“Just like the cubicle walls in public toilets, the barriers installed at each fuel pump will provide a modest level of privacy,” explains a spokesperson for the federation of the German filling station operators (VdTB), which represents the interests of approximately 14,000 filling stations country wide. “You can see that someone is standing at the fuel pump next to yours and you can hear it gurgling but you can’t peer at your neighbour’s fuel line or watch them shake it off.” This way, no one will know what fuel you are using.
Affected drivers welcome the move, “I think it’s great,” says pensioner Hans-Jochen Kulik (73) from Hagen, who drives a 15-year-old diesel Daimler. “I’m often so ashamed when there are other people watching that I can’t even go through with it. Nothing comes, no matter how hard I press.”
Katja Schmidt-Rönneburg (35), a teacher from Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, also thinks that this is a great idea for filling stations, “It is nobody's business what I put into my Porsche Cayenne. I think the current situation even goes as far as to violate data protection. Surely this is against the GDPR. It’s good that we are finally seeing a response.”
In future, paying will also be more discreet with the word ‘diesel’ being replaced by the neutral term ‘various liquid fuels’ on the cash register display and receipt.
bep, ssi, dan; picture: Shutterstock
Read the German version HERE.
