Method and system for processing vehicular violations
View Patent ↗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.
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.