What Does A Red Plate Mean?

[Carmine6]

I noticed red license plates the last trip to Thailand and couldn't get an answer, although I didn't try all that hard. There's also been a few references here to red plates.

Why do some cars/bikes have red plates instead of the white ones? They didn't seem to be emergency or government vehicles, or some other self explanatory type.

[Explorer]

New vehicles on the road uses red plates while waiting for their white plates to be ready.

Explorer

[Wolfie]

New vehicles are issued a red plate until the paperwork is all sorted out (tax and stuff) and a proper white plate is issued.

[lopburi3]

In the US we would call them dealer plates and are used until car registration is complete (takes weeks here). They date back to buying a care and learning to drive so had no driving at night or outside province restrictions as well. As dealers have to pay for these there is usually a shortage and many of the red plates will not have official seal stamp on them - usually the dealer pays the fines if you get stopped with them rather than have enough plates to cover all car sales.

[Carmine6]

Thanks. Not sure if I'll ever learn that first hand. I thought the taxes I paid on my BMW were bad in California, but I can't imagine buying that car in Thailand.

I guess the flip side is everything else is much cheaper.

[gharknes]

They are trade plates issued by dealers, same as mentioned above.

Edited January 6, 2006 by gharknes

[corkscrew]

In the US we would call them dealer plates and are used until car registration is complete (takes weeks here). They date back to buying a care and learning to drive so had no driving at night or outside province restrictions as well. As dealers have to pay for these there is usually a shortage and many of the red plates will not have official seal stamp on them - usually the dealer pays the fines if you get stopped with them rather than have enough plates to cover all car sales.

You have raised an interesting question. When we bought our cars we got red plates for the first month...and my wife said that with red plates we could not drive after 9pm. To me that seemed crazy as we were both experienced licensed drivers. Your point....that in the early days people bought a car and THEN learned how to drive so it was best to limit their driving to daylight hours. Does that rule still apply? No night driving, etc.?

[lopburi3]

AFAIK (as far as I know) it still applies although there has been talk of removing the restrictions within the last year or so. Not sure if they were removed or not. Believe there is/was also a truckers type log that is supposed to be kept (for police inspection) but don't believe anyone bothered with that detail.

[Tywais]

There are several threads on this that you can look through:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50661

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35752

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42631

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26656

That reminds me, had to search for the Search button, it's no longer red

Edited January 6, 2006 by tywais

[corkscrew]

AFAIK (as far as I know) it still applies although there has been talk of removing the restrictions within the last year or so. Not sure if they were removed or not. Believe there is/was also a truckers type log that is supposed to be kept (for police inspection) but don't believe anyone bothered with that detail.

That is why I was so keen in getting rid of the red plates. I know a lot of Thais like to drive with red plates ("See my NEW car") but I was happy to shed them.

One person (Thai) told me that the red plate/no night driving was because new cars were more likely to be stolen at night and that the men in brown would be able to track them easier. That seemed weak to me.

[Thaiboxer]

The cops generally don't get after folks for driving at night with the red plates unless they're looking for some "overtime" pay.

[raro]

I had my red plates for more than two months when I bought my car. Dealer (Honda Pattaya) said no-problem-no-problem.

Got stopped by the police upon entering Bangkok and learned that the plates were fake and made-up as Bangkok plates although the shop is in Chonburi province.

I discussed the issue with the shop Manager in Pattaya in front of his customers and he was more than happy to pay my ticket and get the driving license back from the cop shop.