TollBoothGuy
5 Years Experience
Brooklyn, NY
Male, 33
I spent just short of five years as a toll collector on the western end of New York State. Ask me anything, but please don't pay me in pennies.
Oh God, this could go on for a while but I suppose there were a few that stood above the rest. In our system, the ticket you're issued at your point of entry has your toll printed on it. During my last few years, the toll due (along with my collector number) was even displayed on the EZ-Pass 'Christmas Tree' light stand just beyond the booth. But two general rules apply- people don't look at signs and they definitely don't read things handed to them unless absolutely necessary. So as the hours pile up and each car pulls up with a 'how much is it?' we start to get a little worn down. Now people are fully within their rights to ask us how much it is, but our main objectives are to move traffic quickly and collect tolls accurately. If people were just a little proactive before they reach the booth, everybody wins. It's like the guys who stare out into space while they're twenty cars deep. get to the booth, can't find their ticket, need to undo their seatbelt as they get their wallet out of their back pocket, etc. We're all here, we're paying tolls, no one is happy about it, and absolutely no one is happy about waiting to pay tolls. So if we were a little more prepared, we could keep this line moving. Another big pet peeve is directions. If you have twenty cars behind you, this is not a good time to ask for directions. And if you do ask for directions, please don't start to pull away as I'm explaining the route to you. I used to play a game with people when they started to creep by just stopping mid-sentence and staring. If they stopped, I continued. If they kept moving forward, oh well. Dirty change was another one. We all understand that money is money, and we will accept your money, but this is a grimy job as is, without pennies coated in fast food grease, dirt, and other unidentifiable substances. Those are just some of the big ones.
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Those were unpleasant days, for sure. We had one three-year stretch where the tolls increased three times. During the first hike, local radio stations were organizing a mass 'pay your toll in pennies' protest. Seemed kind of counter-productive to me since the only people being hurt were collectors and toll-paying patrons, but whatever. People would constantly ask about why the tolls were going up but we never had an official reason to give them. I guess we could have cited ' Capital Improvements' but I don't think anyone really did. Our bosses put up signs on the booth about a week in advance that said 'New Toll Rates in Effect' and that was about it. The only instance I can recall in which we had a specific response was when Native Americans didn't want to pay their toll, but I never encountered a situation that I needed to cite it. (Not that i would have remembered it anyway)
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This is a judgement call on the part of the collector. I'm going to assume based on the question that I don't actually observe any booze/weed and if that's the case all I'm going on is my impression of the driver. If something seems off, then I would escalate the situation- better safe than sorry. But, it's also entirely possible that they are just the DD. It's hard to paint these situations with one broad stroke. But if I ever did make the call, I always made sure to observe as much as I could. The more information you can provide, the better. Plate number, vehicle/operator decription, etc...
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Yep! There are usually a few portable stereos hanging around the stations for those that want to listen to the radio. More enterprising collectors brought iPod docks. Electronics were a bit of a gray area and all collectors are supposed to be monitoring the intercom that is in every booth, so it's really important to not drown everything out.
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Next time you go through, look for a small building on either side of the toll plaza. There should be a parking a lot attached to it, or very close by. Often, it's only accessible by way of the highway itself so collectors will have to go through toll lanes and pull in that way. That building is where a manger is (at some stations), where we eat, take our breaks, and generally try to forget that we are toll collectors.
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To answer this fully, I'll back up a little here. I got the job when I was 18 years old, living at home, and starting college full-time. I became a toll collector (and a grocery store clerk) because my parents made it clear that I needed to get a job. (In my opinion, they had been more than generous in allowing me to be jobless up until that point.) For some reason, I became enamored with the idea of being a toll collector, and through a connection and a conveniently timed civil service test, I got the job. I never thought that this was going to be a career for me and during college other jobs came and went but the one constant for me was toll collecting. It provided a steady source of income, allowed me to move out of my parents house, and *ahem* enjoy college. From day one, I was just riding this out until I got the big boy job. Well, as it turns out, 2009 wasn't a great time to graduate college. Nearly five years after I started, the big boy job seemed as far away as it did on that first day but eventually I did get the call to the big leagues. So, to simply answer your question, I got another job. I am very thankful that I did though, because I'm just not sure how long I would have lasted. The unfortunate truth is that there are a lot of jobs out there that just aren't that fulfilling, and toll collecting is absolutely one of those jobs. The year after I graduated was one of the hardest years of my life. I remember breaking down to my father on the phone one night outside of a bar near the end of my time as a toll collector because I just didn't feel like my life had any purpose at the time. My hat is off to everyone that is still out there, because it's not an easy life.
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First and foremost, I too, am a huge fan of Fridays, FridayLover. We don't really have a procedure for handling rude and confused tourists. We're out there to collect tolls, and that's about it. Confusion is one thing. When I had wide-eyed drivers pull up with literally no idea what was happening, I just had to exercise as much patience with them as I could and get them onto the same page. Even getting people to open their windows and reach out to take the toll ticket from me when they were entering was sometimes a challenge. I had some comical stare downs with drivers who didn't speak English. It was interesting because I was doing something completely mundane, while they were doing something completely new. Even getting them to pull away after paying their toll was a challenge sometimes. That being said, being a confused tourist with a smile on your face will get you a whole lot farther than the alternative. Being confused shouldn't give you a license to be rude though. If you don't like that we aren't a currency exchange, or that our collectors don't know if certain malls have certain stores, or that we can't give you a satisfactory answer as to why there is a toll road here at all, that's fine. But there's really no need to berate a toll collector. And if you do, Canadian or not, don't be surprised when you don't get a very nice response. And I totally get that you don't want to take American change back to Canada, but if you guys could cool it on the 315 pennies for a 3.15 toll, my brethren would appreciate it.
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