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A gasoline pump or fuel dispenser is a machine at a filling station that is used to pump gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, or other types of liquid fuel into vehicles. Gasoline pumps are also known as bowsers or petrol bowsers (in Australia and South Africa), petrol pumps (in Commonwealth countries), or gas pumps (in North America).
The first gasoline pump was patented by Norwegian John J. Tokheim in 1901. The Tokheim pump was named after him. Fuel retail industry giant OPW (a Dover company) acquired Tokheim in 2016.
Many early gasoline pumps had a calibrated glass cylinder on top. The desired quantity of fuel was pumped up into the cylinder as indicated by the calibration. Then the pumping was stopped and the gasoline was let out into the customer's tank by gravity. When metering pumps came into use, a small glass globe with a turbine inside replaced the measuring cylinder to show the customer that gasoline really was flowing into the tank. The first measured gas pump, commercially produced by Gilbarco in 1911, lacked this globe, with customers having to rely on the gas station owner to have calibrated it accurately.
In some cases the actual pump may be sealed and immersed inside the fuel tanks on a site, in which case it is known as a submersible pump. In general, submersible solutions in Europe are installed in hotter countries, where suction pumps may have problems overcoming cavitation with warm fuels or when the distance from tank to pump is longer than a suction pump can manage.
In modern pumps, the major variations are in the number of hoses or grades they can dispense, the physical shape, and additional hardware for services such as pay at the pump and attendant tag readers.
Light passenger vehicles pump up to about per minute (the United States limits this to per minute); pumps serving trucks and other large vehicles have a higher flow rate, up to per minute in the UK and in the US. This flow rate is based on the diameter of the vehicle's fuel filling pipe, which limits flow to these amounts.
Airline refueling can reach per minute. Higher flow rates may overload the vapor recovery system in vehicles equipped with enhanced evaporative emissions controls (required since 1996 in the US), causing excess vapor emissions, and may present a safety hazard.
Historically, gasoline pumps had a very wide range of designs to solve the mechanical problems of pumping, reliable measurement, safety, and aesthetics. This has led to some popularity in collecting antique dispensers, especially in the US.
Nozzles are usually color-coded to indicate which grade of fuel they dispense, but the color-coding differs between countries and even retailers. For example, a black hose and handle in the majority of Europe indicate that the fuel dispensed is diesel, and a green dispenser indicates unleaded fuel; the reverse is common in the United States, with green for diesel, yellow for E85, and black, red, white, and blue for other gasoline grades, which vary by gas station. What Do The Different Colors At The Gas Pump Mean?, AOCHENG, Jun 27, 2025
In the US, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) specifies the accuracy of the measurements in Handbook 44, though states set their own legal standards. The standard accuracy is 0.3%, meaning that a purchase may actually deliver between .
The reference temperature for gasoline volume measurement is 60 °F or 15 °C. Ten gallons of gasoline at that temperature expands to about at and contracts to about at . Each of the three volumes represents the same theoretical amount of energy. In one sense, a given volume of gasoline purchased at 30 °F has about 3.2% more potential energy than the same volume purchased at 85 °F. Most gasoline is stored in tanks underneath the filling station. Modern tanks are non-metallic and sealed to stop leaks. Some have double walls or other structures that provide a side benefit of thermal insulation while pursuing the main goal of keeping gasoline out of the soil around the tank. So while the air temperature can easily vary between , the gasoline warms or cools much more slowly, especially underground, as deep soil temperature tends to remain in a narrow range throughout the year, regardless of air temperature.
Temperature compensation is common at the wholesale level in the United States and most other countries. At the retail level, Canada has converted to automatic temperature compensation, and the UK is converting, but the United States has not converted. Automatic temperature compensation, known as Standard Temperature Accounting in the UK, may add a tiny amount of additional uncertainty to the measurement of about 0.1%.
