Reply With QuoteShell has been doing the same thing for awhile in collaboration with PayPal
So anyone seen the ad saying how you can pay your BP fuel bill, on your mobile phone, whilst sat in your car?
So that's strange 'cause you aren't allowed to use mobile phones on a petrol forecourt! A 100% stupid thing I know but there you go.
In fact a couple of years ago I was borrowing someone's phone to 'call home'. I was sat in the car and the petrol station shouted on the PA and refused to activate the pump until I'd put the phone down!
Shell has been doing the same thing for awhile in collaboration with PayPal
Same with Esso - also do 5 or 10 quid off offers to increase uptake
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Hopefully becomes more and more mainstream and user friendly. Even Pay @ Pump is a godsend as far as I'm concerned. I cannot fathom a reason why (other than buying from the shop) someone would insist on queuing at the till to pay for their fuel.
So the rule about using your phone in a petrol station is now no more?
Never pay at pump, often the paper for the receipt has run out and I need the paper for accounts. So that's why people go to the till!Originally Posted by Complex
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and said exactly the same thing!
Fair enough! I only ever use Tesco for fuel and it's pretty fair that the pump will not have a paper for receipts (and it will tell you so before you put your card in). Even so, I think there is now a feature to print the receipt at a different pump if necessary.
Of course all of the above is rendered unnecessary with an app that can produce VAT receipt PDFs.
Inconvenient (at best) for customers at other pump but surely receipt can also be printed at till.
Ive been using the shell app for ages and it works brilliant and saves the hassle of buying stuff queing and buying stuff on impulse that you dont need - also the look on faces as you drive off is quite amusing as well and it works effortlessly.
The whole point is you authorise it while you are in your car via apple pay - Very easy
As above. Been using the Shell app for more than a year now. You do not take the phone onto the forecourt, it stays in the car at all times. Anyway, a low voltage phone on a forecourt should not be a problem. If that were the case you’d think they’d ban cars from forecourts, what with 60,000 + volts running through the plug leads, not to mention a 150 amp alternator whizzing round plus a starter motor sparking up everytime a car starts.🙄
I agree.... the rule about mobile phone usage has always been a load of cobblers but 'thems are the rules' and, as I say, I've been told off for using a phone before ;-)
I don't think the commonly understood rules apply anymore, much in the same way one is now allowed to use mobiles in planes whilst taxiing.
I did a risk assessment for a large company a few years ago that has cause to be on sites like petrol stations and hospitals with mobile devices and the conclusion from the organisations we were visiting is that we could leave them on/ use them - which is different to last time the assessment was done prior to mine in 2008.
Sounds like it would be so simple, saving spending extra on crap when you go in the garage also. lol
Can you link Nectar points? I get about £80 a year from fuel alone.
Cheers..
Jase
Yes on the App it has a ‘Add Nectar’ facility, very easy app and within 6 months every station will be suing something similar like when online banking took off.
Currently reading the follow up to Sapiens called Homo Deus, very enlightening and this demonstrates the direction we are now heading
RIAC
Been using the Shell one for ages. You can pay in the app using PayPal or ApplePay. And you get Avios points if you want as an alternative to Shell's derisory loyalty awards.
Apparently some cars have the Shell app built-in now.
I used to really like Pay at Pump but never see them now, apparently they were removed because of they were too easy to fraud?
Any payment method that avoids entering the shop is good by me, especially when you get behind some dimwitted fecktard that has a shopping basket full of crap to put through the till (it`s a garage, not a bloody supermarket!) and all i want to do is quickly pay for a contactless fuel fill-up and go.
Thanks, will take a look.
Cheers..
Jase
Yep. The Mythbusters answer:
(FFWD to 8:07)
Many filling stations have cellular masts. It’s not the RF that’s the (perceived) problem. The issue is the risk of dropping a phone and it’s removable battery coming adrift, arcing momentarily as it does so and igniting some stray petrol vapour. I’ve never heard of it actually happening but it’s a good excuse to discourage calls which tend to slow down the progress of customers through the site.
Where did you make that one up from???
Installed this after reading about it here the other day. I chose the full tank option was let’s fuel up to £100. Have used it twice on one occasion was £57 and the other £75.
I have checked my Amex statement and the payment has gone for both . But the two payments for £100 are still pending . How long does it stay pending for before they’re cancelled ?
Thanks
Just cancels out its a pre authorisation thats all
RIAC
Thanks just odd on my Amex online statement it’s showing pending and the balance has factored them in.
Brilliant app -impressed with speed of it too.
