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Servo: Tales from the Graveyard Shift
An odyssey of drive-offs, spiked slurpees, stale sausage rolls and sleep-deprived madness.
Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo.
From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on MDMA releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.
Over the years, David grew to love his mad servo, handing out free pies and chocolate bars on the sly as he grew a backbone and became street smart. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he eventually made it out of the servo circus � and lived to tell the tale.
For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, SERVO is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.
Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the frontline, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at his local servo.
From his very first night shift, David absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy, encountering everything from giant shoplifting bees and balaclava-clad goons hurling cordial-filled water bombs from the sunroof of their BMW, to anarcho-goths high on MDMA releasing large rats into the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.
Over the years, David grew to love his mad servo, handing out free pies and chocolate bars on the sly as he grew a backbone and became street smart. Amidst the unrelenting chaos, he eventually made it out of the servo circus � and lived to tell the tale.
For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, SERVO is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2024
36 people are currently reading
494 people want to read
About the author
David Goodwin
7Ìýbooks17ÌýfollowersDavid Goodwin survived weekend graveyards in servos for several interminable years: way too long to stay anything approaching sane, but it gave him a delightfully unhinged memoir detailing all of the looping chaos.
He is, thankfully, no longer a day-sleeper with a halogen tan, but still maintains a ruinous predilection for slurpees, chocolate Big Ms and sausage rolls with too much tomato sauce.
His work has been published in The Guardian, The Age, afl.com.au and various online publications and literary journals. He holds a Dual Advanced Diploma in Advertising and Marketing and, these days, revels in having a somewhat normal circadian rhythm.
He is, thankfully, no longer a day-sleeper with a halogen tan, but still maintains a ruinous predilection for slurpees, chocolate Big Ms and sausage rolls with too much tomato sauce.
His work has been published in The Guardian, The Age, afl.com.au and various online publications and literary journals. He holds a Dual Advanced Diploma in Advertising and Marketing and, these days, revels in having a somewhat normal circadian rhythm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
March 31, 2024
What I appreciated most about Servo was the new perspective Goodwin offers on the humble service station, a utilitarian venue frequented by people from all walks of life at some point or another. You’ll come to this book for the freaks and the weirdos, but you’ll stay for the window into the world at night and the stories of the comrades who staff it.
My full review of Servo is up now on .
My full review of Servo is up now on .
March 17, 2024
DNF
It reads like a first year, first semester creative writing assignment. I made it 100 pages before I gave up, as every page is pretty much a repeat of the last.
Shame, it seemed like an awesome premise.
It reads like a first year, first semester creative writing assignment. I made it 100 pages before I gave up, as every page is pretty much a repeat of the last.
Shame, it seemed like an awesome premise.
March 2, 2024
I worked part time in a servo (gas station for US readers) during my last year or so of high school. I got the job because I spent hours there after school and on the weekend hanging out with my boyfriend (now husband) who worked there part time while he was at university. It was the very early 90’s, and it was still an actual service station in that we were supposed to offer to fill the tank, check the oil, and clean the windscreen of our customers when there was two of us on shift. In practice we only did this for patrons of a certain age and/or socioeconomic bracket, or those that insisted. We were busy, being on a main road, but we were also one of several a few hundred meters apart in a fairly affluent suburb, and though we had an on-site mechanic and a car wash, our shop was small offering little more than the basics - cold drinks, ice creams, cigarettes, newspapers and snacks. That’s not to say we didn’t attract drama. As in any retail job, customers ranged from the indifferent, to the weird, to the hostile. There was a popular pub and drive thru across the road and we had more than one drunk stumble in, especially on the weekends when we were open until midnight. The occasional brawl broke out on the forecourt, a handful of drive-offs, and there was at least one attempted hold up (not on my shift thankfully). Most memorably for me, during a petrol shortage with cars queuing down the street, anger and desperation resulted in a man becoming pinned between two cars at the bowser, that was a hell of a day.
All this is to say that David Goodwin’s memoir, Servo, sent me wandering down memory lane. My experience wasn’t near as fraught as his own, it certainly didn’t trigger an existential crisis, a drawn out drug binge, or stomach ulcers, but there was a lot about his job I could personally relate to. Anyone with retail experience however will likely be familiar with many of the situations David finds himself in.
I found myself nodding in recognition as Goodwin described the mundane routines of his job, and I often laughed out loud at the idiosyncrasies of his colleagues and customers. The sheer lunacy of the ‘gumbleton’s� David regularly encounters is quite something, but I believed every word. People are strange, especially those that wander into servo’s in the small hours.
