Used to be, you could pull into a gas station, fill your tank, and then pay your tab. Not anymore and you can thank the constant drive-offs—people pumping and running—for ending that. But this new payment system aims to fix both problems—assuming you don't mind swiping your driver's license.
Developed by Bob Hohn, President of the Paxson Oil Company, and currently in limited testing in Michigan, the Post-Pay system promises to eliminate the hundreds of dollars of revenue that station owners lose every week while minimizing the number of trips from car to cashier patrons have to make—especially those paying cash. The system sits on the pump like the current pre-pay schemes.
Swipe your driver's license, pick up the nozzle and start filling. Once your tank is full, either swipe a credit card or pay at the cashier. The license info is only retained if you try to drive off without paying, in which case it's transmitted to the police. Otherwise, its deleted when the next customer pulls up.
According to an ABC News report, drive-offs at one Michigan station testing this system have fallen from four per week to once in two months. And that guy was even caught—since his name and address were stored when he swiped his ID. [Autoblog]