Canelones surrounds Montevideo and absorbs its growth: Ciudad de la Costa and the Interbalnearia route to the east, Las Piedras, La Paz and Pando on routes 5 and 8, Carrasco airport and the logistics parks of Route 101. A good share of the traffic is fleets registered in the capital that cross the departmental boundary several times a day. The Canelones Intendencia enforces its routes and cities with inspectors and cameras, and fines are collected through SUCIVE together with the vehicle tax.

Context and authorities

Traffic fines are administrative sanctions set out in Law 18.191 and in the departmental codes, expressed in adjustable units and applied by the intendencia of the department where the infraction occurs; the Policía Caminera issues those on national routes. Since the creation of SUCIVE the fine debt is checked and paid in any department together with the vehicle tax, and an unpaid fine blocks the transfer of the vehicle.

The Intendencia’s Transit Directorate issues fines in the cities and on the departmental stretches, with speed cameras on the Interbalnearia and the accesses; a defence is filed with the Intendencia and payment is made through SUCIVE or at its offices. Fines on national routes 5, 8 and 101 outside the urban zones are issued by the Policía Caminera.

What the API returns for this jurisdiction

In Canelones a plate is sent to the Uruguay fines API, which walks its integrated sources and returns each fine with the authority that applied it:

  • The authority that applied the fine and its number, unnormalised.
  • The date and reason, with the location if the source reports it.
  • The amount and status current at the source.
  • Which sources answered and which did not, on every lookup.

How to check a plate in Canelones

To check a plate by hand there are two places: the SUCIVE debt lookup, which shows vehicle tax and fines from any department, and the Canelones Intendencia portal, where defences and debt-free certificates are handled. With ten units that is enough; with a hundred, the API walks the integrated sources by plate and returns the result split by authority.

What to watch if you run a fleet in Canelones

A distribution fleet with a warehouse on Route 101 or in Pando crosses into Montevideo and back several times a day, and piles up fines from two intendencias on plates rotating between drivers; looking up each plate at month end, with the result stored per authority, separates those of each department and assigns them to the driver on shift.

For a rent-a-car at Carrasco airport, the plate lookup at the return of each rental charges the customer the Interbalnearia fine that would otherwise show up months later next to the vehicle tax.

How to integrate

Each vehicle is sent in a POST, with the jurisdictions to include if you do not want to query all of them. The response accepts the job and the result is retrieved by status lookup or arrives by webhook once the sources finish answering. The vehicle lookup quality guide explains how to handle a source that did not answer.

JSONIllustrative example, not a contract.
{
  "plate": "SBC1234",
  "jurisdictions": [
    "UY-CA"
  ]
}

Limits and considerations

  • Fines from the Policía Caminera on national routes are processed by the Ministry of the Interior and are also collected through SUCIVE.
  • Amounts in adjustable units are converted at the current value; the final amount is set by the intendencia at the time of payment.
  • A source that does not answer is reported as such, never as an absence of fines.
  • The API neither pays fines nor handles defences; it delivers information to decide.

Sources and further reading