Toll fee system and method

• US 7,407,097 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2005
• Issued: 08/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Consolidated LLC
• Original Assignee: Rent A Toll Ltd
• Inventors: Lemon, Debbie, Robinson, Benjamin P.
• Primary Examiner(s): FRANKLIN, JAMARA ALZAIDA
• Application Number:
  US11/125,521
• Publication Number:
  US 20050279831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,183 Days
• Field of Search: 235/384, 705/13
• US Class Current: 235/384
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/04 comprising devices to free a barrier, turnstile, or the like turnstiles with registering means G07C9/10; coin-freed aspects G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G

Abstract

A toll fee tracking system comprising a toll authority adapted to collect data associated with at least one toll fee tracking device and a toll rental entity adapted to communicate with the toll authority and a third part entity. The toll rental entity further acts as a communication channel between the toll authority and the third party entity for forwarding data from the toll authority to the third party entity.

Claims

1. A toll fee tracking system comprising:

a toll authority adapted to collect data associated with at least one toll fee tracking device;

a toll rental entity adapted to communicate with said toll authority and a third party entity;

wherein at least some of the collected data is transferred from the toll authority to the toll rental entity responsive to a request for data-transfer permission from the toll rental entity to the toll authority; and

wherein said toll rental entity forwards at least some of said transferred data to said third party entity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said toll authority comprises:

toll gates equipped with toll fee tracking device readers;

at least one processor, wherein said at least one processor includes a bi-directional data communications link; and

at least one database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said toll rental entity comprises:

a toll authority interface adapted to communicate with said toll authority;

at least one database; and

a third party entity interface adapted to communicate with said third party entity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said third party entity comprises:

at least one rental point-of-sale (POS) system;

at least one invoice unit; and

at least one processor.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said toll rental entity comprises a stand alone unit.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said toll rental entity comprises a server.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication between said toll authority and said toll rental entity comprises pulling said data from said toll authority.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication between said toll authority and said toll rental entity comprises pushing said data to said toll rental entity.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said communication between said toll authority and said toll rental entity occurs in real-time.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication between said toll authority and said toll rental entity occurs at predefined regular intervals.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication between said toll rental entity and said third party entity comprises pushing said data to said third party entity.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said communication between said toll rental entity and said third party entity occurs in real-time.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said toll rental entity is adapted to be integrated within said third party entity.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said data includes vehicle-class-identifiers, lane traffic activity, toll fee tracking device identification data, transaction time, transaction date, toll gate identification, vehicle travel direction, and toll fee data.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one toll fee tracking devices comprises a radio frequency integrated device (RFID) transponder.

16. The system of claim 15. wherein said RFID transponder comprises transponder identification data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said transponder identification data identifies a toll rental entity account with a toll authority account.

18. A method for toll fee tracking, the method comprising;

providing, to a vehicle operator, an automatic toll payment service option;

collecting, at a toll authority, data associated with at least one toll fee tracking device;

storing said data in at least one database of said toll authority;

transferring, from the toll authority to a toll rental entity via a toll authority interface, at least some of the collected and stored data in a toll rental entity database responsive to a request for data-transfer permission from the toll rental entity to the toll authority via the toll authority interface;

forwarding, from the toll rental entity to a third party entity via a third party entity interface, at least some of the transferred data; and

charging, via at least one rental point-of-sale (POS) system of the third party entity, the vehicle operator a fee corresponding to toll usage and applicable service charges based upon the forwarded data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said toll authority comprises:

toll gates equipped with toll fee tracking device readers;

at least one processor, wherein said at least one processor includes a bi-directional data communications link; and

at least one database.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said toll rental entity comprises:

the toll authority interface adapted to communicate with said toll authority;

at least one database; and

the third party entity interface adapted to communicate with said third party entity.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said third party entity comprises:

the at least one rental point-of-sale (POS) system;

at least one invoice unit; and

at least one processor.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein said toll rental entity comprises a stand alone unit.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of communicating between said toll authority and said toll rental entity comprises pulling said data from said toll authority.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of communicating between said toll authority and said toll rental entity comprises pushing said data to said toll rental entity.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said step of communicating occurs in real-time.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein said step of communicating occurs at predefined regular intervals.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein said toll rental entity is adapted to be integrated within said third party entity.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said data includes vehicle-class-identifiers, lane traffic activity, toll fee tracking device identification data, and toll fee data.

29. The method of claim 18, wherein said at least one toll fee tracking devices comprises a radio frequency integrated device (RFID) transponder.

30. The method of claim 18, wherein the option comprises accepting the automatic toll payment service.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of accepting causes the toll fee tracking device to enter an active state.

32. The method of claim 18, wherein the option comprises denying the automatic toll payment service.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of denying causes the toll fee tracking device to enter an inactive state.

34. A toll rental entity server for communicating data between a toll authority and a third party entity, the server comprising:

a first interface for communicating with said toll authority;

at least one database;

a second interface for communicating with said third party entity;

wherein the toll rental entity server transmits a request message via the first interface to a toll authority processor to obtain toll fee tracking data;

wherein the toll authority processor receives the request from the first interface and grants permission for the data to be pulled by the toll rental entity server via the first interface;

wherein said toll rental entity server pulls the data from said toll authority via the first interface;

wherein the toll rental entity server is adapted to analyze the data and calculate an amount to be charged to a vehicle operator associated with a particular toll fee tracking device and forwards the data to said third party entity via the second interface; and

wherein upon return of a vehicle by the vehicle operator to the third party entity, the third party entity performs bill handling and is further adapted to charge, via at least one rental point-of-sale (POS) system of the third party entity, the vehicle operator a fee corresponding to toll usage and applicable service charges based upon the forwarded data and charges associated with a use of the vehicle of the third party entity.