Servo is also in part the story of David’s coming-of-age from a shy, sheltered young adult to someone more confident and streetwise. The job took its toll both physically and mentally on him however, and he confesses the ways in which he tried to cope with its stresses.
The writing is articulate and animated, and Goodwin relates his experience in a personable, confiding tone. His descriptions, especially of the people he encounters, are vivid and memorable.
Told with humour, pathos and candour, I found Servo to be a highly entertaining read. Remember to offer the console operator a friendly smile next time you pay for your petrol.
All this is to say that David Goodwin’s memoir, Servo, sent me wandering down memory lane. My experience wasn’t near as fraught as his own, it certainly didn’t trigger an existential crisis, a drawn out drug binge, or stomach ulcers, but there was a lot about his job I could personally relate to. Anyone with retail experience however will likely be familiar with many of the situations David finds himself in.
I found myself nodding in recognition as Goodwin described the mundane routines of his job, and I often laughed out loud at the idiosyncrasies of his colleagues and customers. The sheer lunacy of the ‘gumbleton’s� David regularly encounters is quite something, but I believed every word. People are strange, especially those that wander into servo’s in the small hours.
Servo is also in part the story of David’s coming-of-age from a shy, sheltered young adult to someone more confident and streetwise. The job took its toll both physically and mentally on him however, and he confesses the ways in which he tried to cope with its stresses.
The writing is articulate and animated, and Goodwin relates his experience in a personable, confiding tone. His descriptions, especially of the people he encounters, are vivid and memorable.
Told with humour, pathos and candour, I found Servo to be a highly entertaining read. Remember to offer the console operator a friendly smile next time you pay for your petrol.
March 26, 2024
DNF, made it about 70 pages, feels like he just pulled out his thesaurus for every 2nd word. a couple of weeks later I listened to an interview with Goodwin and he sounds insanely pretentious and I was just eye rolling the entire time.. I feel like this shows up in his righting massively..
March 28, 2024
Funniest book I've read in ages, but also has quite a bit of depth to it as well. Think sex, drugs and sausage rolls, with a few pinches of spirituality, but somehow it all works brilliantly.
April 1, 2024
I feel some of the other reviews here are perhaps overly harsh (although each to their own, of course). Yes, the author clearly likes a metaphor - some of them perhaps tortured. However I still thoroughly enjoyed this book - I actually laughed out loud (actuaLOLed?) more than once. I found his style to be authentic and engaging. Highly recommended.
April 2, 2024
Refreshing - an original...and highly engaging - postcard from the graveyard shift. I absolutely loved this!
January 22, 2024
We have all been to Service Stations too many times to count, so I was intrigued by this biography to get into the guts of what it is like to work in one. Working in Melbourne, David really gets to see the worst and the strangest of people in his role as an attendant in the graveyard shift. Even though I work in customer service, I was appalled at the way he was treated by many people and also how much he was exploited by his employers. Through all of this though, the book generated many laughs with some quirky people visiting the servo, as well as a deep respect for these attendants and what they encounter each day.
April 1, 2024
A well written, funny book. Had me hooked from the beginning, it’s incredible how many stories you can get from the mundane. Well worth a read.
March 31, 2024
Great easy read, some fun stories about nights in a servo.
March 11, 2024
The awesome Servo cover and blurb hooked me in, and I'm delighted to report it sure delivered!
Having worked a few lowly paid, underappreciated service jobs, in my younger years, I felt a strong affinity with the author, as I followed his journey from a wide-eyed nervous newbie to a savvy street-smart console operator.
What I particularly loved about Servo is the voice. I've often discarded books whose authors may have had a good story but just didn't know how to tell it. Goodwin not only tells his story with humour, pathos, and elan, but with an authenticity that burns through the pages, and keeps you avidly reading.
I laughed out loud so many times, totally immersed as if a witness to the crazy parade of characters that inhabited the Servo. We've all been stuck in line to pay for fuel, pissed off at the price increase, in a hurry to get to work, forgetting our pump number, only to be pestered to buy two Snickers bars for $5 by the weary, stressed guy or girl behind the counter. David shows us the other side, the crazy, sometimes sad, often funny, occasionally frightening view from behind that service counter.
But this is so much more than just a book about a Servo.
David takes us along on his journey of growing up, a true journey of head and heart.
Goodwin is a master storyteller, and I'm surprised to see this is his first book.
I can't wait to read more from this author!
Having worked a few lowly paid, underappreciated service jobs, in my younger years, I felt a strong affinity with the author, as I followed his journey from a wide-eyed nervous newbie to a savvy street-smart console operator.
