As Dylan said, cars come in from any direction, which makes not having the port on the same side in every vehicle a complete mess.
From my experience most vehicles have it on the left side, in the US that would be the driver side.
If you show-up at a busy gas station with a BMW --which has the port on the right-- well, good luck, it can get ugly. Rather than lining-up behind the car currently fueling-up, you have to line-up in front of them. Which means that someone entering the station with a left fuel vehicle often ends-up behind them --even with you waiting patiently in front way before the third car showed-up. That's where the problems begin. This has happened to me many times.
Because the car that finished fueling drives forward to exit, the car behind it has a natural advantage and the one in front a disadvantage (at the very least you have to allow plenty of room for them to drive out). The car behind them, if they want to deny your rightful turn, just crawls forward as the first car exits. Before you can do anything at all they are in front of you, took control of the pump and you have to choose between waiting, moving or getting into an argument with someone you know isn't likely to be a nice person.
If all fueling ports are on the same side there are no problems.
The alternative is to require that hoses be longer. The problem with this is that it doesn't work at all for trucks.
>Second: Auto manufacturers ought to get together and agree on placing the fuel tank port on the same side.
The problem: Today you have cars and trucks with fuel tank refill ports on the left and the right. It can be an absolute nightmare to go to a gas station where most of the cars have ports on the left and you show-up with one on the right. This is one of the reasons for which I hated driving our BMW. Going to the gas station was always a game of chicken with cars entering in the other direction.
I would say that in EU (German, French, Italian) cars have it on the right (like the BMW), i.e. opposite the driver side, I have now an Opel and it is on the right, and my my previous car was also on the right.
I believe it being on the right is a traditional safety provision, though they are becoming very rare nowadays (and since several years) a number of fueling stations (at least in the cities) were not, like it is common nowadays, in a (large) court, the pumps were simply along the road, at the most in a 3-4 meters enlargement of the road itself.
So it made sense to have it on the right, the only moment where the driver is exposed to the trafic is when he/she gets out of the car, during the refueling he/she can stand on the right of the car, i.e. between the car and the sidewalk (and the same applies to - as it was once most common - to the gas station service personnel).
From my experience most vehicles have it on the left side, in the US that would be the driver side.
If you show-up at a busy gas station with a BMW --which has the port on the right-- well, good luck, it can get ugly. Rather than lining-up behind the car currently fueling-up, you have to line-up in front of them. Which means that someone entering the station with a left fuel vehicle often ends-up behind them --even with you waiting patiently in front way before the third car showed-up. That's where the problems begin. This has happened to me many times.
Because the car that finished fueling drives forward to exit, the car behind it has a natural advantage and the one in front a disadvantage (at the very least you have to allow plenty of room for them to drive out). The car behind them, if they want to deny your rightful turn, just crawls forward as the first car exits. Before you can do anything at all they are in front of you, took control of the pump and you have to choose between waiting, moving or getting into an argument with someone you know isn't likely to be a nice person.
If all fueling ports are on the same side there are no problems.
The alternative is to require that hoses be longer. The problem with this is that it doesn't work at all for trucks.