Illinois drivers looking to renew their license plate registration stickers won’t have to leave the car, as the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office is planning to open up seven drive-thru operations “like we’re doing a hamburger and a shake.”
Those seven locations – three of them in Chicago — will open next week to provide only the vehicle registration renewal as a way to serve both the public and as a test run as Secretary of State Jesse White begins to slowly reopen the facilities.
“This is the first step in the process of reopening the office, and we thought this was a good way to go about it, that there really wouldn’t be much direct contact with people,” said Dave Druker, a spokesman for office. “The public would not be coming into a building. It would be a drive-thru, like we’re doing a hamburger and a shake.”
Drivers can access the drive-thru services beginning May 19.
The three Chicago Secretary of State facilities are Chicago North, 5401 N. Elston Ave.; Chicago South, 9901 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive; and Chicago West, 5301 W. Lexington. All three will be open Mondays and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Drivers will not be allowed to pay in cash.
Drive-thru service will be offered at the facilities in Rockford, Macomb in western Illinois and Tilton in east-central Illinois on Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon.
The Springfield-Dirksen location will be open on Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Motorists can still renew their registrations online, but the new drive-thru facilities will serve as an alternative. Secretary of State employees will be required to wear personal protective equipment, and drivers will be encouraged to wear face masks.
The state requires vehicles in the Chicago and Metro East areas to pass an emissions test before drivers can renew their registrations, but the testing sites are closed. So, with emissions tests sites and vehicle services shut down because of the pandemic, people who have expired vehicle registrations have 90 days after vehicle services fully open up again to renew which will likely be around June 1, Druker said.