Filling station
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A filling station (also known as a gas station [US/CA] or petrol station [UK/AU/NZ]) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. It serves as a local fuel depot and retailer; it receives fuel products from refineries (via regular tank truck resupplies), stores the fuels in (typically underground) storage tanks, and distributes the fuel to motorist consumers at a daily varied price.
The most common fuels sold are motor fuels such as gasoline (petrol), often as multiple products with different octane ratings) and diesel fuel, as well as liquified petroleum gas (LPG, i.e. autogas), compressed natural gas, compressed hydrogen, hydrogen compressed natural gas, liquid hydrogen, kerosene, alcohol fuels (like methanol, ethanol, butanol, and propanol), biofuels (like straight vegetable oil and biodiesel), or other types of alternative fuels. Fuel dispensers are used to pump fuel into the vehicle's fuel tanks, gauge the volume of fuel transferred to the vehicle, and calculate the amount the consumer must pay. Another device found in filling stations and capable of refueling certain (compressed-air) vehicles is an air compressor. However, these are generally used to inflate car tires.
Many filling stations provide convenience stores, which may sell convenience food, beverages, tobacco products, lottery tickets, newspapers, magazines, and, in some cases, a small selection of grocery items, such as milk or eggs. Some also sell propane or butane and have added shops to their primary business. Conversely, some chain stores, such as supermarkets, discount stores, warehouse clubs, or traditional convenience stores, have provided fuel pumps on the site.
Terminology
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In North America, the colloquial generic term for motor fuels is "gasoline" or "gas" for short due to gasoline engines being the most ubiquitous car internal combustion engine, and the terms "gas station" and "service station" are used in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. In some regions of Canada, the term "gas bar" (or "gasbar") is used.
In the rest of the English-speaking world[citation needed], the generic term for fuel is "petrol", which was originally the brand of a petroleum distillate made by Carless Refining and Marketing Ltd as a mineral oil solvent. Thus the terms "petrol station" and "petrol pump" are used in the United Kingdom. In Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa "garage" and "forecourt" are still commonly used. Similarly, in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, the term "service station" describes any petrol station; Australians also call it a "servo". In India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is called a "petrol pump" or a "petrol bunk". In Japanese, a commonly used term is gasoline stand[Note 1] although the abbreviation SS (for service station) is also used.
History
[edit]
The first known filling station was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany, where Bertha Benz refilled the tank of the first automobile on its maiden trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim back in 1888. Shortly thereafter, other pharmacies sold gasoline as a side business. Since 2008 the Bertha Benz Memorial Route commemorates this event.[1][2]
Brazil
[edit]The first "posto de gasolina" of South America was opened in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1920. It was located on Ana Costa Avenue, in front of the beach, in a corner that is located by the Hotel Atlântico, which occupies its area nowadays. It was owned by Esso and brought by Antonio Duarte Moreira, a taxi entrepreneur.[3]
Russia
[edit]
In Russia, the first filling stations appeared in 1911, when the Imperial Automobile Society signed an agreement with the partnership "Br. Nobel". By 1914, about 440 stations functioned in major cities across the country.
In the mid-1960s, in Moscow, there were about 250 stations. A significant boost in retail network development occurred with the mass launch of the car "Zhiguli" at the Volga Automobile Plant, which was built in Tolyatti in 1970. Gasoline for anything other than non-private cars was sold only with ration cards. This type of payment system stopped in the midst of perestroika in the early 1990s.
