Oyster changes/improvements
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message ...

In message , at 16:29:39
on Tue, 8 Aug 2017, David Cantrell

I was under the impression that petrol stations *had* to be manned when
they were open. That was certainly the case when I was a spotty yoof and
worked in one. If I needed to take a slash during my shift I had to turn
everything off first.

It's changed. I filled up at a Sainsburys *completely* unattended petrol
station today. Card-only, but that's a different thread.

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/...Petrol_station

Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact the
main store if assistance is required.

At some sites, especially in very remote, rural areas filling stations are
unattended at all times, requiring the user to pay by cash or card in
advance of fuelling. Examples include Durness and Applecross in the Scottish
Highlands.

Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002



--
Mike D

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"David Cantrell" wrote in message
...
On Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 11:54:11AM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:

The "inside" isn't manned 24x7.

I was under the impression that petrol stations *had* to be manned when
they were open. That was certainly the case when I was a spotty yoof and
worked in one. If I needed to take a slash during my shift I had to turn
everything off first.

there's a new supermarket station by me that manned 0x7

tim

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On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact the
main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the manned
stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't have to go and
endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you try to pay.

--
Spud

Oyster changes/improvements
 

On 01.08.2017 4:54 PM, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:40:31 on Tue, 1 Aug
2017, d remarked:

The "inside" isn't manned 24x7. And thanks for confirming my impression
that there's a breed of tech geek who thinks one minor improvement is
justifiable, how ever many negative consequences it has. (And no,
talking to humans isn't one of those - the human's barcode reader
struggled to read the new fob too, increasing the length of the queue).

So pay by card or cash, whats the problem?

Do keep up; it's their *loyalty* card, not a payment card.

Fair enough.

Tesco have their own bank

The shop people claim the ATMs are "nothing to do with us", so it could
be a branding thing like Virgin Trains being nothing to do with Virgin
Bank.

however so it wouldn't be beyond the realms of
possibilty for them to have to release a smart card/fob for payment.

I have always thought they should have a combined Credit/Loyalty card.
Maybe there's some regulatory issue with it.

Some time ago, I was involved in aquiring a company that managed a
combined-loyalty-and-credit-card scheme; the credit card was issued by one
of the US banks that heavily got involved in the UK market through its own
brand but mainly through co-branding. Let's say "Mainly Branded but Not
Always."

It was one of those "the assets are worth more than the business"
acquisitions, so the main job was to wind up the operations in the most
orderly fashion possible. Which delighted me, when I discovered that the
"IT integration" consisted of said US bank *emailing* the complete account
information (card numbers, addresses, card activity etc.) once a week, as
an Excel spreadsheet.

Without so much as a password on the Excel to provide a figleaf of
security...

Oyster changes/improvements
 

On Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:31:25 -0000 (UTC)
Clank wrote:
It was one of those "the assets are worth more than the business"
acquisitions, so the main job was to wind up the operations in the most
orderly fashion possible. Which delighted me, when I discovered that the
"IT integration" consisted of said US bank *emailing* the complete account
information (card numbers, addresses, card activity etc.) once a week, as
an Excel spreadsheet.

Without so much as a password on the Excel to provide a figleaf of
security...

That sort of thing is completely unacceptable and something the FCA (or
whichever body is now responsible for policing this sort of thing after that
idiot Osborne dismantled the FSA) should look in to and possibly bring
criminal charges.

--
Spud

Oyster changes/improvements
 

wrote in message ...
On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact the
main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the manned
stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't have to go and
endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you try to pay.

Just come back from 2 weeks in France

and pay at kiosk is definitely a minority sport there now. And evenings and
Sundays, often an impossibility

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though you can
just about bluff your way through without translation - unlike the bloody
Scandinavian offerings)

tim

Oyster changes/improvements
 

In article , (tim...)
wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact the
main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the manned
stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't have to go
and endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you try to pay.

Just come back from 2 weeks in France

and pay at kiosk is definitely a minority sport there now. And
evenings and Sundays, often an impossibility

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal with
such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Oyster changes/improvements
 

wrote in message
...
In article , (tim...)
wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact
the
main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the
manned
stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't have to go
and endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you try to pay.

Just come back from 2 weeks in France

and pay at kiosk is definitely a minority sport there now. And
evenings and Sundays, often an impossibility

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal with
such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

I seem to have an inherent inability to remember more than 1 foreign
language

having (in chronological order) spent 2 years learning Italian, 6 years
learning German and 1 year in Sweden since I left school, 40 years ago

I have lost all ability that I had to communicate in French

tim

Oyster changes/improvements
 

In article , (tim...)
wrote:

wrote in message
...
In article ,
(tim...) wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in
the 2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide
automatic unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run
the filling station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a
common feature at Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter
having a number of completely unattended filling stations, with just
a phone to contact the main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the
manned stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't
have to go and endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you
try to pay.

Just come back from 2 weeks in France

and pay at kiosk is definitely a minority sport there now. And
evenings and Sundays, often an impossibility

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal
with such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

I seem to have an inherent inability to remember more than 1 foreign
language

having (in chronological order) spent 2 years learning Italian, 6
years learning German and 1 year in Sweden since I left school, 40
years ago

I have lost all ability that I had to communicate in French

French, Portuguese and German in my case. My problem is recalling the
vocabulary. Any overseas trip includes a crash course to catch up - French
and German most recently. A cousin of my wife's got married. He's British
and lives with his now wife and mother of their children, who is German, in
Zurich, Switzerland. So naturally they celebrated their wedding in France!

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Oyster changes/improvements
 

On Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:07:01 -0500,
wrote:

In article , (tim...)
wrote:

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal with
such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

That's a bit harsh - unless you're suggesting that French has a
special status, which I think it has, but you can't know the language
everywhere you go. The other option is not going anywhere not on your
language list, far too limiting (even if I'm guilty of it sometimes).

Richard.