Pointless Machines

This is my NEW enemy. They are popping up EVERYWHERE! I hate these friggin things. Whoever invented them needs to have their corpse dug up and desecrated.

These evil machines have taken over ALL the public boat ramps run by Miami-Dade County Department Of Parks And Recreation. The old system was a guy in a hut that would collect your money and hand you a ticket. This system worked great. You could hand the guy any kind of money, and since the person was a HUMAN they did not need crisp, new bills. Old crappy ripped money was fine.

I have already had a run in with these infernal machines before. You can read that blog post here.

When I launched Sunday, I had another run in with the machine. I had to drive past the hut where a HUMAN used to collect the user fee before I could launch. After the boat was in the water, I drove off to park. Then I had to walk back to the machine to pay. Then I had to walk back to the truck and place the ticket on the dash, then walk back to the boat. What a pain in my ass.

To make matters worse, there was only one machine that everyone had to use. It only takes bills in good condition, so unless you hit the ATM before you get to the ramp there is a good chance the machine will not accept your money. Then you have idiots that can not figure out how to use the machine. It is really easy, you press the GREEN button, pay, then collect the ticket. But some people press the button multiple times (each time you press it you are buying another day of parking) then can not figure out why nothing happens when they only pay $10 (the fee is $10 per day). Other people need change, which no other boaters ever have.

The one nice thing is that the machines DO accept my ATM/check card. The old system was cash only.

And what happened to the guy who used to collect the fee? Was he fired? Managers claim that the machines "reduce the labor needs" of the parks, but this is TOTAL hogwash. It actually increases the labor requirements.

Yes, there is no more guy in a hut collecting money. But now there is a guy who has to stand next to the machine to fix it when it jams or runs out of paper. He can also open the machine and give you change if your money will not work. And the machine DOES jam often. Of the four people in front of me, three managed to jam the machine and needed the guy to open it up. For one guy the thing ran out of paper. It took his money - but nothing printed.

Is this improvement? Is this a good use of boat ramp fee income? Eleminate one human job for a bunch of crappy machines then have to hire more humans to stand by the machines to fix them when they break? And that is not all! No, you also need parks dept employees to point out the machines to boaters, and to direct traffic around them (the machine guy is not a parks dept employee, he works for the county parking enforcement department).

I am going to fire off another round of angry emails and phone calls to the county. This round will be even more angry than the last round. They need to GET RID OF THE MACHINES and bring the guy in a hut back. The guy in a hut was faster and less prone to malfunction than the machines. He could look at a worn bill, and could tell that it was in fact valid currency. He could give you change is BILLS and not in those retarded golden dollar coins.

I am also going to declare war on the machines. Their weakness are their solar panels. I need to figure out how I can sabotoge them. I was thinking black spray paint, but I might get noticed by the guy who has to stand next to machine to fix it when it jams.