Eliminating use of a mobile printing device in issuing a record of transaction activity information

Abstract

A parking management system identifies vehicles in entrance lanes, exit lanes, or both, of a parking facility and provides a real-time vehicle inventory count. One or more beacons locate point of sale (POS) devices assigned to parking attendants to determine which of them are performing vehicle transactions. Vehicles can be associated with specific transactions, as well as the transaction-authorizing attendant and the barrier gate and vehicle travel lane to which the attendant is assigned. To reduce fraud, this transaction information can be monitored in real time by a web or mobile dashboard and analyzed in real time or upon attendant end-of-shift checkout. The system partly unburdens the parking attendant processing a parking transaction by implementing a method that eliminates need for a mobile printing device in issuing to a vehicle-driving customer a receipt, multiuse pass, or citation or warning.

1 . A method of eliminating use of a mobile printing device in issuance, by an issuer to a recipient, of a record of data entry relating to interaction between the recipient and a provider affiliated with the issuer, the data relating to the interaction being stored on a server after its receipt of transmission of the data over a communication medium by a transaction communication device associated with the issuer, the method comprising:
 providing for use by the issuer an article supporting a machine-readable information-carrying object;   with use of a mobile scanning device configured for wireless communication with the server, the issuer scanning the machine-readable information-carrying object and transmitting to the server information obtained by the scanning for correlation to the stored data relating to the interaction between the recipient and the provider; and   delivering by the issuer to the recipient the article supporting the scanned machine-readable information-carrying object for use by operation of an electronic device to retrieve from the server information included in or associated with the record of data entry relating to the interaction between the recipient and the provider.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the article supporting the machine-readable information-carrying object is a preprinted card. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable information-carrying object is an optical label. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , in which the optical label is a matrix barcode. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable information-carrying object is an NFC-enabled tag. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the machine-readable information-carrying object is an embedded integrated circuit chip. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the article supporting the scanned machine-readable information-carrying object delivered to the recipient is a card preprinted with a matrix barcode. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the electronic device is a mobile device associated with the recipient, and in which the delivering of the article supporting the scanned machine-readable information-carrying object is accomplished by scanning of the machine-readable information-carrying object by the recipient's mobile electronic device from the issuer's mobile scanning device. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the retrieval of information is accomplished by a subsequent scanning of the scanned machine-readable information-carrying object. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the article provides an access key, and in which the retrieval of the information is accomplished by entry of the access key into an electronic device. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the record of data entry relating to the interaction is a single transaction receipt for parking the recipient's vehicle in a parking facility operated by the provider. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the record of data entry relating to the interaction is a vehicle parking violation citation or warning issued for the recipient's vehicle in a parking facility operated by the provider. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the record of data entry relating to the interaction is a receipt for information about pickup by or delivery to the recipient of a package transported by a package delivery service provider. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the transaction record is a multi-use pass to which the barcode has been assigned, by the server, a predetermined number of uses. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , in which the transaction record is a multi-use pass to which the barcode has been assigned, by the server, a uses of pass expiration time.