What I particularly loved about Servo is the voice. I've often discarded books whose authors may have had a good story but just didn't know how to tell it. Goodwin not only tells his story with humour, pathos, and elan, but with an authenticity that burns through the pages, and keeps you avidly reading.
I laughed out loud so many times, totally immersed as if a witness to the crazy parade of characters that inhabited the Servo. We've all been stuck in line to pay for fuel, pissed off at the price increase, in a hurry to get to work, forgetting our pump number, only to be pestered to buy two Snickers bars for $5 by the weary, stressed guy or girl behind the counter. David shows us the other side, the crazy, sometimes sad, often funny, occasionally frightening view from behind that service counter.
But this is so much more than just a book about a Servo.
David takes us along on his journey of growing up, a true journey of head and heart.
Goodwin is a master storyteller, and I'm surprised to see this is his first book.
I can't wait to read more from this author!
April 11, 2024
You know, I picked this up because I was a little bit curious about servo life but then I found the unexpected, I related a bit too much to a lot of what David Goodwin was writing about.
See, not too long after Dave started his job at a petrol station in Werribee, I started working at one of the few remaining 24 hour supermarkets in the state which also included the occasional graveyard shift when the regular called in sick. And look, the representations of retail in those wee hours made in this book are not incorrect. Strange things happen between the hours of 1am and 6am, it's a little bit of side step into unreality.
Goodwin captures it all, the bad diet (energy drinks, lollies and general crap... anything to stay awake and semi functioning), the odd customers (there was at least two occasions when a male pifted a box of condoms at me, I didn't have a nifty security box like the servo of the novel and there was always someone lurking around that you could smell until they left the store... or sometimes long after), the way it incrementally destroys your physical and mental health.
I also ended up laughing at the section about VN commodores, as at that time I owned a VH and was avoided by nearly all other drivers on the road and regularly pulled over by the cops (I was pulled over by the cops far more in the four years I had that car than I have in the time since) (I wasn't a hoon, I just had a hoon car! Some of us were poor!).
Goodwin writes with humour, the narrative voice deeply bro-y though and was a little eye roll worthy in spots. (You didn't need to tell me your influences were Hunter Thompson and Kerouac because I could tell) It's 100% how many men spoke at the time and I guess now. But it was somewhat off putting. Though the narrative voice is mostly respectful of women and minorities, Goodwin tried to highlight what some experienced from the customer base but it felt rather shallow. It just feels a bit... something.
However I do agree with Goodwin on one very important point. Everyone should have to work at least two years of compolsory retail (my caveat extends to ~must include christmas~) so that all prospective arseholes learn just how it feels to be on the other end of their arseholeness. There's a prevailing entitled belief that the "customer is always right" from both the customer and the higher ups but anyone who has ever worked the front line knows how flat out wrong that is and how much it fucking sucks to deal with.
Uneven but entertaining in points. For the nostalgia.
See, not too long after Dave started his job at a petrol station in Werribee, I started working at one of the few remaining 24 hour supermarkets in the state which also included the occasional graveyard shift when the regular called in sick. And look, the representations of retail in those wee hours made in this book are not incorrect. Strange things happen between the hours of 1am and 6am, it's a little bit of side step into unreality.
Goodwin captures it all, the bad diet (energy drinks, lollies and general crap... anything to stay awake and semi functioning), the odd customers (there was at least two occasions when a male pifted a box of condoms at me, I didn't have a nifty security box like the servo of the novel and there was always someone lurking around that you could smell until they left the store... or sometimes long after), the way it incrementally destroys your physical and mental health.
I also ended up laughing at the section about VN commodores, as at that time I owned a VH and was avoided by nearly all other drivers on the road and regularly pulled over by the cops (I was pulled over by the cops far more in the four years I had that car than I have in the time since) (I wasn't a hoon, I just had a hoon car! Some of us were poor!).
Goodwin writes with humour, the narrative voice deeply bro-y though and was a little eye roll worthy in spots. (You didn't need to tell me your influences were Hunter Thompson and Kerouac because I could tell) It's 100% how many men spoke at the time and I guess now. But it was somewhat off putting. Though the narrative voice is mostly respectful of women and minorities, Goodwin tried to highlight what some experienced from the customer base but it felt rather shallow. It just feels a bit... something.
However I do agree with Goodwin on one very important point. Everyone should have to work at least two years of compolsory retail (my caveat extends to ~must include christmas~) so that all prospective arseholes learn just how it feels to be on the other end of their arseholeness. There's a prevailing entitled belief that the "customer is always right" from both the customer and the higher ups but anyone who has ever worked the front line knows how flat out wrong that is and how much it fucking sucks to deal with.
Uneven but entertaining in points. For the nostalgia.
