Fines & Payments - Technology Backwards?

[ASR36]

Yesterday I ducked out of the house as I had to grab some items from my storage unit. Along the way I approached an intersection to which there was a stop sign. I treated the stop sign as a give way sign and proceeded through the stop sign without bringing my car to a complete stop as I believed that I could see clearly that there were no hazards or oncoming cars. I drove up the road and then a black ford drove up fast behind me... lights flashed and I was pulled over. The police officer approached my window and said that they were out on a roading blitz on orders from the boss and they were recording everything in their vehicle.

The officer then asked why he might have pulled me over. I admitted fault and told them that I had not stopped at the stop sign (there was no denying what I had done and I had no reason not to tell the truth). He then took my licence and then his partner approached the window and I had a breath test as well. I waited a few more minutes and the original officer approached my window again with a fine in had. $353 dollar fine for not stopping. Yes its a big fine! (there goes my ross-tech cable that I was about to purchase!)

The fine is a first and final notice and must be paid within 28 days. I have the following options to pay the fine:

1) Post in a cheque.
2) Drive into a transport office and pay the fine.
3) Pay online.

I don't own a cheque book so option 1 does not work for me. I don't see the point in driving to a transport office which is a good 30 mins away from me to pay the fine so I prefer to use option 3. The problem however is that because the fine has been manually written by an officer I need to allow 7-21 days for the fine to be entered into the system so that I can pay it online. This is a bit annoying as I wanted to get it paid and out of the way so not to worry about it anymore.

Is this system backwards when it comes to technolgy? I have received parking fines in the past that can be paid straight away. Why then does a traffic offence have to rely upon a carbon book when the technology is available to speed up the process?

[VW Convert]

Yesterday I ducked out of the house as I had to grab some items from my storage unit. Along the way I approached an intersection to which there was a stop sign. I treated the stop sign as a give way sign and proceeded through the stop sign without bringing my car to a complete stop as I believed that I could see clearly that there were no hazards or oncoming cars. I drove up the road and then a black ford drove up fast behind me... lights flashed and I was pulled over. The police officer approached my window and said that they were out on a roading blitz on orders from the boss and they were recording everything in their vehicle.

The officer then asked why he might have pulled me over. I admitted fault and told them that I had not stopped at the stop sign (there was no denying what I had done and I had no reason not to tell the truth). He then took my licence and then his partner approached the window and I had a breath test as well. I waited a few more minutes and the original officer approached my window again with a fine in had. $353 dollar fine for not stopping. Yes its a big fine! (there goes my ross-tech cable that I was about to purchase!)

The fine is a first and final notice and must be paid within 28 days. I have the following options to pay the fine:

1) Post in a cheque.
2) Drive into a transport office and pay the fine.
3) Pay online.

I don't own a cheque book so option 1 does not work for me. I don't see the point in driving to a transport office which is a good 30 mins away from me to pay the fine so I prefer to use option 3. The problem however is that because the fine has been manually written by an officer I need to allow 7-21 days for the fine to be entered into the system so that I can pay it online. This is a bit annoying as I wanted to get it paid and out of the way so not to worry about it anymore.

Is this system backwards when it comes to technolgy? I have received parking fines in the past that can be paid straight away. Why then does a traffic offence have to rely upon a carbon book when the technology is available to speed up the process?

I understand in NSW they want to start using an opt in electronic fines system. One of the issues they face is that for years they have been advising people not to be conned by the plethora of scam emails circulating masquerading as government fines. No doubt all our State Governments will ultimately issue fines electronically.

Cheers

George

[Sunny43.5]

Wow another Queenslander with almost exact same issue , just before Christmas last year got pinged leaving the Logan Motorway . Before the policeman got to the window had the license out and told him guilty just to save making up a BS story that he would never had believed any way [ended up being only $134 and one point demerit. But like you I tried soon after to pay it online and it could not be done . I rang the relevant department and was told like you a manually written ticket could not be paid until up to 21 days . I was also told that even if the ticket could not be paid online even after the 28 days online I would be hauled in to court for non payment of the fine pretty slack in my opinion . In this day and age the police should be doing this sort of thing via a tablet style device which could then be uploaded the same day to a data base . Last year I watched in amazement when the Qld police rolled out their number plate recognition cameras on their cars , whilst crawling along the M1 in morning peak hour traffic a lone car was parked on the side of the road the second I passed the car he shot out and drove past me to pull up a 4wd in front of me . So in those few seconds he was able to scan the number plates and get the information that the 4wd was not registered but try and pay a fine online and its like being in the 50 's . I complained to their department via an email that I would not waste the 1 hour plus it takes to pay at a QLD transport office and cheques are outdated anyway , I reminded the operator about the other fact that if you get pinged by a speed camera van or fixed camera you can guarantee the ticket will be in the mail within 48 hours handwritten 3 weeks what a joke .

Yesterday I ducked out of the house as I had to grab some items from my storage unit. Along the way I approached an intersection to which there was a stop sign. I treated the stop sign as a give way sign and proceeded through the stop sign without bringing my car to a complete stop as I believed that I could see clearly that there were no hazards or oncoming cars. I drove up the road and then a black ford drove up fast behind me... lights flashed and I was pulled over. The police officer approached my window and said that they were out on a roading blitz on orders from the boss and they were recording everything in their vehicle.

The officer then asked why he might have pulled me over. I admitted fault and told them that I had not stopped at the stop sign (there was no denying what I had done and I had no reason not to tell the truth). He then took my licence and then his partner approached the window and I had a breath test as well. I waited a few more minutes and the original officer approached my window again with a fine in had. $353 dollar fine for not stopping. Yes its a big fine! (there goes my ross-tech cable that I was about to purchase!)

The fine is a first and final notice and must be paid within 28 days. I have the following options to pay the fine:

1) Post in a cheque.
2) Drive into a transport office and pay the fine.
3) Pay online.

I don't own a cheque book so option 1 does not work for me. I don't see the point in driving to a transport office which is a good 30 mins away from me to pay the fine so I prefer to use option 3. The problem however is that because the fine has been manually written by an officer I need to allow 7-21 days for the fine to be entered into the system so that I can pay it online. This is a bit annoying as I wanted to get it paid and out of the way so not to worry about it anymore.

Is this system backwards when it comes to technolgy? I have received parking fines in the past that can be paid straight away. Why then does a traffic offence have to rely upon a carbon book when the technology is available to speed up the process?

[stefcio007]

This is even funnier (or sad?) is that you can pay Myki fines on the spot in Victoria.

[Sunny43.5]

Many years ago a mate of mine was pulled up for speeding in California [back in the oil crisis days ] he told the policeman that he was leaving in a few days to return to Australia and was told fat chance of leaving the country as the fine if unpaid at departure would show up on his immigration file at the airport . Apparently in those days a speeding fine in California was classed as a criminal offence , they termed the offence as "wasting a terminal supply of energy " Law makers were very inventive then I suppose , but interesting that he did pay the fine to the police who booked him on the spot as they did upload their fines at the end of their shift . So why can't our police have a mobile Eftpos for similar things .