The problem
Parking tickets, bus lane fines and speeding notices for hire vans arrive by post addressed to the hire firm. Each one has a deadline to name the hirer or transfer liability, and miss it and the firm usually pays the fine itself. A 15-van firm handling about 20 notices a month has 20 deadlines running at once.
What the AI does
The primary record stays in the office: a fines register, checked twice a week by a named person, logging each notice the day it arrives with its date, deadline and hire agreement. This use case adds a second line of defense. Create a Google Calendar event on each deadline date, then build two Zapier automations that start a set time before an event, one at 14 days and one at 5 days, and email the person responsible through Gmail. The reminder is a prompt to check the register, not proof that a notice has been answered.
A worked example
A 15-van hire firm in Birmingham gets about 20 parking, bus lane and speeding notices a month. The office manager logs each in the fines register on arrival, adds a calendar event on its deadline, and two Zapier emails go out before each one.
Before
About 20 notices a month in a tray, answered when someone gets round to it
After
Every notice logged on arrival, register checked twice a week, and backup emails 14 and 5 days before each deadline
What it's worth
The value here isn't monetary: the reminders are a second line of defense behind the fines register, so the monthly value is set at nil. 20 notices with 2 reminders each is about 40 Zapier tasks a month, within the Free plan's 100.
How to set it up
- Set up a fines register: date received, notice type, issuing body, registration, deadline, hire agreement and date answered, with a named person and a second person checking it.
- Log each notice the day it arrives, reading the deadline from the notice itself.
- Add a Google Calendar event on each deadline date with the notice reference in the title.
- In Zapier, create one Zap that starts 14 days before an event and emails the person responsible through Gmail, and a second at 5 days.
- Once a month, compare the calendar with the register and check a test reminder still arrives.
What goes wrong
- Automations can fail silently: a disconnected Google account or an expired connection stops the emails with no warning. The twice-weekly register check is the safeguard.
- Deadlines differ by notice type and issuer. Read each one from the notice, not from memory.
- Answer from the register and keep proof of what you sent and when; the reminder email proves nothing.
- Notices and hire agreements hold personal data. Share them only with the issuer and the hirer.