Patent attributes
Methods, including service methods, articles of manufacture, systems, articles and programmable devices are provided for charging travel fees or awarding benefits as a function of vehicle occupancy. Variable travel fee schedules include a plurality of different rate values, each rate value associated with ride-sharing service points of a vehicle infrastructure and vehicle occupancy counts. Occupants within a vehicle traveling via a vehicle infrastructure are counted, the counting generating discrete occupant counts correlated with the ride-sharing service points. Subsets of variable travel fee schedule rate values are selected as a function of association with discrete occupant counts and correlated ride-sharing service points. Owners, occupants or other parties associated with the vehicle are accordingly charged a travel fee or awarded a benefit as a function of the rate value subset and an amount of the vehicle traveling.
