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.
We classify vehicles based on height and axles on the ground. Anything below 7'6" is classified a 'low' and anything above 7'6" is a 'high'. So an average car is classified as a 2L while an average tractor trailer is classified as a 5H. Luckily, we don't have to take weight or commercial status into consideration when classifying. I know that a different system was in place preceding my arrival and that it had been become somewhat complicated, so this system was installed in an effort to simply the process. (Something about noting the number of passengers on buses, etc...)
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I don't really know anything about operations at the Triborough Bridge but this might shed some light on your experience:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triborough_Bridge_and_Tunnel_Authority_Police
It looks like these officers may collect tolls from time to time, which might explain the potential ticket. Pure speculation from my perspective, though.
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Sorry, I didn't know how to answer this question 3 months ago. I hope you found your way out.
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Congratulations! Full-time work in this field is good if you can get it. Happy to hear that you've been able to work your way up to it!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I hope that I have been able to give people an accurate insight into a day in the life. At this point, you're probably more qualified than I to be answering questions about the job. I've come across so many people whose eyes light up when I tell them I used to be a collector. It just seems to be one of those mysterious jobs people wonder about and I hope I've been able to convey that we're just people standing in metal boxes in the middle of a big road(with some good stories).
People are terrible. But sometimes they're okay. And that's enough for me to keep showing up everyday. Good luck out there brother.
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Court Reporter
How do you transcribe when people in the courtroom are talking over and interrupting each other?
Bracketologist
Why have there been so many 15-2 upsets, but no 16-1's?
Toll Collector
Do you think there will be a time where all tolls are automated?
What can you say, really? Drivers agree to pay the toll the moment they enter the portion of highway that is designated 'toll road'. I was never given official strategies to deal with customers that didn't want to pay a toll. If they had specific questions about the system or why they were being charged a certain amount I was happy to answer them but if you just drive up and complain about the concept of a toll my general response was something along the lines of
¯\_(?)_/¯
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Hi Caitlin. Without knowing you personally or what your goals might be it's hard to say whether a part-time toll collector job would be right for you. Some general notes:
My part-time rate was one of the better rates you could get in my region without technical skills/experience.
If you do not enjoy working with the public, DO NOT apply for this job. Conversely, if you do like talking to people you will have the opportunity to do so. (Though they may not always have the nicest things to say to you.)
Part-time work on a toll road for me meant taking a lot of hours around full-timers and those part-timers that restricted their schedules into very specific hours. This meant that there was a lot of inconsistency in my schedule month-to-month. Since I was willing to work overnights I was able to get a quite a few eight-hour shifts, with the caveat being I had to work from 11p - 7a with some frequency. Remember that toll roads don't close so the hours can be difficult.
Money is dirty, and toll plazas can be loud places,
If you feel that large amounts of change might make your irrationally angry, this might be a job that you want to avoid.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Good luck!
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I mean, it was harder than walking into places of business and handing them a resume. The authority I worked for tended to hire in classes so you kind of had to just keep calling to gauge if they were hiring a group, especially during the years-long gap in which there was no civil service test offered. Once they exhausted the entire list of acceptable candidates that had taken the test, they would hire off the street, so at the end of the day difficulty is kind of directly correlated to timing.
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