Earlier this month, judge David Briley fined Carney of Off the Wagon Tours $1500 for operating his wagons full of partiers, pulled by John Deere tractors, through Downtown Nashville without a license. Carney also faces 40 days in jail for continuing his tours after the judge ordered him to stop.

His lawyer, Bryant Kroll, is appealing both sentences. Kroll argues that requiring licenses for party buses, or, in this case, party tractors, is overreach by the metro government.

It’s true that licensing requirements for so-called “transportainment” vehicles are relatively new—Nashville started requiring licenses in 2022. So why did the city start imposing these requirements? What’s the process for getting a license, and are most “transportainment” companies following the law?

Why require licenses?

Billy Fields, director of licensing for the Nashville Department of Transportation, says that these vehicles full of revelers — the Big Drag Bus, Hell on Wheels, and others — only started arriving around 2015. Their noise level, their slow cruising through Nashville’s streets, and the quirkiness of their designs caught Nashvillians off guard.

“There was one trailer that had a hot tub on the back of it that was moving through downtown,” Fields said.

Metro officials were concerned about increased traffic and whether these vehicles were safe to drive. Fields says requiring a licenses was a way to address these concerns. He says Nashville did the same thing for horse-drawn carriages and pedicabs when those attractions arrived.

Why did these regulations take seven years to arrive? They required a change to state law, which before 2022 didn’t allow local governments to regulate large vehicles like buses. An exception had to be made for party vehicles.

The licensing process

“Transportainment” companies apply for licenses, then NDOT’s licensing commission meets every April to hear public comment and make their final decisions. Acceptances and rejections are based on a number of criteria, with safety and traffic top-of-mind.  

Fields runs through his standard list of questions: “Who’s operating the companies? Who’s driving the vehicles? Are these vehicles safe — do they have insurance? Is there capacity? Is there enough space to handle any more?”

Are companies following the law?

Over the past six months Metro has given 88 citations to “transportainment” vehicles. 27 were given to licensed companies for offenses like violating the noise ordinance.

The other 61 citations were for operating without a license, but most went to one company: Off the Wagon Tours. One other unlicensed company has two citations, but the rest of the citations have gone to one-time offenders. Fields says most of these unlicensed companies have left Nashville or stopped operating. He estimates that there are only about half the number of party buses since before licensing started.

If you like party buses, these new rules limit your options. But if you’re a fan of lighter traffic and safer vehicles, Fields says these laws are having the desired effect.