A load of cobblers?.......I don`t think so.
Potential source of ignition. People's understanding/respect for the flammability of petrol vapour is limited to say the least. It's unlikely, but possible on a still day, to have a flammable or explosive atmosphere around the fuel filler whilst filling the tank. Think about it; you're displacing saturated petroleum vapour from your fuel tank when you fill it..........where do you think the vapour goes? If it mixes with air (as it will) it's conceivable to create an explosive mixture and even a static spark could set it off. Unlikely scenario but possible.
Any electronic device, unless it's designed to be intrinsically safe (phones aren`t!) is a potential ignition source.
During the latter stages of a career in the chemical industry I got involved in Hazard Studies, I thought I knew plenty about the subject but I was amazed to learn what I didn`t know. In hindsight I took lots of liberties whilst messing with petrol and old cars in a confined space, I learned a new-found respect for the stuff. It really is hazardous stuff because it's so volatile. Idiots get burned every year trying to light barbecues with petrol, the vapour trail follows them and flashes back with disastrous results.
Have a read about upper and lower explosive limits......you'll think twice about switching a garage light on when the place reeks of petrol!
Paul
Okay but...
1. to my knowledge there has never been a case of a mobile phone causing a flammable explosion in a petrol station. This is despite lots of test to try and make it happen e.g. making phone ring whilst in a box of saturated petrol vapours.
2. there are considerably more potential causes of explosion under the bonnet of the car
3. what about the phone that people have switched on in their trouser pocket whilst filling their tank?
Oh and so your saying that people should NOT be allowed to use their phone to pay their bill in this manner? Just trying to see which side you're on here.
I always understood the original reason behind petrol companies telling you to switch off mobile phones on their forecourts was back in the day the old CB radios and early analogue mobile phones could interfere with the signal from the pump to the pay kiosk resulting in undercharging. This was in part due to very old style pumps with no faraday cage fitted and a much more powerful class of transmitter on CB's and old style analogue mobiles. The risk of explosion was just a smokescreen (excuse the pun).
This sounds far more logical to me than any risk of explosion from a mobile, especially on a forecourt with hundreds of cars using it every day - think of all those internal combustion engines and the associated sparks arcing from the rotor to the distributor cap every time an engine is run
Are all phones intrinsically safe?......I very much doubt it. Strictly speaking they need to be, otherwise they constitute a small but finite risk of creating an ignition source if operated in a flammable (or explosive) atmosphere. Using one inside a car on a forcourt should be safe, using one in very close proximity to the fuel filler whilst fuel is being delivered is clearly less safe.
The use of electronic calculators was banned in certain areas of chemical plants for this very reason, and all torches used had to be intrinsically safe. Same principle here, the area immediately around the filler cap will definitely constitute a flammable atmosphere under some conditions (ie a still day).
The velocity of the fuel leaving the nozzle is regulated to eliminate the risk of static build-up in the fluid itself, these risks are real and that's why it's unwise to dismiss safety protocols as 'cobblers'. Most folks haven`t got a clue, they know petrol's flammable but that's about it. Maybe the risks are slim, but folks would fill the car with one hand and use the phone with the other without even thinking. it's not that people are daft, it's more a case of not knowing and not thinking.
Would I use this method of payment?.....no way, I use the paper folding stuff where possible.
Intuitively, that sounds logical, but when considering flammable hazards it's the immediate environment that has to be considered. Even moving a couple of metres away can change the scenario. I`m considering the immediate vicinity around the filler cap and the fuel vapour being displaced.This sounds far more logical to me than any risk of explosion from a mobile, especially on a forecourt with hundreds of cars using it every day - think of all those internal combustion engines and the associated sparks arcing from the rotor to the distributor cap every time an engine is run
The risk is probably slim but the hazard exists; the basis of safety has to be 'elimination of ignition source' in that immediate vicinity, it can`t be 'absence of flammable atmosphere'.....and it HAS to be one of those two if the risk of fire is to be completely controlled. Clearly, introducing a potential ignition source (mobile phone being operated) would be unacceptable.
On a warm still day the risk is bound to increase, and elimination of ignition sources in the immediate vicinity of the fuel filler is paramount. The question is whether all phones have been shown NOT to constitute an ignition source; my guess is they haven`t, they would have to be totally sealed and classed as intrinsically safe.........that is definitely not the case!
The case I`m not sure about is the risk of a static spark being generated from the car owner whilst filling the car. Static sparks have sufficient energy to constitute a source of ignition, that's well-founded and that's why anti-static footwear is specified in some situations.
Be careful out there.
Paul
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