Will A New Nashville Driver’s License Center Ease Wait Times? Maybe

The state unveiled a new driver services center in Davidson County last week, another step the state is taking to try to reduce wait times in Nashville.

The 8,900 square-foot building near the old Hickory Hollow Mall replaces the facility off Centennial Boulevard and the 
Murfreesboro Road 
reinstatement center. 
Michael Hogan, who oversees Tennessee driver services, says those buildings were decades old and too small. 
The Hickory Hollow building isn’t new either — it was built in 1983, according to property records — but it is bigger than both of older driver services spaces combined.

The staffs from the two facilities are also merging, which means employees on the reinstatement side will be able to help with other services when needed, like administering new licenses. So even though the new center won’t add any new staff, the change should make the process more efficient,
 Hogan says — b
ut how much more efficient, he doesn’t know.

“Improving the process will impact the wait time, but I can’t put a number on that,” he says.

Over the past five years, wait times across the state have dropped by more than 50 percent, in part because people can do more online instead of clogging up the aisles in person.

Hogan also touts a program that creates a virtual queue, which Davidson
 County is piloting. People who need a license can call a number to put their names on the list and then come into the center right before their names are called. The state is hoping more people will start using that feature, Hogan says.

Information on the virtual queue is on the driver services website
here.