Service stations put to the test

Beck Vass puts service station staff to the test and finds the majority keen to assist. Photo / Natalie Slade

Question: How many service stations are happy to help a woman who (is pretending she) can't check her tyres or water levels?

Answer: Most of them. After a story in yesterday's Herald which revealed that health and safety regulations are getting in the way of old-fashioned service on the forecourt, we decided to put service stations to the test.

At the first stop, Shell on Williamson Ave in Ponsonby, I approached a staff member who was already on the forecourt greeting people and filling their cars with gas.

"Hi, I was wondering if I could get some help checking my tyres," I ask.

"Sure," he says, before filling each tyre with air, to the specified 32 pounds per square inch. When he is finished, I push him a bit further.

"Ummm, can I please get you to check my water as well?"

"No problem, I just need you to open the bonnet."

Wearing gloves, he opened the radiator cap, said my water was fine and then said: "Do you mind if I check your oil?"

He said the oil was fine and told me to have a good day. He was so nice, I felt guilty because it felt like I was lying to him. So I went inside and bought a drink and chewing gum.

We moved on to Caltex on Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, where the attendant was in sole control. He said he would come and help me when the forecourt freed up.

He came after five minutes, checked two tyres, said "they're okay" and, when I asked him to check the water, he said he'd be back for that before rushing in to serve more customers.

After a few minutes he returned, checked the water overflow and window wiper water and said both were fine.

Mobil Sandringham Rd wasn't quite as helpful. The attendant couldn't come and help with the tyres because the station was "self-service only" and he couldn't leave the store because he was the only one working.

He wasn't allowed to check water levels because of fears the radiator water might be too hot.

A man at BP Balmoral gave me a hand, but also checked only the two front tyres, before declaring them "okay" and inspecting the water overflow and telling me it was fine.

At BP Landscape in Mt Eden and Gull on New North Rd, staff said they would "teach" me how to do it. Both checked one tyre and left me to finish the job myself. The BP staff member checked my water but the man at Gull said he wouldn't because it was "self service" only.

BP spokeswoman Diana Stretch says staff at company-owned stations - as opposed to independently owned and operated stations - could check oil and help customers but are not allowed to check water levels or tyre pressure.

"OSH regulations state that we are required to do an assessment of hazards and take steps to mitigate those hazards. In those assessments BP has identified that checking of water in radiators, changing tyres and filling tyres with air are all potential hazards to our staff."

But Jared Brixton, managing director of KiwiHost New Zealand said it wasn't regulations but "bad service" that was stopping BP staff from helping motorists.

"It appears that BP has gone overboard and lost some common sense."