Toll Booth Collector
Take the toll, make change and wish every driver a nice day, two thousand times a shift. Some of them will wish it back. Those are the good days.
1940 – 2027About the role
For most of the twentieth century, using the highway meant stopping to pay for it. Toll collectors sat in narrow booths across the lanes, took coins and crumpled bills through the window and handed back change, receipts and directions. Then electronic tags arrived, and the booths emptied one lane at a time.
At Booth 7 on the Turnpike Replica, a six-lane toll plaza with a working barrier arm, you'll take the morning shift alone. Members will drive through in restored sedans with exact change, the wrong change or a fifty-dollar bill. You'll make change, lift the barrier and say “Have a nice day” to every one of them. You'll mean it more than you expect.
What you'll do
- Collect the correct toll from every vehicle, by class and number of axles.
- Make change from the drawer quickly, without counting out loud.
- Give directions to drivers who are lost, and to the ones who just want to talk.
- Lift the barrier only once the toll is paid. No exceptions, even for the nice ones.
- Count the drawer at the end of the shift. It will be thirty-five cents short. It always is.
What we're looking for
- Quick hands and quick arithmetic.
- A friendly wave you can keep up for eight hours.
- Comfort in a space slightly larger than a phone booth.
- A tolerance for exhaust fumes, and for honking.
Perks
- A booth of your ownHeated, with a sliding window and a view of six lanes.
- A transistor radioOne station, mostly traffic reports. They're about you.
- RegularsTwo thousand drivers a shift. By March, some of them will know your name.