Since the saturation of automobile filling stations in Russia is insufficient and lags behind that of leading countries, there is a need to add new stations in cities and along roads at different levels.[4]
Ukraine
[edit]During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, filling stations became part of the country's critical civilian infrastructure. Russian missile and drone attacks damaged or destroyed numerous retail fuel stations, particularly in frontline regions such as Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv oblasts. In July 2026, Reuters reported that Russian forces had intensified attacks on filling stations, striking multiple retail fuel sites in Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv oblasts. According to Ukrainian officials, the attacks were aimed at disrupting fuel supplies and logistics in frontline areas.[5]
As a result of the Russian shelling of the UPG gas station network since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, approximately eight gas stations have been damaged, said Volodymyr Moroz, executive director of the network operator, PE Ukrpaletsystem, during a meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission of the Verkhovna Rada chaired by People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharenko. As a result of this damage, this and other networks are suffering large losses. All this to some extent affects the price of fuel. At the end of 2025, UPG became one of the three largest fuel retail chains in Ukraine after expanding its network to over 500 gas stations thanks to the lease of former ANP and Avias assets, approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
At the end of June, WOG CEO and former Minister of Infrastructure Andriy Pyvovarsky noted that over the past two months, more than 150 gas stations have burned down in Ukraine. He added that oil depots and other fuel infrastructure facilities are attacked almost weekly[6]
In June and July 2026, Russian forces carried out a series of attacks on gas stations (GAS) in various regions of Ukraine. According to the industry publication NaftoRynok, in June 2026, there was a significant increase in the number of attacks on Ukrainian gas stations. The publication noted that at the end of June, the number of affected or damaged gas stations reached an average of 15.5 facilities per week, and at the beginning of July, up to 20 gas station attacks per week were recorded.[7]
United States
[edit]The increase in automobile ownership after Henry Ford began selling automobiles the middle class could afford led to increased demand for filling stations. The world's first purpose-built gas station was constructed in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1905 at 420 South Theresa Avenue. The second station was built in 1907 by Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in Seattle, Washington, at what is now Pier 32. Reighard's Gas Station in Altoona, Pennsylvania claims that it dates from 1909 and is the oldest existing filling station in the United States.[8] Early on, they were known to motorists as "filling stations" and often washed vehicle windows for free.
The first drive-in filling station in the U.S. was the 1912 Standard Oil of Ohio auto filling station at the corner of Young and Oak streets in Columbus, Ohio. The motorist drove in the front door, had his tank filled, and drove out the back.[9][10] Whitehill-Gleason Motors, the first Gulf Refining Company drive-in station, opened to the motoring public in Pittsburgh on December 1, 1913, at Baum Boulevard and St Clair's Street.[11] On its first day, the station sold 30 US gallons (110 L) of gasoline at 27 cents per gallon (7 cents per litre). This was also the first architect-designed station and the first to distribute free road maps.[12] Before the drive-in filling station, automobile drivers pulled into almost any general or hardware store, or even blacksmith shops to fill up their tanks. Several years would elapse before checking oil, water, and selling tires would give rise to the concept of a gas "service" station.
The first alternative fuel station was opened in San Diego, California, by Pearson Fuels in 2003.[13]
Maryland officials said that on September 26, 2019, RS Automotive in Takoma Park, Maryland became the first filling station in the country to convert to an EV charging station.[14]
Design and function
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The majority of filling stations are built in a similar manner, with most of the fueling installation underground, pump machines in the forecourt and a point of service inside a building. Single or multiple fuel tanks are usually deployed underground. Local regulations and environmental concerns may require a different method, with some stations storing their fuel in container tanks, entrenched surface tanks or unprotected fuel tanks deployed on the surface. Fuel is usually offloaded from a tanker truck into each tank by gravity through a separate capped opening located on the station's perimeter. Fuel from the tanks travels to the dispenser pumps through underground pipes. For every fuel tank, direct access must be available at all times. Most tanks can be accessed through a service canal directly from the forecourt.
Older stations tend to use a separate pipe for every kind of available fuel and for every dispenser. Newer stations may employ a single pipe for every dispenser. This pipe houses a number of smaller pipes for the individual fuel types. Fuel tanks, dispenser and nozzles used to fill car tanks employ vapor recovery systems, which prevents releases of vapor into the atmosphere with a system of pipes. The exhausts are placed as high as possible. A vapor recovery system may be employed at the exhaust pipe. This system collects the vapors, liquefies them and releases them back into the lowest grade fuel tank available.
The forecourt is the part of a filling station where vehicles are refueled. Gasoline pumps are placed on concrete plinths as a precautionary measure against collision by motor vehicles. Additional elements may be employed, including metal barriers. The area around the gasoline pumps must have a drainage system. Since fuel sometimes spills onto the pavement, as little of it as possible should remain. Any liquids present on the forecourt will flow into a channel drain before it enters a petrol interceptor which is designed to capture any hydrocarbon pollutants and filter these from rainwater which may then proceed to a sanitary sewer, stormwater drain, or to ground.
