Introduction
Traffic violation tickets are issued to those vehicle owners and users of the roads who have either disobeyed a traffic law or led to some other traffic infraction by the law enforcement officers of our state. Thus, we can consider a traffic violation ticket to be an official summon or legal citation. The basic purpose of a traffic violation ticket is to notify the person receiving it that he or she is responsible for committing a major or minor traffic infraction that is not legally permissible and will thus have to pay a fine because of that action. The traffic violation ticket that is issued is either given as a citation having a non-moving violation, for example the form of a parking ticket, or containing a moving violation, for example when someone is found to have exceeded the permissible speed limit. (Walker, 347-363)
They then have to appear at a traffic court where they are heard and the vehicle owners are also required to pay a predetermined fine depending on their actions. Under normal circumstances a traffic violator would have to postmark their ticket and then mail the amount fined within the due date specified or pays it when they are summonsed to the traffic court. Thus, we can see that the entire procedure of manually paying the traffic violation tickets becomes a hectic ordeal for the lawmakers, vehicle owners and also the law enforcement officers who have to take care of at least a million such traffic violation tickets, organize the dates of the violator’s court hearing and at the same time do their jobs. A traffic violation ticket online querying and fine payment systems easily allows the law enforcement officers and lawmakers to issue and handle traffic violation tickets with ease and the traffic violators to pay their cited amount online or make any queries regarding their traffic tickets within minutes. The vehicle owners are instantly able to pay the due fines through the online system completely abiding by the rules consociated with the tickets received by them. (Fugmann, 116-129)
Review of latest approach in online usage
Every individual owning a vehicle has received a traffic violation ticket at least once in their life. But if any of them failed to pay the due fine levied on that ticket they have also had to pay some extra amount together with the actual amount cited in their ticket. Further if the vehicle owners are subsequently unable to pay the violation fine then there is a chance that their vehicle may get towed or a warrant being issued for arresting them. Thus, we can see that if a vehicle owner does not pay the violation fine then the consequences can be somewhat serious. Paying for a traffic violation ticket online is an extremely easy and quick way of resolving a complicated situation like this and the vehicle owners are also able to avoid any unwanted consequences like getting arrested and spending time in jail. (Harris, 123-131)
Payment method discussion
Traffic violation ticket online query and payment systems have a very simple navigation system which allows the end users or vehicle owners to easily enquire about their traffic violation tickets, pay the necessary fine amount and get the applied court date. The entire process consists of certain very simple steps that any vehicle owner can follow with ease and pay the appropriate fine online. For doing this at first every vehicle owner must confirm that the violation ticket he or she is paying for is deserved by them because if they contest for it, then they should not pay the fine. So, immediately after receiving the traffic violation ticket, the vehicle owner should ascertain and affirm that they have been given the ticket for a legitimate violation committed by them and has not been mistaken for another person.
The violation that has been committed by a vehicle owner is always clearly printed on the violation ticket. After the vehicle owner has confirmed that he or she actually deserves the traffic violation ticket, they should be ready with the information needed to pay the fine cited in the ticket online. Every country in this world operates a traffic violation ticket online query and fine payment system. Although they may look different, the information necessary and the options given in them are the same. The traffic violator should be ready with the cited traffic violation ticket, debit card or bank checking account or credit card, his or hers vehicle’s license plate number and VIN or the vehicle identification number. The back side of the violation ticket contains the address of the website where the vehicle owner will be able to pay the due fine of the violation ticket. The traffic ticket also mentions the last date and time within which the traffic violator must pay the cited fine. After locating the website the vehicle owner simply has to mention his or hers county or state where the violation ticket was issued. (Lancaster, 193-200)
Method of function
After reaching the proper website and locating the actual web page which allows the traffic violator to pay the cited fine, he or she needs to enter their traffic violation ticket number and the date on which the violation ticket was wrote out. This enables the user to log on and enter in to the online query and fine payment system. After this the online system itself provides the user with the actual instructions required for continuing with paying the fine online. After the user has filled out all the necessary data he or she needs to submit the online form and will immediately receive a confirmation page. This page contains a confirmation number which the user will need to keep for any future references together with the time and date he or she paid the fine on. The online system also allows the user to take a print out of the confirmation page and the receipt. If the user cannot print the receipt issued then he or she also has the option of utilizing the authorization number given by their bank or credit card Company as a verification confirming their payment of the cited fine. If required, the website administrator can also be requested to mail the details of the online payment confirmation to the user at a specified email id. Thus, by using the online system the vehicle owner can almost immediately start to drive his or her vehicle. (Hsieh-Yee, 161-174)
Such an online system of querying and paying the cited fine amount is extremely safe since they are designed so that secured methods are used for transferring and processing the given user data. The users are also charged with a small amount as a convenience or processing fee which is used by the website administrators in maintaining the workings of the online fine payment system. This can be paid along with the cited fine issued and through the online fine payment system. Today, such an online traffic violation ticket querying and fine payment system has become absolutely indispensable since it provides the users with an easy way of resolving their traffic violation which otherwise could have consumed a lot of time. This system also allows the lawmakers and police officers to view the previous details of traffic violation tickets that have been received by a vehicle owner. This sometimes serves as an advantage for the law enforcement officers since they can now easily refer the two cases and draw the necessary similarities.
