Mass Pike to lay off 100 toll collectors or 25% to save $10m/yr

Toll collectors have priced themselves out of a job at the Massachusetts Turnpike. The base pay plus benefits of a fulltime collector cost the Turnpike Authority $71k/yr ($35.70/hour). With seniority some staff collect tolls on a base rate of $80k/yr, and with overtime make as much as $90k/yr, the Turnpike Authority says. (Contract suppliers of toll collections services typically employ staff at about $11/hour or about $22k/yr with scant benefits.)

This under labor agreements entered into by a succession of Republican governors including the self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Mitt Romney.

The party's over, and under a Democrat administration.

A statement by the Turnpike this week says that 100 out of 441 toll collectors (310 fulltime and 131 part-time) will be laid off over the next 12 to 18 months, saving about $10m/yr when complete. The $10m/yr saving on toll collector costs follows a 25% reduction in administrative staff, cutbacks in consultants, reduced health plans, less overtime, and other economies adding up to $15m/yr.

"Because of the complicated (labor) contracts approved by past administrations it will be months before full implementation and cost savings will be realized," the statement says. "Not since the implementation of the Turnpike’s FAST LANE electronic toll collection system 11 years ago have toll collectors been targeted for layoffs."

30c saving on electronic toll vs cash

The Authority says it saves 30c every time a motorist uses a transponder (brandname FAST LANE) as compared to paying cash to a toll collector.

Dem Gov Deval Patrick's Turnpike CEO Alan LeBovidge says staff levels at the toll plazas have to be looked at to run "the most efficient organization possible."

Turnpike chairman and secretary of transportation Bernard Cohen is quoted as saying the toll collector layoffs represent "responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources."

Electronic toll lanes will be increased with:

- conversion of four cash lanes to ET at the MA128 (I-95) interchange

- conversion of another four cash lanes at Allston-Brighton

LeBovidge is quoted as saying: "I encourage everyone that doesn’t have a transponder to get one.Even if you drive on the Pike occasionally, it’s going to save you time and money and gas."

Trouble is LeBovidge recently advocated eliminated the existing discounts for transponder tolls. These are presently 50c (14%) on the $3.50 cash toll on the tunnels and 25c (20%) on the $1.25 toll at the Allston Brighton toll plaza just inside MA128 in the Metropolitan Highway System portion of the turnpike.

About 60% of Mass Pike transactions are by electronic toll. (CORRECTION 2008-09-19 23:00)

Board member Mary Z Connaughton says CEO Alan LeBovidge has executive authority to implement the layoffs on his own, though she said the move is supported by the authority's board. She thinks all toll collector jobs will be gone within a few years because technology has made them unnecessary.

"They are like lamplighter jobs. Changes in technology make them obsolete."

She says the savings from reducing toll collectors are worthwhile but they don't solve the Turnpike's financial problems:

"The fundamental problem is that the Turnpike got saddled with a crushing burden of debt on account of the Big Dig, without getting any new source of revenue to service that debt. At some point we've got to face up to that."

Economies are good, but at the end of making economies, she says, the Turnpike will still have a major deficit and it will have to increase toll revenues.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-09-18