July 3, 2024
As someone who works in a servo in the meth capital of Tasmania, I can confirm that this book is 100% accurate. In fact, this dudes interactions with the public are actually quite tame.
February 2, 2025
I really wanted to like this book. The premise was great.
But the constant description of mentally ill/ addicted people as "freaks" and treating them like objects to be studied was exhausting - especially from the perspective of someone who had the privilege to leave that industry at any time.
The author didn't take the time to try and understand or sympathise with why people were in the situations that they were in, and it felt exploitative for that reason. I've worked in customer service so I get how some people can treat you terribly and some people leave you with hilarious stories. But it's one thing telling a funny story about your customer service interactions to your friends to get out your frustration but idk, I felt icky reading it
But the constant description of mentally ill/ addicted people as "freaks" and treating them like objects to be studied was exhausting - especially from the perspective of someone who had the privilege to leave that industry at any time.
The author didn't take the time to try and understand or sympathise with why people were in the situations that they were in, and it felt exploitative for that reason. I've worked in customer service so I get how some people can treat you terribly and some people leave you with hilarious stories. But it's one thing telling a funny story about your customer service interactions to your friends to get out your frustration but idk, I felt icky reading it
March 30, 2024
DNF. Made it halfway but couldn’t go any further. So repetitive and drawn out. This book could have been a long form article. I kept waiting for something to change but the same stories and anecdotes were just told over and over.
September 2, 2024
This book offered some good anecdotes and I was at times shocked by the servo shenanigans happening under all our noses, but ultimately the anecdotes got a bit stale and I didn’t think the book really came together to say something or to tell a particular story.
August 25, 2024
Very much in the vein of "He Died With A Felafel In His Hand", albeit with a different, but equally insane, locus of Australian life. If you enjoyed that book, you'll likely enjoy this one.
October 4, 2024
This book should be sold in every Servo. Or offered free with the latest $5 promo. Want two king sized cherry ripes? Take home a concoction of Hunter S Thompson, George Orwell and Bangladeshi Buddhism rolled up on the roundabout of a bogan Melbourne service station.
Not only did these stories of late-night customers and fellow workmates make me cackle out loud, there was one story of a particular prophylactic that made me cackle and cry at the same time.
David Ireland in his famous books The Glass Canoe and The Unknown Industrial Prisoner described the Australian men of the 60s and 70s in their revved up cars and holding their dream laden pints. Men who acted like they owned the roads because they knew they would never own anything else.
This book captures the spectres who own the servos from midnight to dawn. All the ghouls, from the drunks to the psychos to the tradies to the trippy clubbers to the desperate to the homeless, who swarm like moths to the halogen lights and petro mists. Because that pulsating servo in the dark and hostile world is the only thing, for a few minutes or more, they can ever call their own.
One day when the bowser is gone and cars are plugged in and people kept in their shelters with every need non-humanly met, this book will continue to capture a brief moment in history. A moment in which all of humanity habitually converges on a single point to satiate their Gods. Their Gods of caffeine and sugar, petrochemicals and porn.
Luckily for us, one of our number, bleary-eyed behind the console and anti-jump protection wire, picked up a pen and looked � most of the time - kindly on. And when he wasn’t so kindly, we too, can understand the reason for that metal pipe.
Not only did these stories of late-night customers and fellow workmates make me cackle out loud, there was one story of a particular prophylactic that made me cackle and cry at the same time.
David Ireland in his famous books The Glass Canoe and The Unknown Industrial Prisoner described the Australian men of the 60s and 70s in their revved up cars and holding their dream laden pints. Men who acted like they owned the roads because they knew they would never own anything else.
This book captures the spectres who own the servos from midnight to dawn. All the ghouls, from the drunks to the psychos to the tradies to the trippy clubbers to the desperate to the homeless, who swarm like moths to the halogen lights and petro mists. Because that pulsating servo in the dark and hostile world is the only thing, for a few minutes or more, they can ever call their own.
One day when the bowser is gone and cars are plugged in and people kept in their shelters with every need non-humanly met, this book will continue to capture a brief moment in history. A moment in which all of humanity habitually converges on a single point to satiate their Gods. Their Gods of caffeine and sugar, petrochemicals and porn.
Luckily for us, one of our number, bleary-eyed behind the console and anti-jump protection wire, picked up a pen and looked � most of the time - kindly on. And when he wasn’t so kindly, we too, can understand the reason for that metal pipe.
March 31, 2024
Servo just isn't a well-written book. It reads like the work of a first year uni student who has done a two week creative writing course and is desperate to show you how smart he is by shoehorning in allusions to the Hellenic pantheon and The Matrix at every possible opportunity.
