Gasoline pumps didn’t work in New Zealand. Blame it on the leap year.

Like clockwork, leap years rotate every four years. But many businesses are never fully prepared for it, as every February 29 is marred by glitches and outages.

Computers are turned off, satellite navigation equipment has failed and have conveyor belts at airports refused to carry luggage on planes. This year, dozens of gas stations in New Zealand malfunctioned on Thursday, with car and truck drivers reporting problems refueling in the early morning hours.

“Motorists showed up and couldn’t get fuel,” said Julien Leys, spokesperson for Gull New Zealand, one of the companies whose petrol pumps were faulty. “It’s incredibly frustrating for our customers.”

Drivers were unable to pay for their fuel because the software used by payment terminals at gas pumps “couldn’t calibrate itself with the fact that this is February 29,” he said.

The problem affected all unattended petrol pumps across the country because all fuel companies in New Zealand use one technology supplier, Invenco, Mr Leys said. Customers could refuel at manned gas stations.

Z Energy and Allied Petroleum, two other fuel companies, confirmed outages at their stations.

Simeon Brown, New Zealand’s Transport Minister, said: narrate local news channel RNZ said it was frustrating that the system did not take February 29 into account. “Leap years occur every four years and are nothing new,” he said.

“We clearly know what leap years are,” said John Scott, CEO of Invenco. “We’ve been dealing with them for the last 20 to 30 years.”

The problem was a one-off problem caused by a software update carried out during the coronavirus pandemic, he said, adding that it was fully resolved around 7pm local time. It was specific to New Zealand and would not affect the company’s payment terminals and technology in other countries, he said. Invenco does business in more than 100 other countriesaccording to the company’s website.

Most gas stations in New Zealand are full-service, but unattended pumps are common in rural areas and are vital for truck drivers who need fuel in remote locations or outside business hours.

Barry Raymond, Smith Transport’s operations manager in Auckland, said he discovered the problem around 3am when the company’s truck drivers started calling him because they couldn’t find working petrol pumps.

“It’s caused a little bit of a problem for the guys,” he said, adding that the biggest disruption had occurred in the early morning hours, when many full-service gas stations were not yet open that day. Some truckers had to visit three different gas stations before finding one where they could fill up, he said.