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Do You Need a Permit?

One line covers ninety per cent of cases: on your own property, no. On the public right-of-way, almost certainly yes — and which office issues it changes from village to village.

(708) 523-9401We will tell you before we load the truck

No permit needed

Your own driveway
Your own yard or hard standing
A private job site or private car park
Private property generally, with the owner's permission

This is where most residential containers go, which is why most of our jobs never involve paperwork at all.

Permit almost certainly needed

On the street or in a parking lane
In an alley
On the parkway — the grass strip between pavement and kerb
Blocking or partly blocking a sidewalk

The parkway is the one that surprises people. It looks like part of your garden. It belongs to the village.

By village

Who you actually need to ring

The rule is consistent across these towns; the department is not. A few we deal with regularly:

Village	Right-of-way placement	Who issues it
Oak Lawn	Permit required	Public Works
Cicero	Permit required	Building Department
City of Chicago	Permit required — streets, alleys, parkways	CDOT, via the city's permit system
Most other suburbs	Permit required	Usually Public Works or Building — call the village hall

We are not able to pull the permit for you. Villages issue these to the property owner or the contractor of record, not to the hauler. What we will do is tell you clearly whether your placement needs one, and which department to ring, before anything is scheduled. Getting a container ticketed or impounded mid-job is a bad day for everyone.

Practical

Other things that are not permits but stop deliveries

Homeowners associations Plenty of the newer Orland Park and Tinley Park subdivisions have rules about how long a container can sit and where. That is a private covenant, not a village permit, and it is enforced by your association.
Winter parking bans Several of these villages restrict overnight street parking in winter months, which effectively rules out street placement.
Street sweeping and refuse days A container in the way of a scheduled sweep or collection will get you a call from the village.
Overhead clearance Not a permit issue, but the most common reason a delivery cannot be completed. The arm needs roughly 23 feet. Mature trees on older streets are the usual culprit.

Common questions

What people ask when they call

How long does a village permit take?

It varies from same-day at a counter to several working days. If your job needs street placement, start that conversation with the village before you book the container.

Can I put it half on the drive and half on the parkway?

That still counts as occupying the right-of-way, so the permit rule applies. If the drive is too short for the container, street placement with a permit is usually the cleaner answer.

What if I only need it for a day?

Most villages do not exempt short placements. A one-day container on the street is still a container on the street.

Do you deliver into Chicago proper?

Our footprint is the south and west suburbs. Chicago has its own permit regime through CDOT and it is a different operation — ring us and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right call.