The first half is spent working in the servo, focusing on customers buying things and the second half focuses mainly on time off spent going to music festivals, doing drugs, and going to Europe.
Despite being quite long and floridily written it's not actually all that detailed about the going ons at a servo, preferring to focus on generalities and tenuous historical analogies familiar to any high school Ancient History student.
Give it a read if you want to read about the noetic qualities of LSD, lambent wit, or the similarities between graveyard shift on a servo and Mediolanum in 452.
The first half is spent working in the servo, focusing on customers buying things and the second half focuses mainly on time off spent going to music festivals, doing drugs, and going to Europe.
Despite being quite long and floridily written it's not actually all that detailed about the going ons at a servo, preferring to focus on generalities and tenuous historical analogies familiar to any high school Ancient History student.
Give it a read if you want to read about the noetic qualities of LSD, lambent wit, or the similarities between graveyard shift on a servo and Mediolanum in 452.
May 29, 2024
I most definitely cannot go back into a Service Station with such haste ever again ! The protagonist gives a wonderful insight the life of a Gas Station attendant�. So much more than standing behind the counter with a forced welcome . Really enjoyed his style of writing .
June 9, 2024
As an ex servo worker, I really enjoyed these gonzo tales of suburban retail madness in the dark, dark night.
February 1, 2025
it's fine. did not enjoy it as much as i would have liked unfortunately. did get a few good laughs but overall i didnt looooove the writing style and it was a bit too repetitive, but so is customer service i suppose
March 22, 2024
A bit repetitive but atmospheric too.
August 25, 2024
I need to preface this review by stating I have also worked at a service station for many years, a customer actually bought this for me
At first I found this relatable, and parts of it are still very true to these stores today
However, once the author starts to meander into obviously exaggerated and made up territory, it goes downhill fast
I understand and appreciate that memoirs are often exaggerated and fictionalised, but reading the sex and drug sequences gave me second hand embarassment in the vein of the most awkward Office episodes
Call me cynical but I don't believe more than half the interactions described actually happened, especially those set outside of the store
The language is also way too grandiose and the metaphors excruciating and ridiculous
It's all just a bit too pretentious for its own good
At first I found this relatable, and parts of it are still very true to these stores today
However, once the author starts to meander into obviously exaggerated and made up territory, it goes downhill fast
I understand and appreciate that memoirs are often exaggerated and fictionalised, but reading the sex and drug sequences gave me second hand embarassment in the vein of the most awkward Office episodes
Call me cynical but I don't believe more than half the interactions described actually happened, especially those set outside of the store
The language is also way too grandiose and the metaphors excruciating and ridiculous
It's all just a bit too pretentious for its own good
April 2, 2025
Some interesting perspective on night time shift work in the retail sector with a few notable tales. But� mehhh, read as ableist, unfair to mentally ill community members, a little racist, and had a touch of sexism. And on top of that average writing too.
October 7, 2024
A filthy, fun and poignant tour of the late night. Larger than life at times, but always intelligently written and human. It’s a ghost train worth buying a ticket for.
July 6, 2024
David Goodwin has an incredible voice and I enjoyed the poetic way his words brought to life the stories he's lived. Particularly enjoyable as an Aussie.
I did partially listen to this and the narration by Barton Welch was very good. I love his Aussie accents, and he really built on this with his various other accents. Some of his female characters all sound the same though.
Stars: 5/5
Narration: 4/5
I did partially listen to this and the narration by Barton Welch was very good. I love his Aussie accents, and he really built on this with his various other accents. Some of his female characters all sound the same though.
Stars: 5/5
Narration: 4/5
August 4, 2024
Such a great book! I hope Goodwin publishes more prose. If you're into plot and dislike lots of wild adjectives, this is not the book for you.
It is true that while it is based around crazy servo customer antics, Goodwin offers plenty of insight through his customers' and his own story into the modern world of work and consumption, and so much more.
He is a fine writer and very well read, and it is a snapshot of the 2000s underbelly as well a roiling good time. #100Proof
It is true that while it is based around crazy servo customer antics, Goodwin offers plenty of insight through his customers' and his own story into the modern world of work and consumption, and so much more.
He is a fine writer and very well read, and it is a snapshot of the 2000s underbelly as well a roiling good time. #100Proof
June 27, 2024
A true story about working in a servo at night and the interesting characters that visited the servo and stories about events that happened there.
Also how it affected his physical and mental health.
Also how it affected his physical and mental health.
August 16, 2024
david is a truly gifted storyteller, and I could listen to him talk about the gumbletons in the servo at midnight all day. this was such a unique and interesting memoir. loved it!
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