insect. On February 29, fuel pumps in New Zealand stopped working

Leap years may come every four years, I listen The New York Times, “February 29 every year is marked by hiccups and imbalances.”. Computers that stop working, sat nav systems that malfunction, conveyor belts at airports that refuse to deliver luggage…

This year, automatic fuel pumps broke down in New Zealand. Early Thursday morning, says New Zealand Public Media RNZ On its websiteQueues began to form in front of gas stations. In the Bay of Plenty, for example, six lorries were stuck in one… “This must be fixed immediately! The Minister of Transport must intervene, because the country cannot move if the trucks do not move.” Jeff McCall, owner of the shipping company, criticized.

“It is unbelievable that something like this could happen in this day and age.”

Simon Brown, the minister in question, said he was completely astounded, as he always quotes RNZ : “It's frustrating for consumers that companies haven't taken February 29 into account. Leap years come back every four years, which is nothing new.

“We know leap years well.” responded John Scott, CEO of Invenco, the company that operates payment systems at gas stations. “We've been facing this for twenty to thirty years.” Why this error? According to John Scott, who cited him The New York Times, This may be caused by a software update made during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although Invenco says it is present in about 100 countries around the world, only New Zealand is affected.

Around 7 p.m., mentioned New Zealand Herald, Everything was back to normal. Juul, one of the country's gas station chains, announced compensation one day later “discount” next week.