Automating fines process from traffic cameras increases efficiency

RPA solutions in the Lithuanian Traffic Police - 5 times higher work speed and more efficient working hours of officers. Twenty-one automated processes implemented.

In the Lithuanian Traffic Police Service, robotic process automation (RPA) is used to process data information recorded by violation recording systems (automatic speed meters).

The software robot processes data when violations such as speeding, vehicle operation without technical inspection or insurance are recorded.

“Previously, an official had to issue a fine - form procedural documents, print them, put them in envelopes, write down the address and hand them over to a courier, who delivered them to Lithuania Post Service. Now the software robot forms a fine based on the available data, and the officer only needs to sign it. Procedural documents are sent to the person subject to administrative liability by email or, if it is a foreign citizen and a paper version is required, the post office receives a document ready for printing, prints it and sends it,” says Donatas Kiauzaris, Head of Professional Services Development at Atea.

RPA has solved the unbearable workload

According to Stasė Stankevičienė, Head of the Administrative Violations of the Lithuanian Traffic Police Service, the use of RPA solutions for information processing was prompted by the large amount of data received from stationary and mobile speed measurement systems.

“In 2014 Lithuania implemented the decisions of the Council of Europe (EC) regarding the exchange of technical data of vehicles and persons related to vehicles, therefore the number of investigated violations of the Road Traffic Rules has significantly increased. The number of violations was constantly growing, and the Lithuanian Traffic Police Service employed 3 officers investigating administrative offense cases in which EU-registered vehicles were recorded by speed measurement systems. In 2015 The Lithuanian Traffic Police had to investigate 1,000 such violations, in 2019 there were already over 136,000 of them, and in 2022 – around 1.6 million violations. It is obvious that it would be simply impossible for the officers to deal with such quantities”, says Stankevičienė.

The whole process is automated from end to end. First, all the necessary information is gathered to start an administrative offense, which is distributed evenly according to the workload, to a responsible official.

After this stage, the data is filled in automatically and a procedural decision is made. If the infringer is an EU citizen, the formed procedural documents are sent to the API of Lithuanian Post. If the offender is a citizen of Lithuania, information about the formed procedural decision is sent to the responsible official, who confirms the decision by e-mail and sends it to the person subject to administrative liability. Explanations or additional documents received from individuals are automatically uploaded to the Register of Administrative Offenses to the relevant file.

Finally, it's checked whether the documents, drawn up automatically, have been sent to the person subject to administrative liability and whether they've been sent in the appropriate manner.

One robot working time equals five officers

Stankevičienė says that filling in the data before the procedural decision is made and the decision itself, when the mandatory documents are formed, takes about 10 minutes for a person. Automating this process takes about two minutes, so in this case, the robot performs the work of five officers at the same time.

During 2022, the software robot compiled more than 50,000 reports of administrative offenses, and during the same period, the officer compiled just under 5,000 reports.

Stasė Stankevičienė • Head of the Administrative Violations of the Lithuanian Traffic Police Service

"Meanwhile, human resources are used for processes that require data evaluation, i.e. analytical thinking. In addition, as the number of recorded misconduct increases, more human intervention and evaluation is needed, as officers deal with the exceptions outside the robot’s scope. Then a specialist's intervention is needed”, says a representative of the Lithuanian Road Police Service.

According to her, the biggest challenge in automating processes was to anticipate all the steps and exceptions that could get the process to stop, as well as anticipate all the steps that'd lead to an optimal result.

The analysis of needs and recurring actions really needs to be given due attention. Also, no less important condition for successful implementation of RPA solutions in the organization is the attitude of the organization itself, internal motivation of employees, a positive attitude to change

"It's true that often just thinking about where to start can be a challenge. And for us, this complexity is actually an interesting part of the work - by accumulating experience of different projects, we notice certain systemic repetitions and can help our clients more quickly to identify critical processes and potential risk areas where automation processes are more difficult to apply. It is especially gratifying that Lithuanian organizations are less and less afraid of what was a sensitive topic a few years ago - that robots will threaten their jobs. It does not take long for everyone to appreciate the opportunity to devote their efforts to more creative work - where human skills are most needed”, notes Kiauzaris from Atea.