Every year thousands of traffic violation cases and traffic tickets come into view and it is only appropriate that the cited fines be paid by the online payment system as it is a lot faster and also easier. All that the law enforcement officers have to do now is to simply integrate their violation fine payment service methods into the website designed. (Neil, 122-147)
Utility of the Function
With the implementation of such an online traffic violation fine payment system, law enforcement officers no longer have to carry out their tedious job of having to collect the fine themselves from every vehicle owner who has violated some traffic law. All they have to do is simple issue a violation ticket to the violator and either place it on his or hers car or directly mail it to their address. Since the fine is then paid online they can concentrate more on managing the traffic of the state by ensuring that the traffic rules are properly enforced. They no longer have to think about having to handle traffic violation tickets while having to organize and direct thousands of traffic signals, terminals, intersections and junctions in the city. If they had had to answer to the queries of vehicle owners regarding their traffic violation tickets or to take their payments to the courts, then it would have been an extra responsibility for most of them.
Every year the overall vehicle population increases at a steep rate due to which the ratio between vehicles present and law enforcement officers has totally become lopsided. Traffic police officers have no alternative but to trust technology in this case being the online traffic violation ticket querying and payment method. It not only saves them on manpower but also allows the officer to properly carry out their assigned duties. If the entire process of querying and fine payment had been carried out manually then it would have been the responsibility of the police officers to themselves collect the amount cited form the individual traffic violators and then bank the money within a specified date and time. After the money has been deposited, the receipt is then sent to the treasury department. With an online fine payment system the additional burden of the law enforcement officers are lessened since they no longer have to deposit the money themselves and thus, can carry on with their everyday duties. (Doszkocs, 191-196)
The online traffic violation ticket querying and payment method has made it very easy for the traffic violators to pay their fines and get on with their lives. If the traffic violator is an ardent internet user then it will be very easy for him or her to quickly pay the cited fine through the online system, thus settling the entire situation within minutes. It takes an individual even less than 5 minutes to enter into the specified website and pay the cited fine online if he or she is totally ready with the required information. The vehicle owners can use their credit or debit cards to pay for their traffic violation tickets rather than having to visit the traffic courts themselves. Although this requires that they pay an extra processing fee to cover the necessary costs, it is almost nothing compared to the trouble they world have had to face in the manual fine payment system. Thus, the online fine payment method makes it very easy and convenient both for the law enforcement officers, who have to deal with millions of traffic tickets each year, and the vehicle owners.
A prototype of an online web application allowing vehicle owners to pay for their traffic violation tickets through the online fine payment method normally consists of an user interactive front-end allowing the traffic violators and vehicle owners to not only make enquiries about their traffic ticket citations but also pay the violation fines online. The instructions given are extremely clear and allow the users to instantly pay the fine amount as per the citation in the ticket. The application also consists of a database back-end that is supervised by the administrator who is responsible for handling the online queries and payments regarding a traffic violation ticket. (Laudon & Traver, 78) The vehicle owner or traffic violators are the end users who will quite easily be capable of handling the online web service for asking their queries regarding the traffic violation tickets, paying the predetermined fine levied on their violation ticket and if required even check the date on which they have to appear for a court hearing. Recently people all over the world have been using the internet as their primary mode of communication due to its speed and convenience. (Harris, 123-131)
The number of people utilizing and accessing the internet keeps on increasing every year. Not only do people utilize the internet as a means of communication but also for working. By implementing an online traffic violation ticket querying and payment service, one can make the entire process, where the vehicle owners make enquiries regarding their violation ticket citations, sending of notifications by the traffic court when a vehicle owner receives a violation ticket, payment of the levied fine amount by the vehicle owners at the appropriate time and date and synchronizing the date of appearances at the traffic court, an extremely easy and uncomplicated one. The online querying and fine payment system also makes it easier for the courts to gather the violation tickets from the vehicle owners and then group them. Most vehicle owners prefer an online traffic ticket querying and payment site since they find it very simple to use and they also do not have to waste their precious time having to fill out fine payment forms and waiting for the traffic courts to hear them. (Flanagan, 65)
This internet service totally eradicates the necessity of having to process each and every traffic ticket by hand. This further eliminates the need of keeping extra staff members for particularly handling the querying and payment of traffic violation tickets manually. The online system not only lessens the waiting time of the vehicle owners but also reduces the cost of manually processing the violation tickets.
