The glitch which caused self-serviced petrol pumps to go down on Thursday, leap day, led to some unexpected bonuses for those fuel businesses which could still operate.
Caltex Mataura was busy as the proverbial bee as trucks came from both sides of the road looking to fill their fuel tanks.
Caltex Mataura owner John Smith said it was a very busy day.
Fonterra, which has a major factory just down the road at Edendale, sent trucks to the station as the cows were still being milked and the white gold had to be collected.
Although its neighbouring truck stop was not operating the service station managed to cater for the extra traffic, Mr Smith said.
Fonterra sent staff to the garage to marshal traffic as more than a dozen trucks queued for fuel.
Mr Smith said it was hard to gauge how much more business was done on the day.
He was thankful for the Fonterra staff who stayed for a few hours to help.
Things were relatively back to normal yesterday but the business was still busy, Mr Smith said.
Fonterra national transport and logistics general manager Paul Phipps was pleased with how the company reacted to the fuel issues.
"Our effective business continuity plan controls kicked in as soon as we discovered the problem, so we didn’t have an impact on milk collection," he said.
"Z Energy’s response plans protected our fuel supply and they adapted very quickly to quite a unique event."
