I was planning on just faxing my information to the state for my tags this year. When they told me how long it might take, I decided to just spend the day in Nashville. In my case, it is the travel time plus the time spent waiting that takes so long. It takes about 2-2 1/2 hours each way travel time. If you get to their office by 2:00 CST you can usually get your baseplate's the same day. If you mail your renewal far enough in advance then it could work for you to get your plates back before they expire. If something gets lost in the mail you may never know about it for some time. I prefer to just walk it through the process even though it takes a day to get it done. There are some who will renew 50 or more trucks at one time. You can do it on line now, but they charge about $32. I believe you must do it online if you have a certain number of trucks. It is strange that they would charge a fee for doing their job for them.
You would think that they would offer a discount.