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.
I knew someone was going to ask this! In our system, there is a vehicle classification system based on both axles on the ground and vehicle height. Cars with nothing in tow pay the least. Trucks with 9 or more axles on the ground pay the most. It is the job of the entry collector to classify each vehicle and print the correct ticket with the right classification on it. Entry collectors get audited much like exit collectors and the total amount of axles that cross the treadle should match the amount on the entry machine. Also, entry collectors have to ensure that oversized vehicles and trucks carrying explosive material are properly permitted. We also turn around any vehicle combinations not adhering to the rules. I have heard that since I left, the process has changed and all vehicles are issued the same 2L ticket (that's a car with nothing in tow) and classified at their exit point. I'm almost certain the end game will be automated entry. Cost efficiency seems to be the name of the game these days.
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Absolutely. I had the benefit of working in some smaller stations as well as a big plaza and I definitely got to the recognition with some people. My hours were very irregular so it was always hit or miss though. It's funny, after a few encounters you just know how to treat certain people. Like, 'oh this guy, he never says a word.' or 'here comes the lady that always asks how I am!"
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I'm sure we all picked up our fair share of germs from the job but nothing too severe. Some collectors even claimed that they healthier, or at least a little more resistant due to all the germs they were exposed to. I think the science on that one is a little shaky. Though, if we were ever exposed to anything questionable, we were required to deposit all the materials in a biohazard bag and get ourselves checked out at the hospital. Thankfully, this is a very rare occurrence and something I never had to go through.
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I went back to school and got my PhD in Toll Collection. Now I teach it! Actually, I am happily employed as a broadcast operator at a financial news network. I held the job from age 18-23, which encompassed my college years plus one.
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We did. Most common bulletins were vehicle descriptions. A few years back, a man named Bucky Phillips escaped a correctional facility upstate and while on the run, shot a state police officer in the middle of the state. He had relatives in the area that I worked so were on the lookout for him and any car that had been tied to him. State police officers were being called in from all across the state as it turned into an all-out manhunt. Then he shot (and killed one) two more state troopers and things got even more intense. For a few days, they doubled up staffing at our smaller stations so no one would be alone at any time. No one on our highway spotted him though, and he was apprehended once a small army descended upon him in the woods. I was working the night he was caught and a convoy of police vehicles (one of which carried him) came through our plaza, taking him back towards Buffalo. I tried to keep count the cars but they just kept flying though and I couldn't keep up. Definitely one of the more memorable nights out there.
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While it is incredibly rare, and would probably take a perfect storm of circumstances, I have heard of this. I can only assume it would entail upwards of 300 16 hour days.
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I would definitely place myself in the minority in that regard. I certainly did work with some lazy, angry, unintelligent idiots. It's not the type of job that requires a college degree or special skills to speak of so you can imagine the demographics in play. But honestly, most collectors fall pretty much in the middle of those two extremes. There's a lot of interesting stories out there, though. A lot of the older full-timers I worked with came of age in the mid-late seventies who fell into the whole thing by accident. A number of them had college degrees, but the economy was such a wreck at the time that they took the job out of necessity. Once they got a few years in with a decent salary and benefits, it was hard to get out. And there they stood, thirty years later.
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