To find any defaulters in the city of Rotterdam, the ScanCar scans all vehicles it encounters, registering their license plates. These are then matched with a list of defaulters, provided by the tax authority. When a defaulter is detected, an enforcer needs to be notified and sent to place a wheel clamp on the vehicle. The enforcer takes pictures to prove that no damage occurred during the clamping. The only way to remove the wheel clamp is for the defaulter to pay the outstanding sum.
If there is no payment, the vehicle needs to be towed away after five days. Again, the enforcer takes pictures from all sides to prove that no damage occurred. This whole process takes up a lot of time and a lot of actions from the enforcers.
Before, the enforcers of Rotterdam had to work with lots of lists, emails and various systems to gather and share information. The Municipality needed a system that put everything into one place, for everyone to work with in realtime. They asked JAM-IT to develop an application for this purpose.
Business Need:
To find any defaulters in the city of Rotterdam, the ScanCar scans all vehicles it encounters, registering their license plates. These are then matched with a list of defaulters, provided by the tax authority. When a defaulter is detected, an enforcer needs to be notified and sent to place a wheel clamp on the vehicle. The enforcer takes pictures to prove that no damage occurred during the clamping. The only way to remove the wheel clamp is for the defaulter to pay the outstanding sum.
If there is no payment, the vehicle needs to be towed away after five days. Again, the enforcer takes pictures from all sides to prove that no damage occurred. This whole process takes up a lot of time and a lot of actions from the enforcers.
Before, the enforcers of Rotterdam had to work with lots of lists, emails and various systems to gather and share information. The Municipality needed a system that put everything into one place, for everyone to work with in realtime. They asked JAM-IT to develop an application for this purpose.
Solution:
JAM-IT has developed Klemmi, the first ever mobile native app to be made with Mendix. This application helps the enforcers of Rotterdam gather and process information regarding wheel clamps.
Whenever the ScanCar finds a defaulter, the enforcers of Rotterdam receive a push notification on their phones. When they open the app, they find the details of the vehicle, including its license number, location and status. The enforcer can then open navigation and drive to the location.
Once the vehicle has received a wheel clamp, the enforcer can change the status to ‘clamped’ and upload the accompanying pictures.
Payment of the outstanding fines is possible in two ways: with the enforcer on the street and at the Municipal office. In both instances, the enforcer can easily find the vehicle in the app, including its status and outstanding sum. After payment, the enforcer clicks ‘save’ and the status is automatically changed to ‘un-clamp’. Enforcers around Rotterdam then receive another push notification to go and un-clamp the vehicle. Also, the tax department is automatically notified of the payment, so they can process this in their systems.
After five days without payment, the status automatically changes to ‘to be towed’. This yields a push notification to enforcers around Rotterdam, who can then tow the vehicle.
Because the app is mobile native, it runs incredibly fast and works offline as well. The app synchronizes with the server once it has internet connection again. This is important, because vehicles can be found in places where the internet doesn’t reach, such as in tunnels and parking garages.
The application runs on iOS and Android, enabling both street enforcers to access it on their iPhones and the officers in the Municipal office to access it on their desktops.
The application was developed within a week. The hybrid app for Klemmi already existed, so this provided a framework to completely rebuild the data into a mobile native app.
This application is the first of its kind: a mobile native app made with the Mendix platform. JAM-IT worked closely together with Mendix to create the app. This worked so well, JAM-IT has decided to develop three more mobile native apps using Mendix.
Results: For such an immense organisation as a Municipality, any way to limit the manual actions for their enforcers is a huge improvement. This saves time in the processes of placing a wheel clamp, towing the vehicle away and un-clamping it. The system is less prone to error, such as miscalculations or losing track of payments, documents or even a vehicle. All of this saves costs for the Municipality. Furthermore, this application makes it easier for enforcers to work together, to process information and to trace defaulters.
Aside from being more efficient, the app also provides new ways to locate defaulters. Enforcers can now search any license number in the app to find out if a vehicle has outstanding fines, making it possible to place a wheel clamp on the spot. Also, because the app saves the location of the vehicle, any movement of the vehicle (e.g. after unauthorized removal of the wheel clamp) will be detected. The status of the vehicle will then change to ‘to be towed’, and extra costs will be added automatically.
Due to privacy regulation, the app automatically removes all data from ‘clean’ license plates and only keeps the data needed to locate defaulters. The scanning moments are not linked to personal information, though, so they are saved to the database. These scanning moments are interesting to save, because they may show which locations are popular among defaulters. In the future, we might use this information to improve the efficiency of ScanCar routes.