Toll Booth operator

[BloeJanton]

My apologies to anyone who happens to be one but here is what just happened tonight.

Driving back from West Chester to the Philadelphia exit of the Turnpike, which is actually in Neshaminy. It's 9 p.m. with very little traffic at the tolls. I pull up, no one is behind me, give him the money and the ticket, but I am still a dollar short, I know this before I give him the money and I have the money ready, but it is in dimes, in my cup holder. I dig around and count out change, this took maybe 15-20 seconds. I turn back and he has his left arm up blocking his view of me and my view of his face. I wait for a few seconds until I say "Excuse me, sir?" He looks back at me and says, "Oh your ready now." In a tone dripping in sarcasm and contempt. He then says, "You're about a nickel short there." I don't have any nickels, just a few pennies. I understand that this isn't an ideal way to pay your tolls, but I didn't feel like searching around some more for a nickel, so I hand him the pennies and he says, "I don't want your fucking pennies."
Between 'fucking' and 'pennies' there was an odd pause where I think his inner monologue escaped his lips to become part of our lovely dialogue. At this point I am a little stunned. Did I really get told off by the toll guy, for wasting his precious time? Keep in mind, there is NOBODY behind me and this probably took under 2 minutes. My parting response was to say, "I'm sorry that I wasted your time with SO many people behind me." I drive off and in the rearview I see him sticking out of this booth waving at me. What an asshat. I'm slightly nervous he will say I drove off without paying the toll but not too worried about it.
As I sit and think about what just happened, the things that strike me are:
He was angry at me for "wasting his time". His job is to sit and WAIT for people to drive up and pay the toll. It is HIS JOB to sit and wait for me to pay the damn toll.
There was NOBODY behind me. I had pulled him away from what? Writing his memoirs? The Sunday night game? The Phillies? I'm sorry toll booth operator for pulling you away from whatever the hell you were doing to make you do your job. I know its such a difficult job to wait for a minute while I look for my change. I know its more fun to not work while you are on the job and just fool around. Its totally my fault isn't it?
So what if they are pennies? YOU aren't taking them, the PENNSYLVANIA TURPIKE is taking them, you know the people who employ you. Don't take it as a personal affront that I offered up pennies, legal tender, to pay for my toll. I would have found a nickel but you were already being a jackass.

So anybody who works in the toll booths, I am sorry if pennies are an unacceptable way to pay for tolls, honestly with no sarcasm. I understand that it must be a tedious job and incredibly boring to wait for people to dig around and find change. But on a Sunday night, with nobody waiting behind me, for 2 minutes, do you really have to give me attitude like that? For what, for making you do your job? I wish I could drop the F bomb everytime somebody made me do my job.

I'm sorry but I'm pretty agitated about this and I just needed to write it down. One day this will be a funny story, hopefully somebody has gotten a chuckle out of it. I would appreciate any feedback or other stories about tolls. This has never happened to me once. I try to be courteous and polite when I pull up to the booth, take off my sunglasses, turn down the music, say thank you and have a good day. People are assholes, even on the job.

[stinkymcdoober]

I actually sat in my car and had a 5 minute conversation with a toll operator, in Delaware, on my way down to the shore once. We took the wrong exit, and of course in DE it seems to be impossible to understand their maze of on and off-ramps. Very nice guy, great conversation.

I guess it's all about where you go and who you get, maybe he had a hot date with the flag holder from the construction on 76....

[ChrisF4i]

That sucks........


Get

[Gkgas]

That sucks........


Get

Got to agree with you on that EZ pass is the best.

[Kendrickson]

I won't use ezpass because they don't offer a discount for using it. I feel that since they don't have to pay someone to accept my toll, they should give me a discount. I use the turnpike every day, and the toll collector I usually see is very nice. So, I guess I will probably not be using ezpass for the forseeable future.

[autotech6506]

also when you use easypass they can send you speeding tickets because they can calculate how fast you were going by how long it takes you to get from point A to point B. there are ways to get around this like stopping for gas or food but by this point speeding will only waste gas and not get you where you wanna go faster.

[ChrisF4i]

I won't use ezpass because they don't offer a discount for using it. I feel that since they don't have to pay someone to accept my toll, they should give me a discount. I use the turnpike every day, and the toll collector I usually see is very nice. So, I guess I will probably not be using ezpass for the forseeable future.

That's not true. I have a Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission EZ-Pass and everytime I use one of their tolls they take 20% off. So the toll coming in to PA from Jersey is only 60 cents compared to 75 cents. They also give you a bigger discount if you use their tolls over 20 times a month, or something like that.

It's not much but it's something.

[bogey1]

I won't use ezpass because they don't offer a discount for using it. I feel that since they don't have to pay someone to accept my toll, they should give me a discount. I use the turnpike every day, and the toll collector I usually see is very nice. So, I guess I will probably not be using ezpass for the forseeable future.

they also charge 1.50 a month if you have one. i may get rid of mine

[Guns4Fun]

also when you use easypass they can send you speeding tickets because they can calculate how fast you were going by how long it takes you to get from point A to point B. there are ways to get around this like stopping for gas or food but by this point speeding will only waste gas and not get you where you wanna go faster.

This has never happened to me. If you look at the little ticket they give you when you go through the gate, there is a time stamp on that as well. If they wanted to give you a ticket they would know your speed then too. They could use the photos they take of you as you exit and find out who you are and send you a ticket also---not sure i see the difference.

I got an ez pass back when the toll takers were on strike the last time. I got pissed that i had to pay $2 for a .50 cent toll--because the bosses were collecting the fee. After that i said f them--i hope that ez pass puts them all out of work. F'n unions and strikes.

[ChrisF4i]

they also charge 1.50 a month if you have one. i may get rid of mine

Not mine, you are getting screwed