Dear Sir
Pulling in for diesel this morning I immediately noticed your Q&A addressed to “Motorcyclists”. You are of course entirely within your rights to run your business any way you like, within the law, but I feel that you may wish to reconsider your attitudes towards motorcyclists and that notice in particular for purely commercial reasons.
Although I happened to be in a van this morning I am also a high-mileage motorcyclist and your Q&A is sufficiently offensive that I felt the need to retaliate. My first action was to buy only enough fuel to continue my journey rather than filling my 60ltr tank, your loss. My second action was to post the notice details on a national motorcycle forum to check whether I'm just a particularly grumpy old man. Apparently my reaction is not exceptional, most of the hundreds of responses favoured boycotting your station. Most motorcyclists are also car drivers and many are commercial vehicle users as well. Offending a large number of motorcyclists represents a non-trivial loss of revenue to your business, especially as there is another fuel station just down the road from you.
Why is the notice so offensive? Let's take it step by step:-
1) Helmet removal.
Some riders may well find removing their helmet to be a simple, unobjectionable, occasionally welcome procedure. Many, particularly in poor weather conditions, will find it a real pain. It might look a simple process to the layman but it often involves removing and refitting several layers as well as earplugs, spectacles and the helmet itself. You offer two reasons for requiring removal before taking fuel: checking for under 16s and possible difficulty making yourselves heard.
I am a 65 year old man with a grey beard and a flip-front helmet. If any member of your staff was unable to confirm that I was over 16 without removing my helmet I would suggest that they need to get their eyesight tested and should certainly not attempt to drive home. If positively vetting for 16+ was necessary then asking for proof of age would be a much more reliable policy and would cause much less offence than this blanket discriminatory approach.
I can appreciate the second point. Although I have never failed to hear and understand instructions given over a tannoy in a petrol station I can imagine that I might have a problem with a quietly-spoken cashier or a particularly noisy forecourt. In my case that won't be because I'm wearing my helmet but because I am actually quite deaf, a condition that might also apply to car, van and lorry drivers.
As for your staff feeling intimidated by a customer coming in to pay wearing a helmet, I can appreciate the fear they might feel in a variety of circumstances:-
- lone cashier at 3am, burly rider with full-face helmet
- rider threatening with, say, a crowbar or a knife
- crowd of hooligans entering the store
But a helmet is a legally required item of personal protective equipment designed for the purpose of protecting the wearer's head. I and thousands of others walk into petrol stations wearing helmets (and the rest of our armour) every day without reducing staff or customers to quivering wrecks.
2) Helmet storage.
I would precis your response as "tough" - not really a sensitive approach to customer service is it?
My helmet is an expensive, valuable, and easy to compromise item. If you require me to remove it while refuelling the least you can do is provide a safe, secure, clean and uncontaminated place for me to store it. Today I wasn't wearing a helmet but none of your forecourt surfaces looked like a place I'd want to rest one.
3) Dismounting my bike.
There are several good reasons why riders should get off their bikes while refuelling. Unfortunately you don't mention any of them but you do mention a piece of made-up pseudo-science instead.
To summarise: motorcyclists come in all shapes and sizes, male, female and "other" and are aged from 16-90. Your notice treats them all as a single class and does so in a manner which clearly conveys the message "we don't want your business."
Perhaps you have good reasons for wanting motorcyclists to behave in a particular way. If so, I’d suggest that you produce a new notice detailing the actual rationale and phrased remembering that motorcyclists are customers too.
Yours sincerely
