If you pull into a gas station in most of America, you already know the routine: park beside the pump, swipe your card, grab the nozzle, and fill up. But cross into New Jersey, and that familiar process suddenly becomes someone else's job. New Jersey is the only state where customers are still prohibited from pumping their own gasoline at public retail stations.
The rule has made New Jersey a strange outlier in a country where self-service fueling is overwhelmingly the norm. And while Oregon was once the other state famous for requiring attendants, changes that took effect in 2023 opened the door to self-service there. So why is New Jersey still clinging to this ancient law?