Design of the query and payment method
While designing an online traffic violation ticket querying and payment service, it has been considered that the design aptly helps the receivers of traffic violation tickets, i.e. the vehicle owners, so that they can identify themselves online and then pay the due fine. As the vehicle owners are easily able to pay the fine cited in their violation tickets, an online fine payment system is the only suitable alternative to the manual processing of the tickets allowing the users to continue living a trouble free life. The online system further allows the users to first establish whether the amount they are about to pay is correct or not before they actually have to pay it, making the entire system very safe for them. Also only after the courts receive the violation ticket citations at the proper time, are they able to enter its details into the traffic court’s legal system.
It is only after this that the vehicle owners are able to pay their fines and this takes only a couple of days. But had the process been done manually, and then it would have taken the traffic courts to receive the violation ticket citations almost 2 weeks after being issued by a traffic officer. Further it takes another week or so to manually process the tickets matching it with the vehicle owner’s information. Thus, we see that the online payment system is much quicker allowing the courts to deal with more cases per day and the vehicle owners to go back to driving within a few days. (Wolff, 226)
Underlying causes
The prototype of a web application allowing the vehicle owners to pay their violation fines online is extremely secure and safe. The entire system has been constructed by keeping certain elements in mind that being their hoisting providers, design and domain name. Not only can the technology savvy users take advantage of the online payment systems but also those who are not so through with the computer and the internet. Its structural design and navigation system makes the entire site very simple yet professional encouraging people to use them. High level encryption algorithms have been used to encrypt the personal information which the users send increasing the security and safety of using the online payment system. After either the system or the user has accepted or rejected the payment form after filling it, all of the information provided by the vehicle owners is totally booted out from the system. (Cunningham & Fatelnig, 145)
Even the credit card information that is sent by the vehicle owners does not get saved on the online system rendering a third party to either utilize the information or steal it. The system then encrypts the user given information by using a key without which neither an individual nor a system can decrypt the encrypted information. Only when the vehicle owners want to track the condition of their violation ticket fine payments or make some enquiries about the ticket citation will the system allow the user information to be decoded. But before sending this information back to its owner, the system again encrypts it with a key present with the user and then sends it to the user’s computer system. A very high standard encryption method is used here with a high strength of capability. When the online system encrypts the user information, only a decryption key can be used for obtaining the actual data.
There are millions of keys that can be used on the encryption method but only one of them is the actual decryption key having the potential to decrypt the user’s coded information. Thus, it becomes almost impossible for an individual or system to find the actual key without any authority. The entire system is also very safe since the personal information transmit only between the user’s computer system and the online fine payment system. Thus, there is no way the information can be leaked out. Further the online fine payment system first reviews the data provided by a user but they themselves also have to verify the data provided personally by referring to their legal records as registered in the courts. (Murthi, 5-15)
The online fine payment site also provide the citation receivers with email addresses and phone numbers which they can use to directly contact the service providers incase they are not able to follow the online instructions. A traffic violation ticket is actually a type of civil infringement which is completely a non-criminal offence. Under it the only punishment for a violator involves pecuniary penalties like fines, fees and court tolls since the violator cannot be sent to the jail for obtaining a traffic ticket. The vehicle owners can also use their citation number for making enquiries regarding their traffic tickets or paying the appropriate fine. But in case they do not possess the citation number they can easily look it up by using their vehicle’s license plate number. Vehicle owners can also ask for either a Mitigation Hearing or a Contested Hearing through the online system. In the first case the violator will be given a chance to explain themselves and the circumstances that led to the particular infringement. Through the second hearing the violator denies having any connection with the infringement committed and thus, does not pay the fine. Vehicle owners can also use the online services for paying the delinquent citation. (Jackson, 124-137)
Functional ability of the approach
When a traffic violator uses the online system to pay the fine he or she accepts to the infraction taking responsibility of the unlawful actions. The online fine payment system has gained huge popularity over the past few years and is being used worldwide since they are able to lessen the time required for downloading the given citations into the legal system. A traffic violator just after receiving a violation ticket will be unable to pay the fine ordained since the system will take some time to download the traffic ticket before it can be accessed. However, in today’s world the traffic officers use a electronic traffic ticket writing device which is hand-held and immediately after the ticket is issued downloads the citation information into the system database.
