Abstract: A liquid fuel pump nozzle (11) carries an optical bar code reader (20). A vehicle fuel reservoir has an entry port (10) provided with an optical bar decode strip (14) having bars (15) extending circumferentially of the port so that the bars are axially spaced. The reader thus reads the optical code during receiving movement of the nozzle into the entry port. The data reader and data provider may both be data transceivers. A comparator (44) compares data from the reader (20,40) with data from a data source (49), and optionally also with data from a credit card security system (56) to determine whether that vehicle is authorized to receive fuel, and an interlock (50) connected to the comparator to prevent fuel delivery in the absence of a signal from the comparator.