Getting irritated by the behaviour of toll point staffs…

Today started my drive down to Chennai from Pollachi… My toll started from Coimbatore L&T toll and the toll charge was ₹31 and I gave him ₹50…

The staff sitting on the booth asked for ₹1 or ₹2 or ₹5… When I said I didn’t have change, he made so much fuss & facial gestures before tendering the change…

In the next toll the toll cost is ₹80 & I gave ₹500… The toll staff here showed his frustration by asking what will he do if I give 500 bucks in the morning..

I told the second toll guy that even I’m frustrated paying Toll in spite of paying Road Tax, Income Tax, Service Tax, Sales Tax and many more taxes…

I asked if I’ve option to evade that toll? He said no choice… I told him two things and moved;

1. He has no choice but to serve me..
2. He is a public servant and he has to service politely…

Then in my 7th toll point the cost of toll was ₹47 and when I gave him ₹50 he tendered only ₹2… When I asked him for ₹1 he said he is not having change for ₹1…

I told him that is not my problem and I said I’m not moving without my ₹1… Then he went to next counter and got my change back… Again he gave me a staring look…

This is my 7 toll for the day and there were issues with 3 tolls and I’ve 4 more toll points cross… 

There are many other irritating things in tolls like;

• They give very old/damaged notes as change.. When we ask for a replacement they show gestures…
• When we accept old/damaged notes and offer the same in next tolls, mostly they deny accepting it…

I don’t have issues accepting such notes provided every toll accepts them…

Also the congestion caused at the toll points is another frustration where we are made to wait for a tax we pay..

These days I’ve accepted such situations and I’ve built an expertise to deal with this toll folks… When I see a person showing attitude I revert back by showing mine…

One experience with a toll staff who denied taking a damaged ₹10 note which I got from a previous toll.. The toll fee was ₹53 and I gave him ₹1000 and I kept returning the change he offered me and frustrated him for 30 min… 

Though I had to become a nuisance for other travellers I wanted to do it to teach them a lesson…

I made the manager attend me and apologise on behalf of the staff… Then I wrote a formal complaint and moved..

I’m not sure if they moved my complaint… It’s been more than 6 months and I got no response from NHAI or the firm which got the contract to operate the Toll…

I’m planning to write a letter to about my experience to Nitin Gadkari under who’s ministry Highway Department comes… Let’s see how the ministry responds..