Red number plates for new cars

[Diddl]

I am planning to buy a new car in Chiang Mai and will get red number plates no doubt. I will need to go to Chiang Rai frequently so how will I be able to do this legally on red number plates?

Is there a way to resolve this problem until white number plates are issued?

[mesquite]

There's no problem if you have the red plates.

[Diddl]

There's no problem if you have the red plates.

I am told that I cannot drive outside the province, nor can I drive after 6 p.m., so for me this is a problem.

[mesquite]

There's no problem if you have the red plates.

I am told that I cannot drive outside the province, nor can I drive after 6 p.m., so for me this is a problem.

I was told that I could drive outside CM if I had the plates. They wanted to give me the car with no plates whatsoever, saying it was OK as long as I did not leave CM. I ended up getting the plates and driving outside CM no problem. I drove all hours of the day, and many hours of the night. Of course, this was Pre-Junta, if that makes a difference.

Good luck and maybe someone else will have a more authoritative answer.

[NotEinstein]

The red plates are officially trade plates and are actually only supposed to be used on vehicles needing to be moved for specific purposes, which are supposed to be logged in the book that you should be given with the plates. You are correct in stating the within provice, during daylight hours rules. The police tend to leave red-plate drivers alone, but just lately non-plated drivers get fined. This happened to me, with the policeman telling me to get it back from the dealer, as it was their fault.

In practice, many new car drivers do not have plates until the dealer can be bothered to pay the hefty new car tax by registering the car after months of gaining interest on the car tax money. It actually only takes a visit to the land transport office with relavent paperwork and payment - a matter of hours at the most.

Either insist that the dealer registers your car prior to payment, or get a letter confirming that they will pay all fines that you acrue whilst your car remains unregistered. They usually want 3,000 baht for use of red plates.

You may also want to consider that any insurance that you take out will probably be invalid until the car is actually registered.

[onthedarkside]

There's no problem if you have the red plates.

I am told that I cannot drive outside the province, nor can I drive after 6 p.m., so for me this is a problem.

As far as I know you can drive anywhere, but you cannot drive from sunset to sun rise. Strange rule, but it does not seem to be enforced. I faced the same problem with my red plate car, never had a problem.

[masuk]

I was fined for having red plates and driving out of district.

I took someone's advice and removed the plates, drove for 2 months without them, and never stopped by the BiB once.

Go figure!

[ramrod711]

You are not supposed to drive out of province or after dark. I bought a new Toyota 6 months ago, got the red plates, saleslady said no problem, you can go everywhere except super highway because we pay police everywhere else. No idea if it's true but that is what she said.

[Diddl]

The red plates are officially trade plates and are actually only supposed to be used on vehicles needing to be moved for specific purposes, which are supposed to be logged in the book that you should be given with the plates. You are correct in stating the within provice, during daylight hours rules. The police tend to leave red-plate drivers alone, but just lately non-plated drivers get fined. This happened to me, with the policeman telling me to get it back from the dealer, as it was their fault.

In practice, many new car drivers do not have plates until the dealer can be bothered to pay the hefty new car tax by registering the car after months of gaining interest on the car tax money. It actually only takes a visit to the land transport office with relavent paperwork and payment - a matter of hours at the most.

Either insist that the dealer registers your car prior to payment, or get a letter confirming that they will pay all fines that you acrue whilst your car remains unregistered. They usually want 3,000 baht for use of red plates.

You may also want to consider that any insurance that you take out will probably be invalid until the car is actually registered.

Interesting. So, in fact it is not a question of a shortage of white number plates, but a question of money that the company don't want to fork out immediately! In that case, when I order a car, I will insist on white number plates before I pay the remaining sum due after deposit and before I will collect the car, and also stipulate that if the car is not delivered with white number plates within say one month, then I cancel the order and demand my deposit back. If everyone did this, then these car sales companies would not mess people around anymore.

Thanks for this information, it is invaluable.

[smileplur]

When I had red plates in Bangkok, I was told that it wasn't a problem to drive outside of the province. I did it a number of times. I was issued a book that accompanies the red plates. I was told that if I wanted to leave the province, I had to write it down in this book which I kept in my glove box. The dealer (Honda - Rama 4) requested that I make the notation in pencil because the book stays with the plates. If you use a pen, the book will fill up quickly, and it can be a pain for them to get a new one to go with the red plates. That was it. No problems at all. If you forget to write it down, you will likely be fined if you are stopped. Of course, you can still only drive during daylight hours. My concern was the fact that I live on the border with Samut Prakarn which is technically another province! They just laughed when I asked if I had to write down every time I entered Samut Prakarn.

[ericthai]

I got fined for having red plates and not signing the book each day. When you have the red plates they give you a book too. You are suppose ti sign it each day and I think put down where you are going. The rules are crazy with the red plates. Yes the rules do say you need to stay in your province. All depends on the police if they will enforce or not.

[smileplur]

I got fined for having red plates and not signing the book each day. When you have the red plates they give you a book too. You are suppose ti sign it each day and I think put down where you are going. The rules are crazy with the red plates. Yes the rules do say you need to stay in your province. All depends on the police if they will enforce or not.

As I mentioned in my post, I was told that we only had to write in the book when we LEFT the province, Bangkok in my case. Again, I was asked to do it in pencil. They didn't tell us to do it daily. How much were you fined?

[Rooo]

Moved to motoring.

[stevenl]

The red plates are officially trade plates and are actually only supposed to be used on vehicles needing to be moved for specific purposes, which are supposed to be logged in the book that you should be given with the plates. You are correct in stating the within provice, during daylight hours rules. The police tend to leave red-plate drivers alone, but just lately non-plated drivers get fined. This happened to me, with the policeman telling me to get it back from the dealer, as it was their fault.

In practice, many new car drivers do not have plates until the dealer can be bothered to pay the hefty new car tax by registering the car after months of gaining interest on the car tax money. It actually only takes a visit to the land transport office with relavent paperwork and payment - a matter of hours at the most.

Either insist that the dealer registers your car prior to payment, or get a letter confirming that they will pay all fines that you acrue whilst your car remains unregistered. They usually want 3,000 baht for use of red plates.

You may also want to consider that any insurance that you take out will probably be invalid until the car is actually registered.

Yes, true. I was also worried about the insurance, but an email to the company assured me that there was coverage as usual.

[rawhod]

You may also want to consider that any insurance that you take out will probably be invalid until the car is actually registered.

The insurance that you have before the car is registered will be valid, it will quote the VIN number of the vehicle.