Davidson County Vehicle Impound Guide

Call before you drive to the impound lot. Metro Nashville privatized vehicle impound operations back in 2012, and the contractor, United Road Vehicle Management Solutions, runs a single lot at 1201 Freightliner Drive, open 24/7 for both intake and release — but a vehicle can be sitting there under an active "Hold" that the counter won't tell you about until you've already made the trip. The verification line is 615-862-7800.

That Hold matters because it overrides everything else, including having the money ready. If the DUI involved a serious injury, a death, or the driver was on a revoked license, the vehicle can be seized as evidence and the contractor has no authority to release it regardless of payment. Getting it back requires a Release Order from the MNPD's Traffic/DUI section or the assigned case detective — a process that can take days or weeks, not hours.

Absent a Hold, the fee schedule is straightforward but unforgiving. Towing runs $155 for a passenger car within the I-40/I-65/I-24 loop, $165 outside it, and $175 outside the Briley Parkway/White Bridge Road circle. Storage is $55 a day and starts accruing after just 2 hours — not the full day some people assume. Someone held in jail for 10 days before bonding out can walk into a storage bill north of $550, on top of the tow fee, pushing the total past $800. On an older, lower-value car, that math alone is enough for some owners to just walk away and let it go to auction.

Release requires the full documentation set at the window: current registration or title, a valid government ID, and proof of active insurance. And the same catch familiar from the jail side shows up here too — if the owner's license is suspended, which is standard in a DUI arrest, they can't legally drive the car off the lot themselves. A second person with a valid license has to come do it, or the vehicle has to be towed again to wherever it's actually needed.