NY toll trouble
10-16-03, 04:47 PM
#1
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
NY toll trouble
Thruway toll takers taken to task
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press, 10/16/2003 16:33
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) If you try to give pennies to pay your Thruway toll, or if you don't know what that toll is, you could be in for a rough ride from a few testy toll collectors.
The written complaints by motorists claim a few toll booth operators statewide were vulgar and abusive, sometimes racially insulting, and prone to questioning a driver's intelligence.
According to the complaints filed with the state Thruway Authority, counting pennies seemed to take an especially hard toll on the workers:
One motorist offered five pennies as part of the toll payment, or the only other bill he had, a $100 bill.
''Go (expletive deleted) yourself,'' the toll taker said.
A Connecticut family said they didn't realize there was a toll and had no cash. So they offered 100 pennies.
''Take it to the bank. I don't want your pennies,'' the toll operator said.
''But it's a dollar,'' the motorist responded.
''Don't care.''
A Woodbury toll taker returned five pennies to a customer with a suggestion, ''Here, save these to buy a bottle of hair dye.''
One woman who paid the toll for her daughter, traveling in the car behind her, found the toll taker also took her daughter's 50-cent toll as well, offering ''Sucker!'' as the daughter drove past. The extra toll was refunded, Thruway spokesman Terry O'Brien said Thursday.
A Coxsackie toll taker asked a motorist who drove into the wrong lane, ''What is it, a blonde thing?''
At the Spring Valley interchange a motorist asked what the toll was, and was told: ''What are you, (expletive deleted) brain dead?''
The complaints number just 13 over the last year and all have been investigated or are under investigation by the state Thruway Authority, O'Brien said.
If the vulgar or abusive behavior claimed in the complaints is verified, the employee gets a reprimand letter for his or her file, a refresher course on employee relations, and, if a pattern is proven, the worker is fired, O'Brien said of the authority's ''zero tolerance'' policy.
The complaints were posted on a Web site (http://THEsmokinggun.com) after a request under the state Freedom of Information Law. The posting prompted the New York Post on Thursday to refer to the incidents as ''sleazy pass.''
O'Brien noted that the complaints are a fraction of the 267.2 million Thruway toll transactions each year. He said the authority routinely receives letters of praise for its toll collectors from motorists around the nation, but each complaint is investigated.
There were more than 300 letters of complaint dating to 2000 and two dozen complimentary letters, said Daniel Green, managing editor of The Smoking Gun Web site, owned by the cable network Court TV.
''They were all disciplined, but there's a process you have to go through,'' O'Brien said. ''If there's a pattern of that in their file, the penalties get a lot stiffer up to and including terminations.''
Eight collectors, six of them part-time, have been fired since 1998 for being abusive to customers, O'Brien said. Five collectors were suspended from 10 days to four weeks without pay and two of them were also put on a year's probation.
One resigned during the investigation, which can take 12 weeks before an independent hearing officer. A union representative is also provided.
''Negative responses'' declined in 2002 and 86 percent of customers graded the overall efficiency as good or excellent, according to the Thruway's customer survey. Some drivers, however, said collectors seem ''distracted,'' a comment that lingered from 2000.
''Toll collectors are always on their phones or talking to other collectors when you pass through,'' one driver said in the agency's survey.
Complaint forms are available at toll booths, rest stops and on the Thruway's Web site (http://www.thruway.state.ny.us).
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press, 10/16/2003 16:33
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) If you try to give pennies to pay your Thruway toll, or if you don't know what that toll is, you could be in for a rough ride from a few testy toll collectors.
The written complaints by motorists claim a few toll booth operators statewide were vulgar and abusive, sometimes racially insulting, and prone to questioning a driver's intelligence.
According to the complaints filed with the state Thruway Authority, counting pennies seemed to take an especially hard toll on the workers:
One motorist offered five pennies as part of the toll payment, or the only other bill he had, a $100 bill.
''Go (expletive deleted) yourself,'' the toll taker said.
A Connecticut family said they didn't realize there was a toll and had no cash. So they offered 100 pennies.
''Take it to the bank. I don't want your pennies,'' the toll operator said.
''But it's a dollar,'' the motorist responded.
''Don't care.''
A Woodbury toll taker returned five pennies to a customer with a suggestion, ''Here, save these to buy a bottle of hair dye.''
One woman who paid the toll for her daughter, traveling in the car behind her, found the toll taker also took her daughter's 50-cent toll as well, offering ''Sucker!'' as the daughter drove past. The extra toll was refunded, Thruway spokesman Terry O'Brien said Thursday.
A Coxsackie toll taker asked a motorist who drove into the wrong lane, ''What is it, a blonde thing?''
At the Spring Valley interchange a motorist asked what the toll was, and was told: ''What are you, (expletive deleted) brain dead?''
The complaints number just 13 over the last year and all have been investigated or are under investigation by the state Thruway Authority, O'Brien said.
If the vulgar or abusive behavior claimed in the complaints is verified, the employee gets a reprimand letter for his or her file, a refresher course on employee relations, and, if a pattern is proven, the worker is fired, O'Brien said of the authority's ''zero tolerance'' policy.
The complaints were posted on a Web site (http://THEsmokinggun.com) after a request under the state Freedom of Information Law. The posting prompted the New York Post on Thursday to refer to the incidents as ''sleazy pass.''
O'Brien noted that the complaints are a fraction of the 267.2 million Thruway toll transactions each year. He said the authority routinely receives letters of praise for its toll collectors from motorists around the nation, but each complaint is investigated.
There were more than 300 letters of complaint dating to 2000 and two dozen complimentary letters, said Daniel Green, managing editor of The Smoking Gun Web site, owned by the cable network Court TV.
''They were all disciplined, but there's a process you have to go through,'' O'Brien said. ''If there's a pattern of that in their file, the penalties get a lot stiffer up to and including terminations.''
Eight collectors, six of them part-time, have been fired since 1998 for being abusive to customers, O'Brien said. Five collectors were suspended from 10 days to four weeks without pay and two of them were also put on a year's probation.
One resigned during the investigation, which can take 12 weeks before an independent hearing officer. A union representative is also provided.
''Negative responses'' declined in 2002 and 86 percent of customers graded the overall efficiency as good or excellent, according to the Thruway's customer survey. Some drivers, however, said collectors seem ''distracted,'' a comment that lingered from 2000.
''Toll collectors are always on their phones or talking to other collectors when you pass through,'' one driver said in the agency's survey.
Complaint forms are available at toll booths, rest stops and on the Thruway's Web site (http://www.thruway.state.ny.us).
10-16-03, 10:37 PM
#4
Pole Position
EZ Pass 
10-17-03, 05:41 AM
#6
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Showing once again the graciousness and charm so prevalent in the North East.
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10-19-03, 01:02 PM
#9
Originally posted by SC300Es
EZ Pass
EZ Pass
Shawn
10-19-03, 01:21 PM
#10
How E-ZPass works?
It looks like you have to prepay. Here is the information on how it works http://www.ezpass.com/static/info/howit.shtml
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
10-19-03, 01:29 PM
#11
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Originally posted by pvo
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
10-19-03, 01:45 PM
#12
Re: How E-ZPass works?
Originally posted by pvo
It looks like you have to prepay. Here is the information on how it works http://www.ezpass.com/static/info/howit.shtml
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
It looks like you have to prepay. Here is the information on how it works http://www.ezpass.com/static/info/howit.shtml
Oh, if you don't have the tag and you use that lane, they actually take a picture of your plate and send you a warning. My friend got one before...
Shawn
