Illinois Administrative Code › Title 92 - TRANSPORTATION › Part 1010 - CERTIFICATES OF TITLE, REGISTRATION OF VEHICLES › Subpart C - REGISTRATION › Section 1010.245 - Electronic Registration and Titling (ERT) Program Provisions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
a) The Secretary
				may, in his or her discretion, establish a program for the electronic
				registration and titling (ERT) of motor vehicles. Transactions that may be
				conducted pursuant to an ERT program may include transmitting applications for
				titles and registration of motor vehicles, renewal of motor vehicle
				registrations, creating and removing liens from motor vehicle records, applying
				for salvage or junking certificates, and issuing registration plates and
				stickers by motor vehicle dealers, financial institutions and retail merchants,
				except that licensees under the Sales Finance Agency Act [205 ILCS 660] and the
				Consumer Installment Loan Act [205 ILCS 670] shall only be authorized to apply
				for titles and create and remove liens from motor vehicle records. Insurance
				companies shall only be permitted to apply for salvage or junking certificates
				and retail merchants shall only be authorized to issue registration renewal
				stickers.
b) Upon the establishment
				of an ERT program, the Secretary may enter into agreements with ERT service
				providers to serve as intermediaries between the Secretary of State's office
				and motor vehicle dealers, financial institutions and retail merchants
				(collectively referred to in this Section as "vendors"). For the purposes of
				this Section, the term "financial institution" shall mean any federal or state
				chartered bank, savings and loan, credit union, and armored carrier, and any
				currency exchange, either directly or indirectly through an armored carrier.
				The term shall also include insurance companies and licensees under the Sales
				Finance Agency Act and the Consumer Installment Loan Act. The term "retail
				merchant" shall mean a business that is engaged in the sale of goods or
				services to the general public and that has one or more permanently established
				places of business in Illinois.
c)
				The ERT service provider shall be responsible for the following:
1) establishing a computerized communication
				link between the vendors and the Secretary of State for the transmission of
				titling, registration, registration renewal and lien information, in compliance
				with all specifications of the Secretary of State's office. The communication
				link must provide for the secure transmission of information as required under
				this Section without permitting access to the vendor's confidential information
				by any entity that is not authorized by the vendor and the Secretary of State.
				Any entity that is authorized to access a vendor's information system,
				software, data or network must preserve its confidentiality and integrity. This
				provision does not limit or prohibit the Secretary of State from accessing
				confidential information;
2)
				transmitting all fees associated with the title and registration transactions
				to the Secretary of State and transmitting all sales taxes due and owing for
				the sales of motor vehicles to the Illinois Department of Revenue;
3) maintaining an inventory of registration
				plates and stickers at a secure location that is subject to inspection by the
				Secretary of State, distributing those plates and stickers to vendors as
				necessary, receiving unused, expired, damaged and voided plates and stickers
				and reports of lost or stolen plates and stickers from vendors, and forwarding
				those reports and returning those unused, expired, damaged and voided plates
				and stickers to the Secretary of State warehouse monthly. For purposes of this
				Section, the term "plates" shall mean vehicle registration license plates, and
				the term "sticker" shall mean the adhesive sticker affixed to license plates
				and the form, with a pre-printed control number and barcode, to which the
				sticker is attached when shipped and printed. When this Section provides for
				shipping, inventory, accounting or reconciliation of, or credit for returned,
				stickers, the sticker must be attached to the original form or affixed to a
				plate and recorded as issued with that plate.
A) The inventory control system shall
				accurately track all registration plates and stickers shipped to the service
				provider by the Secretary, those distributed by the provider to vendors
				(including tracking which specific plates and stickers were shipped to
				individual vendors), those returned by vendors to the provider, and those
				returned by the provider to the Secretary. The inventory yet to be shipped and
				the returned inventory shall be stored separately. In addition, the inventory
				system shall comply with one of the following:
i) All inventory shall be maintained in
				sequential order, according to document number, including inventory being held
				for shipping to vendors and inventory returned by vendors.
ii) The computerized inventory control system
				must utilize barcode readers that enable the service provider or Secretary of
				State employees to scan and accurately record inventory items yet to be shipped
				and returned inventory. Secretary of State employees must have access to a
				computer terminal at the service provider's site during inventory and
				reconciliation procedures, and the system must allow the printing of necessary
				inventory reports during these procedures.
B) Real-time access to the inventory control
				system shall be provided to Secretary of State staff, auditors and Secretary of
				State Police for review, reconciliation, auditing and inventory verification to
				ensure compliance with rules, policies and regulations, and for locating
				individual registration plates and stickers and determining to which vendor the
				individual registration plates and stickers were issued. All electronic
				information shall be maintained for not less than five years after receipt of
				the inventory by the service provider.
C) Bulk inventories of registration plates
				and stickers will be delivered by the Secretary to the service provider as
				needed. The service provider shall acknowledge receipt of the inventory in a
				manner approved by the Secretary and is responsible for the inventory upon
				receipt. The service provider shall store the inventory within the State of
				Illinois. The service provider shall distribute registration plates and
				stickers to vendors, as necessary, and shall accept returns from the vendors of
				unused, expired, damaged and voided plates and stickers.
D) Vendors shall not return unused, expired,
				damaged or voided plates and stickers directly to the Secretary. The Secretary
				shall not be responsible for inventory incorrectly returned.
