Toll Booth Operator Career
Toll Booth Operator Career
The Real Poop
Are you really, really into people-watching? Do you enjoy spending time alone? Or maybe you have enormous artistic talent that germinates primarily in your head, like music composition or poetry writing? We're just spitballing here.
Truth be told, we're having a hard time figuring out what parts of toll-taking would match up with particular career attributes you might be looking for. If you're going to be happy in this not-so-glamorous and barely-still-existing career, you should be the type who's able to find joy in the day to day despite cramped work conditions and low levels of stimulation.
If you go nuts over life's little time-consuming, mundane tasks, this job is not for you. On the other hand, if your mind tends to prance flamboyantly through a flowery cartoon meadow when it's not occupied by intricate work tasks, you just might be able to hack it.
Toll taker salaries vary widely, with lows around twelve dollars per hour (source) and highs around $75,000 per year, including overtime (source). Most full-timers make about $34,000 per year (source). That's not great, but considering the, ahem, relative lack of stimulation or necessary skills involved in this job, it's not too bad, either.
Technically speaking, it's probably only fair to consider toll-taking a career in certain states, where toll takers receive a salary and benefits as opposed to an hourly wage. It's also probably only even fair to acknowledge its existence as a job in the few remaining places where all tollbooths haven't already become fully automated.
Yes, it would seem that the robot army has already struck a devastating blow against the noble tollbooth worker militia. Of course, in a certain sense, this is as good a career choice as any...because regardless of your career path, the robot army's probably coming for your job. It's just a matter of time. Unless you're a robotics engineer, that is.
Back in reality, though, there are about a million jobs that'll outlast this one. The toll taker may not be long for this world; automation is the enemy, and it's at your doorstep.
All that bad stuff aside, there are some good reasons to look for a job in the toll-taking biz. Despite dwindling openings, if you do seek out a job as a tollbooth operator, it's not difficult to qualify for one. It's not like there are hordes of way-more-highly-qualified applicants scrambling for the gig.
If you can demonstrate basic reliability, a legitimate interest for the field, and possess a high school diploma or better, you're sure to impress an employer.
More often though, people simply end up working in this field as a way to earn money while getting through school, or because it's one of the few options available to them. So next time you pull up to a tollbooth, try asking some strangely philosophical question to the toll taker—that person just might be a philosophy Ph.D. student working to pay for his or her studies.
Or maybe you'll just weird them out...either way you'll probably break up the monotony of their day a bit.
There are definitely opportunities for advancement within the field. For example, in certain states, like Oklahoma, toll-related work is divided into four tiers (source).
The bottom tier is entry-level, the second is full-time with better pay, and above that there's a managerial or specialist class of positions, followed by administrators and facility supervisors. That last group doesn't even have to spend time in the booths. Those folks have it made.
Last thing worth mentioning: did you ever wonder what tollbooth operators do if they need to use the bathroom? Well, the booth doesn't double as an outhouse—that'd be gross. In fact, they have a path below the road that connects to a building beside the road, where they can use the facilities. So you can add "thoroughly enjoys secret passages" to possible reasons for wanting to work the ol' booth.