Beijing motorists who break traffic rules will soon be able to pay their fines on the spot.
A testing program for paying penalties via so-called point of sales (POS) machines finished on Monday by the Beijing traffic management bureau and the Beijing branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
The POS devices, which will be carried by traffic police, link to a host machine to retrieve penalty information and deduct payments from drivers' accounts.
Because the system is still being adjusted, the authorities have not set a date for the system's rollout.
Currently, parking violators must visit a traffic police station to collect their tickets. (Officers issue moving violation tickets to drivers.)
Then they go to ICBC branches and use the Peony communications card - which are issued by the bank and can be used as a credit card -to pay for the tickets.
Some drivers have complained that paying fines is so time-consuming that many choose to not pay the fees at all.
"I have not yet paid a 200-yuan parking penalty which I got in April," said Xu Yue, 25, who drives an SUV. "It is mainly because I do not have time."
Xu said he did not worry about the overdue fine, because he believed he can earn much more money in bank interest to cover any loss.
After being told of the POS machines, Xu said it will be convenient for him and he hopes the machine will be instituted as soon as possible.
But only the new version of the Peony card can be slotted in POS machines. So drivers with the older cards must update them.
The new fine system is also good news for traffic police, who will be able to handle traffic problems more efficiently, an officer with the Beijing branch of ICBC told Beijing Times on Monday.
The technology has been around a few years. A POS machine, which combines functions of slotting cards, camera and penalty collection, was displayed during the 2007 China International Police Equipment Exhibition in Beijing.
