Maine at Work: Life in the fast lane
Maine Turnpike Authority collector's job can take its toll during rush hour
By RAY ROUTHIER, Staff Writer
October 26, 2009
Ray Routhier job shadows toll collector Patty Adams at Exit 44 in Scarborough. “Don’t forget to say, ‘Good Morning.’ It puts everyone in a good mood,” she said. “I always wear a flower too, for the same reason.”
John Patriquin/Staff Photographer
Reporter Ray Routhier job shadows toll collector Patty Adams at Exit 44 in Scarborough. Among other things, the job involves making change, recording vehicle information on a computer, and giving directions to motorists.
John Patriquin/Staff Photographer
THIS WEEK'S JOBTITLE: Toll collector, Maine Turnpike Authority
WORKER: Patty Adams, 64, of Sanford
HOURS: Shifts vary, but full-timers work eight-hour shifts and rotate between days and nights.
DUTIES: Collecting, sorting and accounting for the money; recording car information on a computer; giving directions.
SALARY: $15.21 per hour to $18.15 per hour
SURPRISING FACT: It's not just taking money and making change. Collectors have to punch several buttons on a computer to record specific facts about each car. And they have to do it within the split-second the car is stopped at the booth.
PERKS: A TV in the booth and the opportunity to see lots of people on their way to work or dinner or whatever. Being able to stay in one place.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
MAINE AT WORK takes an interactive look at iconic, visible or just
plain interesting jobs done by folks in Maine. Reporter Ray Routhiershadows a worker or workers, reports what he sees, and tries his handat some of the job's duties.IF YOU'D like to suggest a job to be explored in this feature, e-mail
Ray at rrouthier@pressherald.com or call him at 791-6454.SCARBOROUGH — Thank goodness the tolls have gone up to a dollar.
That was my first thought when toll collector Patty Adams beckoned me to take over her post inside a Maine Turnpike Authority booth on I-295 during a recent Wednesday morning rush hour.
I have never, in my life, had a job where I've had to make change, and for some reason the prospect terrifies me. But with $1 tolls for most cars, making change is as complicated as it once was when tolls were less than $1, Adams told me.
Then she began telling me about the computer.
"When a car comes through, you have to press (an icon on the screen) for what class it is, and then you have to press 'fare paid' and 'receipt' and make sure you press them all before the car leaves," said Adams, 64, wearing pumpkin earrings and a matching orange flower in her hair.
I looked at the dozen or so icons on the screen, labeled "Class 1," "Class 2" and so on, plus a couple labeled "Class 7X4" or "Class 7X3" and other mysterious things. What do all these things mean?
"A car or pickup is Class 1, but if it has double-rear wheels, it's not, but if it's towing a trailer, it's ..."
I stopped hearing Adams at this point. She went on to describe different combinations of cars and trucks with extra wheels pulling trailers or other devices with a seemingly infinite combination of rear-wheel quantities. Who knew you could have so many wheels on one axle?
"And don't forget to say, 'Good morning.' It puts everyone in a good mood," Adams said. "I always wear a flower too, for the same reason."
Wearing my own yellow reflective vest, but without a flower, I stepped to the side window of the booth and waited for the traffic going north on I-295. The first few were easy, with each driver handing me $1. I then pressed "fare paid" and "Class 1."
Then I had to make change for a $20 bill and give a receipt. I pushed the buttons a little too slowly.
"Fare paid, fare paid," said Adams, urging me to hurry. "Class 1, receipt, fare paid."
It was a rhythm I never really caught on to, during the half hour or so I collected tolls. It only takes about two seconds for most people to hand a $1 bill over and take off, I learned. But it took my brain a lot longer than that to figure out which icons to push. Especially when people asked for directions.
"Hi, how do we get to Portland Head Light?" asked a friendly woman in a white sedan.
I live about a mile from Portland Head Light, but I've never gone there directly from this toll booth. And like most good Mainers, I don't know the numbers for any of the highway exits I regularly take. That way, I am free to give folksy directions by saying things like "turn left where the old Five and Dime used to be."
Adams stepped in and gave the woman explicit directions. I admired her skill at this. However, I admired it a little too long at the expense of the icons I was supposed to push, and soon Adams was repeating, "Fare paid, fare paid!"
Adams had shown me earlier that she keeps a little stack of folded-up directions in her cash drawer to be handed to inquiring drivers. They are directions to the places drivers passing through this toll both most frequently ask about, mostly retail meccas including Walmart, Christmas Tree Shops, Cabela's and the Maine Mall.
But Adams also has a catalog of directions in her brain. When a Russian truck driver started asking for "industrial park" in very broken English, she deduced he was delivering goods to the Hannaford supermarket warehouse in Scarborough, and gave him specific instructions.
Skills in "customer service" plus experience in handling cash are two of the things the Maine Turnpike Authority looks for in hiring toll collectors, said Dan Paradee, a spokesman for the agency.
"We really take pride in our reputation for having the friendliest and most helpful toll collectors," Paradee said.
Adams has been a toll collector for more than eight years, first at the York tolls and now at Scarborough. She was working as a home health care aide before this, and one of her patients had a daughter working at a toll booth. It sounded interesting.
"I was getting tired of driving all over the place for work," she said.
Adams clearly loves her job, and calls it "the easiest" she's had.
What about the winter's wind and snow blowing into the booth? She just opens and closes the booth door when cars pull up. And the booth is so small, a big closet really, that the heaters heat it up just fine.
What about the monotony of doing the same thing – taking money, pushing icons – over and over?
Adams livens up her time by greeting everyone, even engaging in conversations during the few seconds drivers stop. She loves seeing what people, especially women, are wearing to work in the morning. "It's like a fashion show sometimes," she said.
She's also got a TV in her booth, for slow nights.
Sometimes, but not often, there's excitement. A driver being chased by police came right through her booth once.
"The woman (who was driving) slowed down to pay the toll but then kept on going," Adams said. "The police didn't have to pay."
Adams prefers to be busy. Her toll plaza handles an average of 20,000 vehicles a day, so being busy is fairly easy. She likes working Lane 1, southbound, where drivers are more likely to hand her $20 bills and need change. Northbound, she says, more people have ones ready.
"If they're coming from the south, they've probably been to a toll booth in York or Saco, and they've already gotten change. But if they're coming from north of here, they stopped in Portland at an ATM and have 20s," said Adams. "That's my theory, anyway."
Adams works eight-hour shifts, with breaks in the small utility building every few hours. The week I visited her, she was working 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Some weeks, she'll work shifts starting in the afternoon; other times, she works the overnight. All the toll collectors rotate shifts and have the ability to switch with one another, Adams said.
About five times a day, Adams encounters a driver who stops but has no money. Then she has to take out a "no funds" form and get out of her booth. She has to take down the car's license number and some other information, and hand the driver a form so they can mail in the payment later.
Do they?
"Oh yeah, most of the time," Adams said.
She also told me that at the end of the shift, she has to tally up her day's receipts and make sure they correctly correspond with all the information she's recorded in the computer.
If a collector's money doesn't add up, they'll get a talking to – or more, Adams says.
But they also have a form to fill out for "unusual" events that might have affected their day's receipts.
On this day, under that heading, she listed me.
"I wrote down exactly when you started," Adams said.
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: rrouthier@pressherald.com