North Little Rock Electric announced Friday it will be moving its customer service department in the fall and will permanently close the drive-thru services at the end of August.
Jill Ponder, the electric company's director of business operations, said that closing the drive-thru was partially because of the upcoming change of location.
"We've always planned to start phasing this out. Our business model doesn't need a drive through anymore," said Ponder.
The city of North Little Rock is planning to redevelop the building that houses the electric company -- located at 120 Main St. -- in the fall, according to a news release.
According to Ponder, less than 7% of North Little Rock Electric customers use the drive-thru.
The electric company said there are five alternate ways to pay a bill without payment processing fees. Customers can pay via mail, phone, an app, online or through MoneyGram, according to a news release.
Ponder said most of these options are relatively new and more customers are choosing to utilize them instead of a drive-thru.
"Hopefully we don't upset a lot of customers with this," said Ponder. "There are other ways to pay that might be more helpful to them. They could use a MoneyGram at Kroger or Walmart that might be closer for them rather than drive to our building."
She said the best of the five options, however, was the app. According to her, the app is secure, convenient and allows users to view their bill and pay it.