Dubai petrol attendants work 24 hours

Dubai: Petrol stations were one of the hardest-hit victims of on Monday's shutdown, when more than 95 per cent of Dubai's 700,000 registered vehicles took a day of rest.

Dubai has one of the highest per capita vehicle numbers in the world - one for every two people, although a majority of the emirate's 1.44 million inhabitants are labourers.

No-show

There are about 100 Enoc and Eppco service stations in Dubai, each employing at least ten people on an average. In total, about 1,000 people manned these outlets without a seeing a single customer until 3.30pm.

Officially, they were open but, until 5pm, some had not done any business .

"There have been no customers since morning. They have started coming only now," an attendant at a petrol station near Jumeirah said and added that the usual daily sales of the outlet were Dh50,000-Dh60,000.

Khalid Hadi, group brand and marketing manager, said he could not provide an estimate of the drop in sales because the offices were closed.

At the same time, gasoline retailers in other emirates had brisk business.

Petrol attendants at a filling station in Al Barsha, Dubai, were forced to work for 24 hours straight due to road closures, Gulf News has learnt.

Due to minimal access to thoroughfares, some petrol stations had told their staff they would have to work longer than their normal eight-hour shifts, since buses bringing replacement staff would not be able to get from accommodation camps to the stations.

"We are supposed to be working eight hours but we have been told that we will be working 24 hours straight because my boss is not coming and the buses with my colleagues will not get through," an attendant in Al Barsha told Gulf News.

"There aren't that many cars though, because we are near the closed road and no one is coming here. I will have to work for a lot longer and I am tired but there is nothing else they can do," he said.