I’m just telling you why Total Automates are popular here…
I’m pretty sure Total’s liability ends when they deliver the fuel to the site. If there is contamination or a leak, their terms are going to place responsibility for that firmly on the airfield.
I can only comment that our aeroclub had a contract with Total for fuel for many (20+) years without an Automate, and as part of that contract, a nice man from Total would visit regularly to check our installation, and guarantee/certify it and the fuel was to the required French “norm”, with one of our club members volunteering to do the (bi-weekly?) checks they then audit. One day just after Covid, the nice man said “you have a potential problem with xxx” and told us they could no longer guarantee/certify us providing their fuel, so we needed to get additional insurance cover to provide provide fuel, which we did on a limited basis.
Around the same time, seperate internal aeroclub change & politics issues and marie political change of mayor occurred, such that the Marie decided to take over the running of the aerodrome and promptly shut down the fuel installation last year as they didn’t want the liability or hassle.
Because of this situation, our aeroclub knows from experience that the Total Card system is alot less hassle than individual receipts. And I have seen Total chaps checking fuel and the Automate installation just like thdy used to at our club on our neighbouring aerodrome where we now generally fill up…No doubt there are other solutions we could use at our club, but Total cards in each aeroplane work for us, and we have no complaints so far.
Regards, SD..
I should also point out that you pay a costly annual fee for many credit cards in France so a club with several aircraft would need a number of cards and pay something like €50 a year for each card, whereas the Total cards are free from fees.
OK, fair enough, but TOTAL are basically making money on the back of the restrictive practices in the French credit card system.
It’s a bit like mobile data; I recall about 10 years ago this was very expensive in France and people traveling out of there often turned off data roaming due to the cost.
a nice man from Total would visit regularly to check our installation, and guarantee/certify it and the fuel was to the required French “norm”
TOTAL is taking on a legal liability there and it clearly suits both parties 
because TOTAL gets a lot of nice warm PR which costs them nothing, and the aeroclub thinks they are delivering a great service which they could not do without.
Eventually this will all change but might take 20 years. What drives change is people travelling and seeing other countries. This is why in the UK we have same price roaming over a vast area of Europe; anything less would be seen as a ripoff.
Peter wrote:
This is why in the UK we have same price roaming over a vast area of Europe; anything less would be seen as a ripoff.
This is a consequence of pre-Brexit EU agreement on no-roaming fees within EU which continued to be in power as mutual agreement between UK and EU.
Arun wrote:
appears a total hit/miss situation, working for some and not for others.
I have now tried with various emails and business/personal bank accounts, still no luck.
I tried to apply for the card again today and got to the blank page when it came to paying the deposit by a credit card.
I decided to contact the customer service using the ‘contact us’ menu on the top of the page. To my total surprise, someone responded to me and after a few email exchanges, my application seems to be through. I have been told to expect my card in the next few days. I will report when it arrives.
