Illinois pilot car regulations
Certification: not required. Illinois has no escort driver certification. The escort driver must be 18 or older and licensed to drive the escort vehicle.
From Illinois's own rules and pages, checked 2026-10-24. Rules change: the state's page is the last word.
- Minimum age
- 18
- Escort vehicle
- The escort can be a passenger car, or a truck or similar vehicle up to 8,000 lb gross weight, with a clear view front and rear. Each permit load needs its own escort; convoys are not allowed unless a State Police escort is also required.Source
- Sign
- An "OVERSIZE LOAD" sign is displayed on the escort vehicle: visible from the front when leading on a two-lane highway, visible from the rear when trailing on a multilane divided highway. The rule gives no sign size or colours.
- Lights
- Rotating or flashing amber lights mounted on top, bright enough to be seen at 500 feet in normal sunlight.
- Height pole
- A pole for measuring vertical clearances must be mounted on the escort leading any load over 14 feet 6 inches high; the height-pole escort always travels in front, and the driver must warn the truck of any overhead obstruction that will not clear.
- Other equipment
- The escort driver must be in radio contact with the driver of the permit vehicle. The escort vehicle must be in safe operating condition.
- Insurance
- Escort vehicle owners and/or operators must have, or be self-insured for, at least $500,000 per occurrence combined bodily injury and property damage.Source