Petrol Station Legalities.

[Oblivious]

lol what do you think the 'person in 'charge' of the forecourt' does with his/her time? sit there starring at the forecourt for 8 hours straight!

When people are on it yes, and considering thats the job also yes, if you find it dull you should get a better job.

 

[The_Dark_Side]

What about if someone causes a fire? Are you going to be ready to turn off the pumps.

if you could answer the questions in order please.

post #75 was first

 

[james.miller]

What about if someone causes a fire? Are you going to be ready to turn off the pumps.

there's an emergency stop button by every till point, there'll be more than one out side ect. there's a button within reach of everybody working in the forecourt.

When people are on it yes, and considering thats the job also yes, if you find it dull you should get a better job.

wrong. what part of 'forecourt supervisor' says thats all they do? and what makes you think the cashiers on the till point will be looking at the forecourt every single second they work there? do you expect them not to serve customers as well? not to scan items, pack bags and whatever else is required of them at the same time?

do you know anything at all about working in a petrol station? *we* cant watch *you* all the time, so we expect *you* to engage your brains, for everybody's sake. thankfully most people can and its easy going. unfortunately, there are people who think they know better.

 

[The_Dark_Side]

do you know anything at all

edited.

 

[Oblivious]

so how does he deal with multiple customers? by constantly staring across the forecourt? no, because this kind of constant supervision isn't needed and, if it were, then all filling stations would be double manned at all times for this reason.
unless of course you know better than the oil companies themselves AND the HSE who did the risk assessments in the first place?

Whenever I go into my local petrol station the cashier always seems more occupied with authorising pumps and watching what is going on outside than serving me. Monitoring the forecourt seems to come first.

Do you work for a big oil company (Not the retail division) and in the HSE department? I wouldnt mind seeing a copy of these risk assesments.

 

[The_Dark_Side]

Whenever I go into my local petrol station the cashier always seems more occupied with authorising pumps and watching what is going on outside than serving me. Monitoring the forecourt seems to come first.

First, i don't doubt. but your posts suggest that they shouldn't be taking their eyes off the forecourt at any time at all based on safety grounds. This is unrealistic as many forecourts will only have one member of staff present at certain times and by definition this means they will have many tasks to perform.
I am connected to the HSE as it happens although not with the petrochemical industry, but if you want to see/read their risk assessments you can ring up your local office and request copies.

 

[Oblivious]

First, i don't doubt. but your posts suggest that they shouldn't be taking their eyes off the forecourt at any time at all based on safety grounds. This is unrealistic as many forecourts will only have one member of staff present at certain times and by definition this means they will have many tasks to perform.

I didn't say they cant take their eyes off the forecourt, just that they should be by the pump controls and monitoring at all times. Doing the till/serving customers will still mean you head is mostly vertical and you will be able to see out the corner of your eye anything kicking off in the few seconds you divert your attention. Writing a text on your phone to your latest boyfriend will take a lot more attention and require your head to be down and therefore not concious of what is going on.

I am connected to the HSE as it happens although not with the petrochemical industry, but if you want to see/read their risk assessments you can ring up your local office and request copies.

Cool, what do you do for a living?
Wonder if anybody can get the risk assesments that petrol retailers have written for their forecourts, I might shoot an email off to BP at work tommorow or something. Actually quite curious.

 

[PMKeates]

and your reasons for that are?

My reasons for that fact are it's pretty bloody simple to refuel a car and talk on the phone. The worst that is going to happen is that I spill a small amount of fuel if the automatic cut-off doesn't work.

 

[PeterNem]

My reasons for that fact are it's pretty bloody simple to refuel a car and talk on the phone. The worst that is going to happen is that I spill a small amount of fuel if the automatic cut-off doesn't work.

And if the automatic cut off didn't work and you were filling all the way up, you'd do that regardless of talking on a phone or not.

 

[The_Dark_Side]

I didn't say they cant take their eyes off the forecourt, just that they should be by the pump controls and monitoring at all times. Doing the till/serving customers will still mean you head is mostly vertical and you will be able to see out the corner of your eye anything kicking off in the few seconds you divert your attention. Writing a text on your phone to your latest boyfriend will take a lot more attention and require your head to be down and therefore not concious of what is going on.

i can see where you're going but strictly speaking a distraction is a distraction. PMKeates' flamethrower man would've only needed a second to light the place up and that second could esily be the result of the attendant turning around to pickup a pack of marley lights for a punter.
In a forum where we are constantly told not to make judgements on accidents when we don't have all the relevant information, isn't the same true here? ok this attentdant was texting, but for all we know the member that noticed this may have been the only driver on the forecourt at the time and his/her pump may have been shut off as they were on their way to pay when they noticed this texting.

Cool, what do you do for a living?

it's complicated and i have a bath running

Wonder if anybody can get the risk assesments that petrol retailers have written for their forecourts, I might shoot an email off to BP at work tommorow or something. Actually quite curious.

you wouldn't believe how in depth the risk assessment procedure goes nowadays. seriously, you wouldn't.
an example for you. we have some trucks at work that are essentially flatbeds with foldup aluminium sideboards and their contract lease is coming to an end so i was asked to draw up a specification for their replacements. After talking with the drivers i concluded that it would increase the load security and lower the risk of load shedding if these sideboards had their height increased from 700mm to 800mm. IMHO this would only be slightly more expensive to implement but would bring a noticeable improvement in safety. I was then told in a meeting with the Directors that in order to increases the sideboard height we would need to have another ( there was one done initially for the 700mm boards ) assemssment on the revised design and this would be prohibitive in both time and monetary factors.

and i'm up against this all the time.
i tell ya, patience of a saint....../mumbles to himself.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

I really can't see a problem with smoking inside ones car. The world isn't airtight, and I can happily smoke away just off the forecourt with surely a virtually identical potential hazard?

I guess the logic to no naked flames on the forecourt is to prevent ignition of the fumes that are in the air. In the case of a car, as they clearly are not airtight, fumes will obviously get into the car, regardless of the windows being up or not.
So assuming you accept that there is a risk whilst on a forecourt, then clearly there is a risk for the individual smoking in a car.