Service Station FAQs

Yes. The first self-serve station opened in 1947 in California. Self-serve really grew in popularity in the 1970s. By 1993, the most recent year for which data are available, self-serve accounted for 88 percent of all sales in states where it was legal.

The idea of posting the prices in fractions began back in the 1930s, when "discount" service stations opened and owners promoted their price on their signs out front. To emphasize the discount, these independents priced their product in fractions, sometimes at 1/2 cent intervals, but often at 9/10.

No. New Jersey and Oregon have laws that allows only an attendant to pump gasoline.  Customers in all other 48 states may pump their own gasoline.

Sometimes, but most often they are delivering fuel to a service station from a bulk terminal that has been supplied by pipeline. There are 142 refineries operating in the United States.From the refineries, the products are transported by barge, truck or pipeline.

The majority of the product is moved by underground pipelines and stored in large aboveground storage tanks at 1,300 locations around the country. These locations are called terminals.

Transport trucks, especially designed to safely carry petroleum products, pick up product at the terminal and deliver it to the underground storage tanks at service stations.

API’s historical files note that the first "filling" station was opened in Seattle in 1907 by Standard Oil of California, which is now Chevron Co. USA. The "filling" station included a hose that dispensed gasoline directly into the vehicle from an elevated tank. Charles Duryea had invented the gasoline-powered horseless carriage in 1893, but there were few owners in those early years. They purchased gasoline from bulk depots, often in five gallon containers. The industry was transformed in 1908 when Henry Ford mass- produced the first Model T, and many retail locations began selling gasoline at the curb. The first "drive-in" service station opened on December 1, 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.