MY friend collected traffic summonses worth RM1,400 over several months because of his regular commute between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. He finally decided to pay up.

At the traffic police headquarters in Petaling Jaya, he was advised to pay via the online system to enjoy a discount. The bill came up to RM800.

It is good that technology, properly utilised, has made life so much simpler, saving us time and money.

In general, I believe that most people are law-abiding and will settle their dues (be it summonses or bills) on time if the process is simple. A little discount to encourage early settlement does not hurt.

It is part of the carrot approach that should be practised not only by government agencies but also private concerns, like banks and credit card companies, to reward those who are good paymasters.

However, there are also situations where one can sometimes get a better deal by not paying up.

For example, the police still periodically give special discounts to those who fail to settle their traffic summonses.

Many local councils are now also in the habit of giving discounts for a whole range of their summonses.

A senior police officer was once asked if the discounts would encourage motorists to flout traffic laws and he said police were confident the gesture would spur them to learn from their mistakes and not repeat them.

We should analyse the records and see how many serial offenders there are to debunk this belief.

I know many people who openly boast that picking up speeding tickets is not an issue and that it can just be itemised as a business expense which, at certain seasons, can be minimised through discounts.

In New Zealand, failure to settle any traffic summons and other minor infringements automatically hikes up the amount.

If your infringement is left unpaid, it is passed from the police to the Ministry of Justice courts system and becomes a more serious fine. You end up paying a court fee and also an enforcement fee, in addition to the original fine.

With such a system, most people pay up within the time limit of 28 days.

My colleague failed to come to a full stop at a junction during a holiday trip and was promptly given a ticket.

He failed to settle on time and when he got back to Malaysia, the reminder was posted to him, with clear instructions on how to make payment from abroad.

In the business world, we are told that time is money. To the salesman, double-parking does not bother him if he has a deal to clinch.

His boss will not understand his problem because he has a driver and never has to worry about parking.

Likewise, many people work in nice buildings but have to park their vehicles all over the public roads, including overhead ramps, because parking fees can be exorbitant.

They have probably done their maths and know that it is still cheaper to risk getting a summons than parking in the correct place.

Which is why I find it hard to accept the reasoning that people learn from their mistakes.

For such serial offenders, they should be given the stick, and made to pay even more for a repeat offence.

The Star - By Soo Ewe Jin