There are far fewer retail outlets for gasoline in the US today than there were in 1980. Larger outlets sell gasoline rapidly, as much as in a single day, even in remote places. Most finished product gasoline is delivered in 8,000- to 16,000-gallon tank trucks, so two deliveries in a 24-hour period are common. Gasoline spends so little time in the retail sales system that its temperature at the point of sale does not vary significantly from winter to summer or by region. Canada has lower overall population densities and geographically larger gasoline distribution systems, compared with the United States. Temperature compensation at the retail level improves the fairness under those conditions.
In the United States, each state has its own Department of Weights and Measure, with the authority to perform all testing and certification, issuing fines for non-compliance. For example, in 2007 Arizona found that 9% of all pumps were off by at least 2.5% (the threshold for fines), evenly split between overcounting and undercounting fuel.
In many jurisdictions, regular required inspections are conducted to ensure the accuracy of gasoline pumps. For example, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services conducts regular tests of calibration and fuel quality at individual dispensers. The department also conducts random undercover inspections using specially designed vehicles that can check the accuracy of the dispensers. The department issues correction required notices to stations with pumps found to be inaccurate. Most other US states conduct similar inspections. In Canada, inspections are regularly conducted by the federal government agency Measurement Canada. Inspection dates and test results are required, by law, to be displayed to consumers on a sticker on gasoline pumps. Under the 2011 Fairness at the Pumps Act, a vendor with a modified or poorly maintained dispenser can be fined up to $50,000. However, virtually all pumps that fail inspection in Canada do so for general calibration errors caused by use over time. Intentional modification for the purpose of deceiving consumers is extremely rare, as are prosecutions.
Hydrogen pumps may be regulated under terms drawn from an industry technical standard, SAE J2601. SAE International Publishes New standard, SAE J2601, to Establish Worldwide Basis for H2 Fueling of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles
An effort to standardize in the 1990s resulted in the International Forecourt Standards Forum, which has had considerable success in Europe, but less elsewhere.
By October 2017, all US gasoline pumps with credit card readers had to support EMV payment. A year before this rule came into force, a third of 750,000 pumps needed upgrading at a cost of $6,000 to $17,000 each plus the cost of new EPOS hardware and software. With some software not expected to be ready, some Fuel card not having Smart card available in time, not enough technicians for the installations, and many businesses unable to afford the upgrade, it was predicted the conversion would take until 2021.
Most modern pumps have an automatic cut-off feature that stops the flow when the tank is full. This is done with an auxiliary sensing tube running from just inside the mouth of the nozzle to a Venturi pump in the pump handle. A mechanical valve in the pump handle detects a change of pressure and closes, preventing the flow of fuel.
===Early designs===
For example, in countries fighting corruption, such as Mexico, gasoline pumps may be more stringently monitored by government officials, to detect attempts to defraud customers.
Typically, individual pumps must be certified for operation after installation by a weights and measures inspector, who tests that the pump displays the same amount that it dispenses.
In Taiwan, continuous fuel flow is not allowed for self service pumps; the driver must grip the nozzle until the desired amount of fuel has been delivered or until the shutoff switch is triggered. This is also the case in Australia and the UK.
《Chinese Fuel Dispenser Verification Regulation: Key Overview》 JJG 443-2023 Key Technical Requirements
(1) Metrological Performance
Maximum Allowable Error: ±0.30% for volume measurement. Repeatability: ≤0.10% across all flow rates. Payment Accuracy: Error between displayed amount and actual volume × price must be ≤ minimum payment variable .
(2) Structural and Safety Features
Anti-Tampering: Mandatory self-locking function to disable dispensing if pulse rate or volume anomalies are detected. Component Consistency: Flow measurement transducers, encoders, and control boards must match type-approval documentation. Software Identification: Displays or outputs software version identifiers for traceability .
(3) New Structural Mandates
Separate Flow Paths: No shared flow measurement transducers for multiple hoses. Explosion-Proof Design: Required for hazardous environments .
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