No-rego-no-fuel policy applied at some petrol stations

Some petrol stations are enforcing a no-service policy to some customers in a move that has left drivers shocked.

Drivers are unable to buy petrol at some service stations if their car is unregistered. Picture: iStock

Some Melbourne service stations have been refusing fuel to customers trying to fill up unregistered cars.

The Herald Sun has been told of several incidents in which drivers had been turned away under the no-rego-no-fuel policy at some service stations, or told by staff they had not paid their registration fee.

Hi-tech number plate scanning has been identifying the unregistered vehicles so staff can reject the drivers.

That scanning is commonly used to detect cars that had previously been used for petrol drive-offs so the console operator can switch off the pump to stop a recurrence.

There are several service stations applying the no-rego-no-fuel policy.

Using it to identify unregistered cars is not believed to be carried out as part of any joint work with VicRoads or Victoria Police.

Some service stations can use a database called Auror, which police say is “a secure Cloud-based system to assist police and retailers to work together to solve crime”.

One driver was shocked to be told over the PA system that he could not fill up because his registration had expired.

That man said he was actually relieved to find out he had not paid because his lapse would leave him liable if he had a crash.

Service stations use hi-tech number plate scanning to identify unregistered vehicles.

A Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce spokesman said that under the technology, drivers with expired registrations should not be denied at the pump.

“To the best of the VACC’s knowledge, which is pretty substantial, that should never happen,” they said.

“However what they’re doing, these systems are scraping number plate data directly to the VicRoads vehicle rego inquiry website.

“If the car is coming up as unregistered it might come up as an alert.”

The technology is used to prevent fuel theft, however he said not all companies used the same technology and “some of the technology used is better than others”.

“The number plates are shared between that network of service stations,” he said.

“It’s not normally shared between companies.”

“If that number plate presents itself at another service station after that fuel drive off, the car will have to prepay for fuel.”

The VACC denied that service stations pass on any information collected at service stations to the police or VicRoads.

A Victoria Police spokesman said Auror involved the use of CCTV and automated number plate recognition technology.

“Police primarily use the system to help identify suspects and vehicles when a theft occurs at the retailer’s premises,” the spokesman said.