Helmets and Petrol Stations

I had to take the FTR to Bridgend on Monday to have a recall done. I thought I’d top up with petrol at the filling station opposite – Applegreen Bridgend. As they wanted me to remove my helmet for the privilege of gracing them with my custom, I got back on the bike and took my business elsewhere.

I am not a second class citizen, nor am I a potential thief, so I’ll be damned if I do business with a bunch of ignorant, prejudiced morons who think that because I’m on a bike I am.

I decided to email Applegreen.

Sirs,

I had the gross misfortune to visit one of your forecourts yesterday. This being the station on Tremains Road in Bridgend. I had been to Thunder Road Motorcycles to have some work carried out on my motorcycle. I decided to top up with fuel before riding back to Bristol. However, I was told that I could not fill up unless I removed my helmet. I declined to do this. I always decline to to reward discriminatory behaviour as is my policy.

I am assuming that the usual ill-informed, ignorant excuses lie behind this behaviour – that the cashier cannot see my face (false, as I wear a flip front helmet) or that because I am on a motorcycle, I am somehow more likely to ride off without paying. As I’m on a machine worth around fifteen grand, am I really likely to ride off over a fiver’s worth of fuel? Besides which, people who ride motorcycles are no more likely to be criminally inclined than those who use other forms of transport – and many of us drive cars as well. Are we going to ride off without paying when on the bike, but behave when we are in the car? Really?

To summarise, I am appalled that in this day and age, you engage in discriminatory practices, that have no justification in fact and are rooted in ignorant prejudice that is some fifty or sixty years out of date.

I do not do business with people who think it is okay to profile me as a criminal because I’m on a motorcycle.

Regards,

So far, I have not had a response, although there does seem to be evidence emerging that this policy is a local one made up by the franchisee/manager.

Okay, you could argue that as it’s a private business, they can make up whatever rules they like, but the reality is that had they done this to a Muslim woman wearing a niqab, there would have been uproar, so goose and gander springs to mind. Besides, regardless of whether they are a private business, I take exception to being treated as if I’m a criminal, because that is what they are doing here.

Bennetts has a different take.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter: theft. Not just theft of their petrol, but theft of your motorcycle. Not to mention the bullying and intimidation of their staff.

Let me explain…

When I helped to write the tactical guidelines for my then employer, Merseyside police, about how to deal with motorcycle theft at source, it became very apparent that this wasn’t an issue that was going to be solved by the police alone; the business community has to help, as do the general public.

Among all of the other recommendations – and there were many – was an action on petrol stations not selling fuel to criminals on motorbikes.

Fuel Stations are, rightly so, very heavily regulated; the Petroleum (Consolidation) Regulations 2014 state that fuel stations shouldn’t decant fuel to anyone under 16 yrs, but when we visited them we got the same answer over and over again; “You’re [the police] not here to protect us all the time.” We listened to accounts of staff being threatened, theft of petrol, or on one occasion a gang of ten on a mixture of off-road and road-legal bikes filling up, and someone throwing a twenty pound note at the cashier as if that was going to make it all better.

So one example in Merseyside of a bunch of scrotes means that a whole group should be treated like potential criminals. Does this twat advise sanctions on all drivers of cars when there is a drive off? Of course not. As for the idea that this is to protect me, well, I’ve come across some asinine victim blaming arguments in my time but this one takes the biscuit.

Imagine having your bike stolen; it’s going to affect you and your family financially and emotionally. Then imagine seeing it come out of a petrol station being ridden by the person who broke into your garage. Into your home.

If the rider has had to take their helmet off then there will be CCTV of them, which the police can act on. However, if the rider hasn’t had to take their helmet off there’s absolutely nothing that you or the police can do because there will be nothing of evidential value, except a single piece of intelligence to say that a stolen bike was there. If that intelligence is being repeated all over the city, it’s a much larger problem for the police than if it’s only happening at a handful of fuel stations.

There are broadly two types of motorcycle thief – the opportunist and the professional. The former will rag the bike until he either gets tired of it or it runs out of petrol, whereupon he will abandon it, maybe even setting light to it. See also car thieves/joyriders. The professional will put the bike in a van and drive off with it. Neither is going to go to the nearest petrol station and politely fill it up – let alone take their helmet off, FFS. What kind of thinking even comes up with such a stupid justification for demanding that we all remove our helmets? “It’s for your own good, really, honest, Guv.” We hear a lot about gaslighting, but this is a perfect example. Lazy, ignorant thinking is applied because the morons are too stupid and idle to do actual intelligence work.

It’s a balancing game – being proportionate always is – and fuel retailers across the country have different policies in relation to customers removing helmets. but good links between the police and the community help to fight crime.

Yes, it is a balancing act, and the presumption of innocence underpins it. This is typical of the hard-of-thinking mentality I have come to expect. So, no, I will not be compliant. I will not remove my helmet. What I will remove is my custom and I will advertise that displeasure to others.

Taking your helmet off is one of those little things; a small part of a much bigger picture so, as with all members of the community, be it police officers, business leaders or riders, do your bit if asked.

No. Fuck off! I will take my business to a retailer who treats me with the courtesy I expect as a paying customer, not some ignorant, prejudiced jerk who is so stupid they cannot exercise the relevant discretion. I don’t do business with arseholes, and petrol retailers that treat me like a potential thief are all, without exception, arseholes.

Imagine having your bike stolen; it’s going to affect you and your family financially and emotionally. Then imagine seeing it come out of a petrol station being ridden by the person who broke into your garage. Into your home.

If the rider has had to take their helmet off then there will be CCTV of them, which the police can act on.

This is pure fantasy. I don’t know what planet this twat is living on, but it’s not the same one I am. Jesus, the stupidity just oozes out of every sentence he writes.

Enabling police officers to do their job effectively without fear of prosecution is another thing entirely.

Given that the last time I had a bike stolen the lazy fuckers couldn’t even put down their donuts long enough to look at the CCTV footage, they can do one as well.