Editing Filling station (section)

==Service stations==
[[File:ShellTrueNorth.jpg|thumb|200px|left|A [[Shell Oil Company|Shell]] station in [[Columbus, Ohio]] in 2020. The building, which formerly housed a service station, was converted into a [[convenience store]].]]

A service station or "servo" is the terminology often used in Australia, along with petrol station, to describe any facility where motorists can refuel their cars.

In New Zealand a filling station is often referred to as a service station, petrol station or garage, even though it may not offer mechanical repairs or assistance with dispensing fuel. Levels of service available include full service, for which assistance in dispensing fuel is offered, as well as offers to check tire pressure or clean vehicle windscreens. That type of service is becoming uncommon in New Zealand, particularly Auckland. Further south of Auckland, many filling stations offer full service. There is also help service or assisted service, for which customers must request assistance before it is given, and self-service, for which no assistance is available.

[[File:ServiceStation.jpeg|thumb|right|US service station {{circa}} 1950s]]

{{main|List of filling stations in North America}}

In the US, a filling station that also offers services such as oil changes and mechanical repairs to automobiles is called a service station. Until the 1970s the vast majority of filling stations were service stations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Then & Now: Service stations popular until 1970s {{!}} The Spokesman-Review |url=https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/apr/08/then-and-now-life-was-a-gas/ |access-date=2022-12-15 |website=www.spokesman.com}}</ref> These stations typically offered free air for inflating tires, as compressed air was already on hand to operate the repair garage's pneumatic tools.  While a few filling stations with a service station remain, many in the 1980s and 1990s were [[Adaptive reuse|converted]] to [[convenience store]]s while still selling fuel, while others continued to offer services but discontinued offering fuel.

This kind of business provided the name for the US comic strip ''[[Gasoline Alley (comic strip)|Gasoline Alley]]'', where a number of the characters worked.

In the UK and Ireland, a 'service station' refers to much larger facilities, usually attached to motorways (see [[rest area]]) or major truck routes, which provide food outlets, large parking areas, and often other services such as hotels, arcade games, and shops in addition to 24-hour fuel supplies and a higher standard of restrooms. Fuel is typically more expensive from these outlets due to their premium locations. UK or Irish service stations do not usually repair automobiles.