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.
Collectors where I worked are not necessarily required to flag counterfeit money, but they are required to fill out a form at the end of their shift tying all large bills to the vehicles that paid with them. When they do receive a 50 or 100 dollar bill they are required to take down the vehicle's plate number along with the serial number of the bill. That way, if the bill is rejected by the bank that is counting the deposit, the agency has some sort of information on where the bill came from. As with so many other jobs, sometimes the paper trail is just as important as the end result.
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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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50+. Not too outrageous sounding until you think about the fact that collectors often have to cross these lanes and the speed limit is 5 mph in these lanes.
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This might be my favorite question. I would absolutely count out every single penny. I always advised anyone paying with a substantial amount of change that I would need to count it all before they left. I would then proceed to make little penny stacks, ten at a time. When I reached 130 identical penny stacks, I would let you go. The thing about being in a box with people moving all around you is that motivation to move fast can be hard to find. The only reward for moving cars is more cars and cars are basically the bane of your existence. I never liked having a long line but it was often unavoidable and as long as there are other lanes available I never felt too bad. Except for the few poor souls directly behind the troublemaker. Now, I'm not sure what collectors on the Bridge have been advised to do in that kind of situation, but from my perspective I am responsible for all of the money that I (don't) take in and I have to answer for any discrepancy in my deposit. That being said, I had a lot of people drop a lot of change on me and drive off. In that situation, I would always try to grab a plate number and a vehicle description if they were short. But again, all of this might and probably diverges from what collectors on the Bridge do. Also, I'm slowly dying on the inside while all of this is happening.
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Basketball Referee
Do you think the nets should be lower for girls?
Casino Marketer
What's the most unethical thing you've seen casinos do to "part you from your dollars?"
Claims Adjuster
Do you ever feel bad for the people whose claims you deny?
I get the premise, but I don't think this one works in practice. You might have a collector that just waves you though without counting, and even if they count every single penny I don't know if you'd be buying the kind of time you need. One thing that we can all agree on is that the Westboro Baptists are insane.
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It's pretty easy to do. Just take a look at the side of any vehicle and count the number of wheels rolling on the ground. Here's a chart from the U.S. DOT that shows some examples of truck combinations: http://i.imgur.com/r6hpwt9.gif We did not have cash registers in our booths. The ticket machines that we used could do a number of functions, but all cash transactions were done manually. If you needed to, you could bring a calculator of your own out to the lane with you, but during my job interview I was asked if i could make change without the use of a cash register. When I replied that I could, the interviewer tested me on the spot.
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Technically, no. We are not a currency exchange but the agency I worked at did accept Canadian currency for toll payment at a variable rate that they set. In my five years at the agency, the discount rate varied from 10-30%. This meant that a patron paying a toll with Canadian currency might be credited with as little as 70 cents for every dollar tendered.
So yes, you can pay a toll with Canadian money, but the international exchange rate will not be taken into consideration. Additionally, I cannot speak for agencies further south of where I worked but I would imagine the farther south you go, the less likely Canadian currency will be accepted.
A collector might exchange the Canadian money for you, but be cautious of the rate it is discounted at.
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