so easy to just stick a CC in a slot.
So, yeah, there’s locks on the pumps, but if post-pay is the norm, it doesn’t really matter.
You’ve described post-pay pumps, which is how they used to do it 20-25 years ago. This is how pump theft happens: They pump the gas… aaaand run off.
Clearly there is places where pump theft is not that common or tackled in some other way, because there are countries where post-pay is still the default.
I do know that at some post-pay pumps the cashier has the ability to lock and unlock the pumps from inside
A long time ago, I used to work at a gas station when post-pay was allowed. All of the pumps required the cashier to activate them when somebody picked up the nozzle, but it was just expected that you hit the button to allow them to pump first. Most of the time, it’s just a normal transaction. Sometimes, you realized some asshole stole gas when the next guy was at the pump.
Enough of this happened, especially during periods of high gas prices, that my boss would say “prepay is required now”, and we’d tell them they have to come inside first. Eventually, paying with credit cards was so popular, and cash transactions were so rare, that nobody allowed post-pay anymore. There wasn’t a point, when the risk was people would steal gas, and it’s so easy to just stick a CC in a slot.
So, yeah, there’s locks on the pumps, but if post-pay is the norm, it doesn’t really matter.
Same in NZ. However they have cameras on each pump, pretty sure your number plate will get flagged if you don’t pay up.