CHICAGO ––Secretary of State Jesse White today presented a long-range plan to improve service and reduce lines at driver service facilities in the Chicago area.
"Illinois residents living in the Chicago metropolitan area and collar counties have historically endured long lines at driver service facilities," said White. "While we have made modest improvements over the past two years, more needs to be done. This plan will reduce lines in driver service facilities and provide better service for customers throughout Illinois."
According to White, there are three basic causes behind long lines in the Chicago metropolitan area:
- Throughout the 1990's, staffing in service facilities has not kept pace with the increase in customer base.
- Areas of greatly increasing population have not benefited from the addition of new full-service facilities.
- A combination of new state and federal programs and increased services resulted in millions of additional transactions per year by facilities already stretched to the limit.
"Supply has simply not kept up with demand in the high growth collar counties," said White. "In addition to the strain the population increases have caused, we are processing 5 million additional transactions as a result of new services offered at our facilities.
"When you do the math, the equation is simple. We need additional resources to provide the quality service our customers deserve."
White's three-year proposal calls for opening six new facilities in the high-growth collar counties, expanding hours at Chicago metropolitan and suburban facilities and placing 100 self-service machines in convenient locations such as supermarkets and shopping malls. Details of the plan include:
Year One
- Replace the Orland Park Express Facility with a larger, full-service facility in Will County. Nearly half of the 20 fastest growing communities in Illinois are centered between Joliet in Will County and Orland Park in Cook County.
- Place 100 self-service machines in convenient locations to handle simple transactions such as the purchase of license plate renewal stickers and safe driver renewals. More than 4 million stickers were purchased at driver service facilities last year.
- Hire driver education instructors on a part-time basis to alleviate increased testing during summer months. Driver education instructors already posses the necessary qualifications to administer road tests - a very important, yet time-consuming service.
- Open a new full-service facility in McHenry County. The four communities in the southeast corner of McHenry County have grown by 72 percent.
Year Two
- Adopt uniform extended hours at selected Chicago and Suburban facilities.
- Open a new full-service facility in Lake County. Four communities in Northern Lake County have grown 69 percent in the past decade.
Year Three
- Open 3 new full-service facilities to serve other high growth areas in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties.
The entire plan would cost $9.3 million to implement over three years. White's staff has begun meeting with the legislative leaders to garner support for his plan.
"I look forward to working with the General Assembly to provide better service for Illinois citizens," said White. "As public servants we have an obligation to serve our customers better."
