System, method and computer readable medium for billing tolls

• US 8,744,905 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Consolidated LLC
• Original Assignee: Rent A Toll Ltd
• Inventors: Robinson, Benjamin P., Lemon, Debbie, Balachandran, Sarath K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Allen, Akiba
• Application Number:
  US12/433,479
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,860 Days
• Field of Search: 705/13, 705/1.1, 705/7.11
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

Billing tolls accumulated during a rental period comprises a third party entity, a toll authority, and a toll rental entity coupled to the third party entity and to the toll authority, wherein the third party entity sends a request for service to the toll rental entity, wherein the toll rental entity sends the request for service during the rental period to the toll authority, wherein the toll authority stores the request, wherein the toll authority sends toll data to the toll rental entity based on the request, wherein the toll rental entity sends toll rental data to the third party entity based on the toll data, and wherein the third party entity generates a bill based on the toll rental data.

Claims

1. A system for providing third-party-operated vehicle users an automatic toll service, the system comprising:

a toll authority;

a third party entity;

a toll rental entity integrated within the third party entity and being operable to receive license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles from the third party entity and transfer the license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles to the toll authority;

wherein the toll rental entity sends to the toll authority, pre-payment for future toll usage by third-party-operated vehicles, wherein the pre-payment is sent by the toll rental entity to the toll authority prior to the third-party-operated vehicles using the toll authority;

wherein the toll rental entity forward a service request to the toll authority, wherein the service request comprises subscription for the automatic toll service with the toll authority by the third-party-operated vehicles for which license plate numbers have been transferred to the toll authority;

wherein the toll authority is operable to identify license plate numbers of vehicles using the toll authority and determine if the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles; and

responsive to a determination that the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles, send, by a processor, toll usage data associated with the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles for billing.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service request includes at least one of:

an individual'"'"'s name requesting the service;

a license plate number of the third-party-operated vehicle that is to be utilized;

a payment for the service; and

rental contract information related to the third-party-operated vehicle, wherein the rental contract includes at least one of;

a start date and a start time; and

an end date and an end time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service begins at a date and a time that the third-party-operated vehicle leaves a particular area, and wherein the service ends at a date and a time that the third-party-operated vehicle returns to the particular area.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the toll usage data includes at least one of:

information related to a third-party-operated vehicle;

information related to the license plate number of the third-party-operated vehicle;

a location of the third-party-operated vehicle;

a direction of the third-party-operated vehicle;

a time stamp related to the third-party-operated vehicle; and

a toll amount incurred by the third-party-operated vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the third party entity receives information related to an individual renting the third-party-operated vehicle.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the information includes at least one of:

the individual'"'"'s name;

the individual'"'"'s address;

the individual'"'"'s driver license number;

the individual'"'"'s driver license state;

the individual'"'"'s credit card number;

the individual'"'"'s debit card number;

the individual'"'"'s electronic account number;

the individual'"'"'s insurance information;

the individual'"'"'s email address; and

the individual'"'"'s phone number.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the toll authority comprises:

an image capture module operable to capture license plate images of vehicles using the toll authority; and

wherein the image capture module is operable to extract the license plate numbers from the captured license plate images.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the toll rental entity comprises:

a toll authority interface adapted to communicate with the toll authority; and

at least one database.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the toll rental entity comprises a server.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication between the toll authority and the toll rental entity comprises pulling the data from the toll authority.

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

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

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication between the toll authority and the toll rental entity occurs at predefined regular intervals.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the third party entity comprises at least one of:

a rent-a-car entity;

an entity that rents vehicles comprising license plates;

an entity that rents vehicles comprising information that can be acquired;

an entity or individual that owns vehicles;

an entity or individual that leases vehicles;

an entity or individual that loans vehicles;

an entity or individual that lends vehicles; and

an entity or individual that operates vehicles.

15. A method for providing third-party-operated vehicle users an automatic toll service, the method comprising:

receiving, by a toll rental entity computer, license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles;

transferring, by the toll rental entity computer to a toll authority computer, the license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles;

sending, by the toll rental entity computer to the toll authority computer, pre-payment for future toll usage by third-party-operated vehicles, wherein the pre-payment is sent by the toll rental entity computer to the toll authority computer prior to the third-party-operated vehicles using the toll authority;

forwarding a service request to the toll authority computer, wherein the service request comprises subscription for the automatic toll service with the toll authority by the third-party-operated vehicles for which license plate numbers have been transferred to the toll authority computer;

identifying, by the toll authority, license plate numbers of vehicles using the toll authority;

determining, by the toll authority computer, if the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles; and

responsive to a determination that the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles, sending toll usage data associated with the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles to a third party entity computer in which the toll rental entity computer is integrated for billing.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

sending, by the third party entity computer to the toll rental entity computer, a payment.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating, by the third party entity computer, a bill for the toll usage by a third-party-operated vehicle customer.

16. The method of 15, comprising receiving time stamps and location information from the toll authority computer.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising collecting the time stamps and the location information when the third-party-operated vehicles utilize the toll authority.

20. An article of manufacture for providing third-party-operated transport users an automatic toll service, the article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer readable medium;

processor instructions contained on the at least one computer readable medium, the processor instructions configured to be readable from the at least one computer readable medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate as to perform the following steps;

receiving, by a toll rental entity, license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles;

transferring, by the toll rental entity to a toll authority, the license plate numbers of third-party-operated vehicles;

sending, by the toll rental entity to the toll authority, pre-payment for future toll usage by third-party-operated vehicles, wherein the pre-payment is sent by the toll rental entity to the toll authority prior to the third-party-operated vehicles using the toll authority;

forwarding a service request to the toll authority, wherein the service request comprises subscription for the automatic toll service with the toll authority by the third-party-operated vehicles for which license plate numbers have been transferred to the toll authority;

identifying, by the toll authority, license plate numbers of vehicles using the toll authority;

determining, by the toll authority, if the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles; and

responsive to a determination that the identified license plate numbers match the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles, sending toll usage data associated with the license plate numbers of the third-party-operated vehicles to a third party entity in which the toll rental entity is integrated for billing.