OT: Petrol pump and zeroising

There's an Asda filling station not too far from here where there are no human attendants at all. In fact, there are two such Asda stations.

This was Sainsburys, all fairly modern pumps*. It was busy. But the implication was that they wouldn't zeroise/prime it whilst I had the nozzle in my hand. Not sure of the logic because had it been zero when I arrived I could still have squirted petrol all over the forecourt.

• I have a Nectar card and find that you miss out on vouchers if "pay at pump" is used. Double points yesterday bringing my total available to spend up to £78. Last time I cashed in it was to buy my wife a mobile phone.

I generally use on;ly the one fuel station, and it seems to be that you can remove the pump to get attention, and then the cashier will switch it on. I don't believe you can have it switch on with the trigger pulled tho. Not sure about out of its holster

Both Tesco and Sainsbury allow use of their loyalty cards when paying at pump, just scan the barcode before inserting the debit/credit card in the slot.

They must be very special bedrooms.

Yes, but if you have a printed double points on fuel voucher, the pump won't accept it.

Happened to me at a Sainsburys about 3 years ago. Like you I had spent

Dont often use Sainsburys but I guess it is still policy.

Yes I know, but the cashier will often give you Nectar vouchers which you won't get with "pay at pump" so for a few years I missed out on these.

Up to about 8 months ago, Esso E5 petrol sold in most of the South East (incl Tesco sites) had no ethanol at all. Good stuff for lawnmowers etc, but sadly the refinery has now been upgraded (or something like that) and it now has the water-loving addition.

But would anyone wait, with the nozzle in their hand anyway ?.

Just grab the nozzle, shove it in your filler and wait for the pump to zeroise.

Isn't that what everyone else does ?

I grab the nozzle, wait for the pump to start and *then* put it in the filler and pull the trigger.

Err, if you pull up adjacent to an empty pump then the implication is that the previous user has already driven off, with or without paying.

QED Transaction 'complete' ???

I do see occasional videos from people in sheds doing their own testing of E5 fuels with dye to check ethanol levels, the most recent confirmation for Tesco E5 was from June 2025 ...

If the previous driver has driven off without paying, I imagine the attendant would not want to zero the meter as it would destroy the evidence and information of what he had stolen.

Not really. Half the time if they are decent people they have pulled into the other parking areas to free up the pump while they go shopping for snacks in the station

"How much ethanol is in Esso's E5 fuel?

From September 2023 our Synergy Supreme * 99 transitioned to contain up to a maximum of 5% ethanol at all Esso pumps irrespective of which part of the country they are located. The labelling at our pumps will remain as E5 for Synergy Supreme * 99 unleaded."

"up to a maximum of 5%" !!!

The esso website used to have a disclaimer notice stating that Sites in the South East had no ethanol, even though the pump handle did actually say E5. This notice has now been removed from the website (or I can't find it)

Rather confusing.

But why ?. You're going to have to stick that nozzle somewhere, so why wait ?.

I am pretty sure that there are electronic recordings that are all linked in with the sites billing/accounting/till software.

How else would the cashier know how much you owe ?