Method and system for processing vehicular violations

• US 8,363,899 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2009
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): DULANEY, KATHLEEN YUAN
• Application Number:
  US12/577,443
• Publication Number:
  US 20100111423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,205 Days
• Field of Search: 382/190, 382/104, 382/224, 340/936, 705/13, 705/40, 701/117, 348/148
• US Class Current: 382/104
• 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;

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

wherein the predefined plurality of vehicles is a plurality of vehicles available for rent by a rental-car agency.

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, 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.

6. The method of claim 5, 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.

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

12. 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.

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

14. A computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with a 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;

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

wherein the predefined plurality of vehicles is a plurality of vehicles available for rent by a rental-car agency.

15. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the disputing step comprises providing evidence of non-responsibility for the vehicle at the time of the vehicular violation.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises sale documents.

17. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the evidence of non-responsibility comprises lease-return documents.

18. The computer-program product of claim 14, 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.

19. The computer-program product of claim 18, 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.

20. The computer-program product of claim 14, the method comprising paying the violation fee.

21. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the unique vehicle identifier is a license-plate number.

22. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the determining step comprises comparing the unique vehicle identifier to a plurality of unique vehicle identifiers in a database.

23. The computer-program product of claim 22, wherein the database comprises rental-car-agreement data of a rental-car agency.

24. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the vehicular violation is selected from the group consisting of a toll violation, a parking violation, and a traffic violation.

25. The computer-program product of claim 14, wherein the violation classification is selected from the group consisting of a first notice, a second notice, a collection letter, and a court notice.

26. The computer-program product of claim 14, comprising sorting the vehicular violation among a plurality of vehicular violations by the violation classification.

27. 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;

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

wherein the determining step comprises comparing the unique vehicle identifier to a plurality of unique vehicle identifiers in a database; and

wherein the database comprises rental-car-agreement data of a rental-car agency.