METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING VEHICULAR VIOLATIONS

• US 20100111423A1
• Filed: 10/12/2009
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Consolidated LLC
• Original Assignee: Rent A Toll Ltd
• Inventors: Balachandran, Sarath K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,363,899 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/195
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A method includes receiving paper comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising a unique vehicle identifier and a violation classification, extracting from the paper the unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification via automated pattern recognition, uploading the extracted unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification to a database, determining whether the extracted unique vehicle identifier is associated with a predefined plurality of vehicles, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee for the vehicular violation to a party that was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving paper comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising a unique vehicle identifier and a violation classification;

extracting from the paper the unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification via automated pattern recognition;

uploading the extracted unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification to a database;

determining whether the extracted unique vehicle identifier is associated with a predefined plurality of vehicles;

responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee for the vehicular violation to a party that was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the disputing step comprises providing evidence of non-responsibility for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises sale documents.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises lease-return documents.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined plurality of vehicles is a plurality of vehicles available for rent by a rental-car agency.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with the vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles:

determining whether the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation;

responsive to a determination that the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying a renter of the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

responsive to a determination that the vehicle was not rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying the rental-car agency as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising paying the violation fee.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique vehicle identifier is a license-plate number.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises comparing the unique vehicle identifier to a plurality of unique vehicle identifiers in a database.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the database comprises rental-car-agreement data of a rental-car agency.

11. The method of claim 6, comprising:

identifying an employee of the rental-car agency who was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

charging the employee the violation fee.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicular violation is selected from the group consisting of a toll violation, a parking violation, and a traffic violation.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the violation classification is selected from the group consisting of a first notice, a second notice, a collection letter, and a court notice.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising sorting the vehicular violation among a plurality of vehicular violations by the violation classification.

15. A computer-program product comprising a computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

receiving paper comprising information regarding a vehicular violation, the information comprising a unique vehicle identifier and a violation classification;

extracting from the paper the unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification via automated pattern recognition;

uploading the extracted unique vehicle identifier and the violation classification to a database;

determining whether the extracted unique vehicle identifier is associated with a predefined plurality of vehicles;

responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with a vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles, charging a violation fee for the vehicular violation to a party that was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is not associated with the predefined plurality of vehicles, disputing responsibility for the vehicular violation.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the disputing step comprises providing evidence of non-responsibility for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.

17. The computer-program product of claim 16, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises sale documents.

18. The computer-program product of claim 16, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises lease-return documents.

19. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the predefined plurality of vehicles is a plurality of vehicles available for rent by a rental-car agency.

20. The computer-program product of claim 19, the method comprising, responsive to a determination that the unique vehicle identifier is associated with the vehicle of the predefined plurality of vehicles:

determining whether the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation;

responsive to a determination that the vehicle was rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying a renter of the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

responsive to a determination that the vehicle was not rented at the time of the vehicular violation, identifying the rental-car agency as the party responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.

21. The computer-program product of claim 15, the method comprising paying the violation fee.

22. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the unique vehicle identifier is a license-plate number.

23. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the determining step comprises comparing the unique vehicle identifier to a plurality of unique vehicle identifiers in a database.

24. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the database comprises rental-car-agreement data of a rental-car agency.

25. The computer-program product of claim 20, the method comprising:

identifying an employee of the rental-car agency who was responsible for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation; and

charging the employee the violation fee.

26. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the vehicular violation is selected from the group consisting of a toll violation, a parking violation, and a traffic violation.

27. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the violation classification is selected from the group consisting of a first notice, a second notice, a collection letter, and a court notice.

28. The computer-program product of claim 15, comprising sorting the vehicular violation among a plurality of vehicular violations by the violation classification.