E) Vendors who have inventory that is
				damaged, voided, missing, lost or stolen during a given month shall report
				those occurrences to the service provider not later than the final day of the
				following month. (Example: Inventory items damaged during August must be
				reported and returned to the service provider not later than the following
				September 30.) Credit for returned plates will only be granted when both plates
				in the set have been returned or accounted for, if the plates were of the type
				issued as a pair. All or as much as possible of the damaged or voided stickers
				must be returned to receive credit for returned inventory. When it is not
				possible to return any portion of a damaged or voided plate or sticker, an
				explanation as to the circumstances causing the plate or sticker to be voided
				or damaged, and the reasons no portion can be returned, must be provided. The
				Secretary shall have the right to determine whether the explanation will be
				accepted and whether inventory credit will be given for the plates or stickers
				not returned in whole or in part. In making this determination, the Secretary
				shall consider whether the vendor is able to retain and return the form on
				which the sticker is issued; whether matters beyond the control of the vendor
				may have contributed to the complete loss of the stickers (e.g., fires or
				industrial accidents that are accompanied by police reports, fire reports or
				insurance claims); and the history of the individual vendor with regard to the
				loss of stickers.
F) Service
				providers may be relieved of responsibility for payment for plates and stickers
				reported as stolen only if a copy of a police report concerning the theft is
				provided to the Secretary.
G) Not
				later than March 31 of each calendar year, vendors shall return to service
				providers all remaining stickers in their possession of the type and color that
				expire during that calendar year. (Example: During 2007, vendors sell stickers
				that expire during 2008, such that a sticker sold in March 2007 expires in
				March 2008. As of January 2008, vendors will be selling stickers of the type
				and color that expire in 2009. Therefore, not later than March 31, 2008,
				vendors shall return to the service provider all remaining stickers in their
				possession of the type and color that expire during 2008).
H) On a periodic basis, but not less than
				monthly, the Secretary and the service provider shall reconcile their records
				of plates and stickers shipped by the Secretary to the service provider, plates
				and stickers issued by vendors to vehicle owners and for which the appropriate
				documentation and fees were received by the Secretary, plates and stickers
				returned by vendors to the service provider as unused, expired, damaged or
				voided, explanations provided by vendors for damaged or voided stickers and
				plates that have not been returned in whole or in part, and plates and stickers
				still in the actual possession of the service providers and vendors. The review
				and accounting of inventory and returned items shall be conducted in the manner
				prescribed by the Secretary. After these periodic reconciliations, the unused,
				expired, damaged or voided plates and stickers shall be returned to the
				Secretary and the Secretary shall issue the service provider a receipt for the
				returned inventory. A preliminary report of missing billable inventory for the
				preceding month shall be provided after these periodic
				reconciliations.
I) Following the
				reconciliation after March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31, the
				Secretary shall invoice the service provider for all plates or stickers
				unaccounted for during the preceding quarter. These reconciliations will be
				based on the reported inventory still in the possession of vendors. Service
				providers shall not receive credit for unaccounted for inventory items that are
				located after this quarterly reconciliation and billing.
J) The unaccounted for inventory shall be
				invoiced at the following rates. For unaccounted for stickers, the rate shall
				be $151 per sticker. For unaccounted for plates that are intended to be sold as
				a set (e.g., passenger vehicle or truck plates) the rate shall be $151 per set
				of plates. For unaccounted for plates that are intended to be sold individually
				(e.g., motorcycle or trailer plates) the rate shall be $151 per plate. Payment
				in full must be made to the Secretary within 45 days after receipt of the
				notice from the Secretary of the amount due. Service providers may recover such
				payments from vendors pursuant to the contracts between the service providers
				and the vendors.
K) Certain types
				of registration stickers are sold outside of the one-year process noted in
				subsection (c)(3)(G) (e.g., registrations of fleet vehicles). To accommodate
				these sales, after the return and reconciliation of all inventory as provided
				in subsections (c)(3)(H) and (I), the Secretary may re-issue preceding year
				stickers to service providers for the use of vendors engaging in sales of
				vehicles requiring these registrations. These re-issued stickers shall be
				tracked separately in the service provider's inventory control system. Not less
				than three months after these re-issued stickers may no longer be legally sold,
				all remaining inventory of these stickers shall be returned to the service
				provider by the vendor, and the stickers shall be subject to the final
				reconciliation and billing process set forth in subsection (c)(3)(I).
L) The Secretary shall have the right to
				conduct physical inspections of the inventory of service providers and vendors
				during normal business hours.
M)
				The Secretary shall have the right to suspend or revoke the right of service
				providers and/or vendors to participate in the ERT program for failure to
				comply with the inventory control provisions set forth in this subsection
				(c)(3), or for excessive or repeated incidents of unaccounted for
				inventory;
4) complying
				with all requirements of the Secretary of State and the Department of Revenue
				concerning the security of the electronic information and funds transmissions,
				which shall prohibit access to a vendor's confidential information by any
				entity without authorization of the vendor and Secretary of State and a
				requirement that any entity that is authorized to access a vendor's
				confidential information must preserve the confidentiality and integrity of the
				vendor's information systems, software, data and network, the security of the
				registration plates and stickers, and maintaining an electronic inventory
				control system for the registration plates and stickers. This provision does
				not limit or prohibit the Secretary of State from accessing confidential
				information;
5) retaining records
				of all ERT transactions as directed by the Secretary;
6) posting a performance bond in an amount
				set by the Secretary, not to exceed $1,000,000. Beginning July 1, 2012, a
				service provider must post a performance bond in the amount of
				$1,500,000;
7) registering as a
				remittance agent pursuant to 625 ILCS 5 /Ch. 3, Art. IX;
8) complying with all other terms and
				conditions set forth in the agreement between the Secretary of State and the
				ERT service provider;
9) providing
				a formal process for billing and enforcement of all vendor inventory issues and
				pending transaction issues and designating a specific representative to
				communicate with the Secretary of State on all vendor inventory issues and
				pending transaction issues.