If a filling station allows customers to pay at the dispenser, the data from the dispenser may be transmitted via RS-232, RS-485 or Ethernet to the point of sale, usually inside the filling station's building, and fed into the station's cash register operating system. The cash register system gives limited control over the gasoline pump, and is usually limited to allowing the clerks to turn the pumps on and off. A separate system is used to monitor the fuel tank's status and the quantity of fuel. With sensors directly in the fuel tank, the data is fed to a terminal in the back room, where it can be downloaded or printed out. Sometimes this method is bypassed, with the fuel tank data transmitted directly to an external database.
Underground filling stations
[edit]The underground modular filling station is a construction model for filling stations that was developed and patented by U-Cont Oy Ltd in Finland in 1993. Afterwards, the same system was used in Florida, US. Above-ground modular stations were built in the 1980s in Eastern Europe and especially in Soviet Union, but they were not built in other parts of Europe due to the stations' lack of safety in case of fire.
The underground modular filling station's construction model reduces installation time, simplifies design, and lowers manufacturing costs. As proof of the model's installation speed, U-Cont Oy Ltd set an unofficial world record for filling station installation when a modular filling station was built in Helsinki, Finland, in less than three days, including groundwork. The safety of modular filling stations has been tested in a filling station simulator, in Kuopio, Finland. These tests have included, for instance, burning cars and explosions in the station simulator.[15][16]
Negative impacts
[edit]Human health
[edit]Gasoline contains a mixture of BTEX hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes). Prolonged exposure to toluene can cause permanent damage to the central nervous system, and chlorinated solvents can cause liver and kidney problems.[17] Benzene in particular causes leukemia and is associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma.[18] People who work in filling stations, live near them, or attend school close to them are exposed to fumes and are at increased lifetime risk of cancer, with risk increased if there are multiple stations nearby.[18] There is some evidence that living near a filling station is a risk for childhood leukemia.[19][20] In addition to long-term exposure, there are bursts of short-term exposures to benzene when tanker trucks deliver fuel.[21] High levels of benzene have been detected near stations across urban, suburban, and rural environments, though the causes (such as road traffic or congestion) can vary by location.[22]
Gas station attendants have suffered adverse health consequences depending on the type of fuel used, exposure to vehicle exhaust, and types of personal protective equipment (PPE) offered. Studies have noted higher levels of chromosomal deletions[23] and higher rates of miscarriage,[24] and workers have reported headaches, fatigue, throat irritation and depression.[25] Exposure to exhaust and fumes has been associated with eye irritation, nausea, dizziness, and cough.[26]
Environment
[edit]Gasoline can leak into the surrounding soil and water, posing many health risks.[27] Areas formerly occupied by filling stations are often contaminated, resulting in brownfields and urban blight. Underground storage tanks (USTs) were typically made of steel and were common in the United States, but were prone to corrosion. They began to receive national attention in 1983 after an episode of 60 Minutes documented significant drinking water contamination from a Mobil gas station in the Canob Park neighborhood of Richmond, Rhode Island. It had been determined that the station's underground tanks had been leaking gasoline into the local water system since the station opened in 1968.[28] This led to regulations banning these types of tanks in 1985.[29] However, tanks at gas stations that ceased operation before 1986 are unlikely to have been recorded, and many old underground gasoline and oil storage tanks are thus unknowingly buried beneath redeveloped land, contributing to soil, groundwater, and indoor air pollution.[30]
Because of the relatively small size of former stations (compared to larger brownfields), the cost-per-acre to rehabilitate the land is higher; the total cost in the United States is not known but is in the billions of dollars.[30] Individual cleanups may be complex, with some in Canada taking decades and costing millions of dollars both for the cleanup efforts and in legal fees to determine whether individuals, governments, or corporations are liable for costs.[31]
Economic costs
[edit]The cost of potential cleanup of a former filling station can lower property values, discourage development of land, and depress neighbouring property values and potential tax revenue.[30] When areas are known to be contaminated by leaking underground storage tanks, the sale value of the land and neighbouring area drops.[32][33] An analysis of residential properties in Cuyahoga County, Ohio estimated the loss at about 17% when within 300 feet (91 m) or one block of a registered leaking tank.[32] Active filling stations have similar negative effects on property values, with an analysis in Xuancheng, China finding a loss of 16% within 100 metres (330 ft) and 9% when between 301 metres (988 ft) and 600 metres (2,000 ft).