Officials to mandate international driving licence for foreigners

[harrry]

https://www.massrmv.com/rmv/dmanual/appendixA.pdf

The 1949 road traffic convention, of which Thailand is a signee. Therefore all that is needed to drive as a visitor is your resident country's valid driving permit/license

Thank you for that information, but the reality is that if you produce only your home driving licence and not an IDL the police will fine you. I must try to get a copy of that document in Thai, for the use of friends without Thai driving licences. My advice is to get a Thai driving licence as soon as you are possibly able to.

A licensed driver from one of the countries listed here, or a Massachusetts licensed driver operating in one of the listed countries, should consider obtaining and carrying, in addition to his or her valid home country license, an International Driving Permit. Permits are available, for a fee, from certain automobile associations but can only be issued in the country the applicant is coming from. An International Driving Permit does not confer any driving privileges but is a translation into ten major languages of the relevant

as it states that document allows the drivers to drive on just a licence in Massachusetts but an IDP is needed in other countries if requested.,

[Notowork]

An IDP can only be obtained from your home country ,valid for 12 months and is not renewable if you are living overseas!

I guess one could travel back every year to renew it!??

As previously pointed out its ok to drive on an expired home country licence!, so Can't really see any advantage of having an IDP Iif not translated to Thai !!

[Mister Fixit]

Good idea, and I'm amazed they've never thought of it before. No IDP, no hire.

I've only just sent off my IDP renewal today. Had one for six years ever since I started riding a motorbike.

Only had to show it once, the cop just glanced at it (there's no Thai on it) and gave it straight back and let me go.

Stupid, just another act of bureaucracy. If you have a foreign driving licence you get an international driving licence automatically for one year. That means you have to apply each year for this stupid document meaning a waste of time and money. This additional bureaucracy will be one more chance to support corruption as bureaucracy is the best nurishment of corruption. Fight both!

So, where do I get an automatic IDP on my UK driving licence, then? Show me the documentation or a link. You can't - they are only obtainable from the appropriate authority in your home country. So you're talking rubbish. Think again.

And getting an IDP from the UK is 5 minutes work downloading and filling in a form and then a walk to the post office. Nothing onerous about that.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Mister Fixit

[Mister Fixit]

An IDP can only be obtained from your home country ,valid for 12 months and is not renewable if you are living overseas!

I guess one could travel back every year to renew it!??

As previously pointed out its ok to drive on an expired home country licence!, so Can't really see any advantage of having an IDP Iif not translated to Thai !!

Nope, no need to travel back home to get one. Why on earth would you imagine that?

Those if us in the modern age just go to the website for your home country, download and print off a one page application form, complete it, put the payment in, then put the lot in an envelope. Send it off (45 baht to the UK), and BINGO! It appears in your letterbox a few weeks later. Dead simple.

Crikey - you expect to pay 50 grand to go back for a simple thing like that?

[SpokaneAl]

An IDP can only be obtained from your home country ,valid for 12 months and is not renewable if you are living overseas!

I guess one could travel back every year to renew it!??

As previously pointed out its ok to drive on an expired home country licence!, so Can't really see any advantage of having an IDP Iif not translated to Thai !!

Nope, no need to travel back home to get one. Why on earth would you imagine that?

Those if us in the modern age just go to the website for your home country, download and print off a one page application form, complete it, put the payment in, then put the lot in an envelope. Send it off (45 baht to the UK), and BINGO! It appears in your letterbox a few weeks later. Dead simple.

Crikey - you expect to pay 50 grand to go back for a simple thing like that?

Easy or hard to obtain an IDP - what is the point? If one is staying here more or less permanently, and it appears that an IDP is basically illegal after a few short months and if one gets into an accident while driving under an illegal IDP, which may or may not cause the insurance company to reject the claim, why would one not be willing to obtain a Thai driver's license? It is easy and simple to obtain, and resolves many of the issues of driving via an IDP.

It seems to me that this entire IDP discussion is silly and the implications can be down right dangerous.

[CharlieH]

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