Those Lovely Thai Police

[NomadJoe]

I believe you are wrong. But would be happy to read official Thai documentation that supports your POV, if you have a link of can post a scan of it here.

Both my local licensing center and local police support my POV.

First regarding the comment from a member regarding a UN convention - it is the 1949 Geneva Convention on road traffic and 1926 Paris convention. Thailand is signatory.

A list of sites showing signatories and whether required or not required. All show Thailand as required.

theaa

Canadian Government site

International Drivers License Information

Tripadvisor UK

RACV List

RAC

Motorhomes Worldwide.com - yeah I know, but they are required to know the laws for renting

Global Cars

From the UN Convention:

2. A Contracting State may however require that any driver admitted to its territory shall carry an international driving permit conforming to the model contained in annex 10, especially in the case of a driver coming from a country where a domestic driving permit is not required or where the domestic permit issued to him does not conform to the model contained in annex 9.

3. The international driving permit shall, after the driver has given proof of his competence, be delivered by the competent authority of a Contracting State or subdivision thereof, or by a duly authorized association, and sealed or stamped by such authority or association. The holder shall be entitled to drive in all Contracting States without further examination motor vehicles coming within the categories for which the permit has been issued.

4. The right to use the domestic as well as the international driving permit may be refused if it is evident that the conditions of issue are no longer fulfilled.

5. A Contracting State or a subdivision thereof may withdraw from the driver the right to use either of the above-mentioned permits only if the driver has committed a driving offense of such a nature as would entail the forfeiture of his driving permit under the legislation and regulations of the Contracting State. In such an event, the Contracting State or subdivision thereof withdrawing the use of the permit may withdraw and retain the permit until the period of the withdrawal of use expires or until the holder leaves the territory of the Contracting State, whichever is the earlier, and may record such a withdrawal of use on the permit and communicate the name and address of the driver to the authority which issued the permit.

6. During a period of five years beginning with the entry into force of this Convention, any driver admitted to international traffic under the provisions of the International Convention relative to Motor Traffic signed at Paris on 24 April 1926, or of the Convention on the Regulation of Inter-American Automotive Traffic opened for signature at Washington on 15 December 1943, and holding the documents required thereunder, shall be considered as fulfilling the requirements of this article.

List of countries party to the convention and includes Thailand.

Again, if your DL is in English and has a photo (as the UK didn't until recently) then your license already qualifies as anIDP. No need to get the additional translation into a bunch of useless languages. That wouldn't make sense anyway.

That’s exactly what I mean by "a lot of websites will say an IDP is needed." Most of those sites you linked to sell IDP's thus are not credible (or official) sources. They do very little to no research on the requirements of each individual countries and do a lot of copying of each other. Try selecting any number of other counties and you will see a cookie cutter explanation of their interpretation of the driving requirements of that country. They have little to no boots on the ground experience thus err on the side of caution. That's understandable. We live here and thus are in a position to get much more accurate, current, and detailed information.

From one of your links: "Most police and rental car companies (in Thailand) are satisfied with a license from the U.S., U.K., Australia and other western countries."

Personal experiences are of course anecdotal and don't really prove anything, but I nor any family members visiting have ever been questioned using our DL's from back home with no IDP to rent a car. My dad even took out a Thai guy on a motorbike with his rental car. IDP wasn't even mentioned by cops, rental car company, or insurance. I have never been questioned once at the countless police checks I went through before I obtained my Thai DL, nor have I ever heard of one person in Thailand ever asked for an IDP by police, car rental, or insurance company for any reason.

Both legally and practically IDP's simply aren't necessary, but I will always add that it can't hurt, as long is you get a real one. The real IDP's are sold either by the auto clubs or your governments transport department and are cheap. The bogus ones sold online, of which there are many (link #3 above, www.idlicense.com, offers a bogus IDL) can be very expensive and is legally no more valid than a translation done by any random person. They look official though and fool most cops.

Examples of bogus IDL's:

Edited May 4, 2012 by NomadJoe