The whole ordeal therefore just takes a couple of days. But if this was manually done then it would have taken almost 2 weeks to properly scrutinize and check the handwritten ticket citations and then register them in the online payment system. Another major advantage enjoyed by the vehicle owners is that in case the traffic violator is unable to locate their traffic ticket citation in the online system they can alternatively mail their fined amounts directly to the courts together with a copy of their original citation. The system itself will then process their payment and download and record that information in the system. It will then automatically apply the payment it has received with its original traffic ticket citation, completing the entire process itself. (Donkers, 31-43)
This will save the vehicle owners from making any visits to the traffic court for checking whether their violation tickets have been paid for. In case more then one traffic citation has been issued in the name of a vehicle owner, he or she can also request to view that through the online payment system for either a particular vehicle or more than one vehicle registered under the same owner. It is then the vehicle owner’s choice whether to pay for a single traffic violation ticket or pay for all of his outstanding violation tickets all at once. (Bean, 9-14)
Result
A vehicle owner who pays his or hers traffic violation fine by using the online fine payment system can do so by using different payment options depending on which option better suits him or her. They can either choose a debit card or credit cord option which requires them to just punch in their card numbers. All of the available payment methods are listed on the webpage of the online payment system for the vehicle owners to choose a suitable option. However neither a virtual card nor a single user card is acceptable by the online payment system. The vehicle owners are saved from having to go to the traffic courts and queue up waiting for the court clerks to slowly classify, assure, fold and then print their necessary documents which would have been the case had they paid the fine amount manually. (Neil, 122-147)
Also, an online traffic violation ticket querying and payment system has proved to be a cost efficient mechanism since the necessity to mail the amount or print the receipts or travel to the traffic courts is completely eliminated. If the vehicle owner becomes eligible for the traffic court’s special early payment deduction option, then he or she will be notified through the online services. Then the cited amount in their given traffic violation ticket will amount to more than that which they have to pay. But in such cases the online fine payment system is automatically able to make adjustments in the cited amount and the user is immediately notified of the actual amount which he or she has to pay. It will also be displayed under the vehicle owner’s name on the online system. If a vehicle owner is unable to locate the payment amount after reduction, then they should pay the fine using an early payment timeframe. This will instantly refer them to the particular page and also show them the amount that they have to pay after reduction. (Doszkocs, 191-196)
Conclusion
An online fine payment and querying system is highly convenient in our modern world since people seldom have time to make appearances in court and queue up for their citation receipts. The online system directly transfers the fine amount from the bank accounts of the vehicle owners and pays the traffic courts without the users having to think about it much. Also by embracing the online traffic violation ticket payment and querying system both the payee and payer are thinking about the welfare of our environment. An online payment system is extremely environmentally friendly since if this system is used for paying the traffic violation fines then we no longer need to use paper for printing purposes. (Laudon & Traver, 78)
This helps in maintaining our environment since in a manual fine payment system, all of the data and information provided by the user would have been recorded on paper which comes from trees. But by paying through the online service the vehicle owners eliminate the requirement of paper records since the information is stored on electronic media. The vehicle owners can also save a lot of their own money since they no longer have to bear the travel expenses that would have been required if they had had to visit banks or courts. Also, their mailing expenses are saved since the payment is sent by using the internet. The vehicle owners can make the online fine payment from virtually anywhere as long as they have access to a computer system and an internet connection. The traffic violators are also saved from having to pay late fines since the online system is an instant method of fine payment. The vehicle owners also can pay the fine amount of different citations from different banks since the online system is automatically able to coordinate among the different operations. (Bean, 9-14)
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