It is a gesture that we have often forgotten: waiting next to our car and letting a gas station employee fill our tank. After almost disappearing from the French landscape since the 1980s, pumping operators are returning to certain Totalenergies stations. The group resumed hiring at the end of the health crisis and a pump attendant now welcomes motorists at a hundred of its service stations. The goal is to reach around 300 stations in 2024, of the 3,400 stations that Totalenergies has in France.
To occupy these positions there are no prerequisites, but above all “smiling and friendly” people, emphasizes Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin, director of the French network Totalenergies, because the first function of the pump operator “is to be present at the station.” In addition to fuel, he is also responsible for helping at the car wash station or inflating tires, and will soon be able to guide customers lost to the electric transition. It is also a way to provide additional sales to the service station by playing a commercial relief role next to the gas pumps.
“He can check the level of the windshield washer fluid and suggest that you get it from the store” if it is missing, he explains. “It is a product that would have been bought anyway, but at least it will be with us,” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin to BFM Business.
A “I don’t want a tip” badge
Instructions were given not to rush the customer, who is used to refueling, and not to insist in case of refusal. “We have chosen stations where people come to refuel during the day. Customers who have time and will be more willing to be present,” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin. You also have to be pedagogical: some motorists fear, the first time they approach them, that they will have to pay for their services. The gas station attendant was wearing a fluorescent orange vest so that he would be identifiable at first glance.
“We asked the gas station attendant to wear a ‘I don’t want a tip’ badge, so that customers would relax. It could have caused discomfort if it had not been clearly indicated,” he reports.
Before arriving at the service station, the future pump attendant receives training in customer reception, as well as safety regulations or the different types of fuel, explains Totalenergies. This is an online training lasting approximately 8 hours or in-person training led by the project manager. The group also promises “a majority of indefinite contracts and some fixed-term contracts” and a remuneration of “a little more than the minimum wage”, or “about 1,800 gross euros per month.” The hours and working days “are adapted to the consumption profile” of the service station in question.
200 recruitments
Calling on pump managers, Totalenergies praises the return to “proximity” and is trying to score points against the competition – in particular, mass distribution stations – in a world almost completely converted to fully automatic technology. The presence of the pump attendant could also make it possible to “secure the place with his presence,” it is estimated, to reduce incivility.
Totalenergies will hire around 200 pump operators in the coming months. And “in the future, we will see”, after a first situation report, projects Pierre-Emmanuel Bredin.
Source: BFM TV
