DUBAI // Motorists were hot, frustrated and in some cases outright angry yesterday after the launch of a pilot project that forced them to fill their own petrol tanks in the midday heat. "Look at me: I'm sweating profusely," said Joseph Lobo, 36, an Indian hairdresser. "It's far too hot in this country for a system like this and it's a waste of time. I'm in a hurry to get my car in for a service, and this is just delaying me."
The Emirates National Oil Company (Enoc) has started a two-month trial of the self-service system at 10 petrol stations in Dubai and the northern emirates. The trial is being held at low- volume stations and if successful, the company plans to roll out the concept to all of its 165 stations in line with the "global trend". Despite claims from Enoc yesterday that feedback on day one of the trial had been positive, The National found the majority of motorists filling up at Al Manara Enoc station on Jumeirah Beach Road, like Mr Lobo, had taken an instant dislike to the self-service system.
Enoc claims it launched the project in the intense heat of the summer months because it was a better test of customers' willingness to fill their own tanks. Though the baking August weather was a common theme of the complaints, the main bone of contention was the payment scheme, which requires customers to pay for the fuel before filling their tanks. "That's a big problem," said Mr Lobo, who was using self-service petrol for the very first time. "I didn't know how much to put in, so I just went for Dh50, which it turns out has left me well short of a full tank."
Dammika Jayasekera, 28, an operations controller for a private airline, agreed. "I couldn't get a full tank," he said. "The system means you always have to put in less than a full tank because you don't know what a full tank actually comes to, especially if you're not filling up from empty." Although Mr Jayasekera acknowledged that most other countries have self-service pumps, he preferred the old system because it was easier.
